By one measure, this Ada commissioner candidate has big lead as GOP primary nears

If campaign contributions and endorsements serve as an indication, incumbent Commissioner Tom Dayley may breeze his way to victory in the Republican primary election May 21.

As of May 10, Dayley had raised over $50,000, far more than all of his opponents combined, according to Idaho’s campaign contribution tracking website. He has secured two endorsements, according to his campaign Facebook page.

Money isn’t everything, but in the absence of any reliable, public polling data, the ability to pull in donations is perhaps the best objective indicator that voters have of a candidate’s strength in the competition.

Dayley, 80, is seeking a second four-year term as county commissioner for District 3, which reaches from the Canyon County line east to the Elmore County line, encompassing southern parts of Meridian and Boise.

He faces off with former Commissioner Sharon Ullman, who served two terms from 2001-03 and 2009-13; Branden Durst, former state legislator and school superintendent; and Heather Luther, the county’s director of recording and, at 35, the youngest candidate in the race.

Ullman has raised about $7,500, but she has been the only donor to her campaign, according to Idaho’s campaign contribution tracking website. Durst has raised about $4,500. Luther has raised about $2,500, nearly $2,000 of which she donated to her own campaign.

Dayley has positioned himself as an experienced government insider who has served at many levels of government and understands how multiple branches and organizations intersect with the private and nonprofit sectors. On his campaign Facebook page and in his submission to the Idaho Statesman’s May 7 Voter Guide, he has emphasized close ties with law enforcement. In the Voter Guide, he wrote, “I fully back the blue.”

Dayley has secured the backing of local law enforcement, with a May 6 endorsement from Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford and a late April endorsement from the Treasure Valley Fraternal Order of Police. Durst has the support of iLuvIdaho.org, which creates a voter guide to help conservative voters find candidates who will “preserve our Constitution, Bill of Rights and do the right thing.”

Where Dayley leads in fundraising and endorsements, Durst appears to have the corner on social media engagement. With more than 2,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, Durst tweets often on subjects ranging from his Christian faith to his firm pro-life stance (in April, in reference to the accusation that former President Trump would force a 12-year-old girl to carry her rapist’s child, he tweeted: “Babies who were conceived in tragic circumstances shouldn’t receive the death penalty for the egregious acts of their father”) to his disdain for establishment Republicans, whom he called “weak” and “spineless.”

In his submission to the Statesman’s Voter Guide, Durst wrote that he wants Idaho to preserve Idaho’s “conservative way of life” and avoid the path taken by Colorado, Washington and Oregon, where “urban counties grew to dominate” state politics, and the states turned “destructively left.”

Durst has made headlines in recent years, most recently for the three combative months he spent in 2023 as superintendent of the West Bonner School District in Idaho’s Panhandle. He resigned after voters recalled two trustees who supported him and after the State Board of Education refused to let him receive an emergency certification to remain as superintendent, saying he wasn’t qualified, the Statesman previously reported.

In March, he posted his version of events on X. “A certain group of well-connected patrons, along with nefarious external actors colluded to hide the truth and to scapegoat me and the courageous trustee so the corruption could continue unabated,” he tweeted.

In a separate post, he added: “If you’re a superintendent who tries to uncover (corruption) the teacher’s union will lie to your patrons to recall your board and scheme with their puppet board members to create a hostile work environment and intentionally obstruct your work.”

In February, he filed a notice with the state that he planned to sue the State Board of Education and the Idaho Department of Education for $1.25 million, Idaho EdNews reported. In the claim, he wrote that the State Board’s choice to deny him the emergency certification “resulted in his loss of employment.”

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Asked whether the controversy around his tenure as superintendent could harm his campaign for commissioner, Durst previously told the Statesman, “I think it’s only a controversy if you want to make it a controversy.”

Durst served as a Democratic state legislator from 2006 to 2013 before switching parties and working as an education policy analyst for the Idaho Freedom Foundation, which fights “the state’s socialist public policies.” The foundation declined to comment for this story.

Ullman has been active in the county since the 1990s, volunteering and advocating at public hearings to lower sewer installation and water rates. In a personal blog that dates to 2009, Ullman decries the county’s “bloated bureaucracy” and highlights past achievements in cutting the budget, like prompting a $6 million property tax rebate and, in her second term, saving residents a cumulative $81 million by forgoing a 3% annual budget increase.

Luther, of Kuna, told the Statesman’s editorial board that she would be focused on alleviating traffic congestion as the county grows — and that public transportation would be a part of that discussion.

Devin Gutierrez is unopposed in the Democratic primary for the commissioner position.

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