Many reasonable candidates triumphed in Idaho, but some down-ticket races raise alarms

On the whole, Tuesday’s election was a triumph of reasonable, pragmatic candidates over extreme, ideological ones. That is what you should want in a nonpartisan election — in any election, really.

But the results further down the ballot tell another tale, and reasonable people need to remain politically active because the far right is building its bench for the next go-around on many regional school boards.

Incumbent Boise City Council members Holli Woodings and Lisa Sánchez were re-elected. Level-headed candidate Luci Willits won a new seat representing west Boise.

Jarom Wagoner was the top vote-getter in Caldwell’s mayoral election, though he will have to go to a runoff with John McGee. And Mayor Debbie Kling was re-elected in Nampa.

Boise voters overwhelmingly approved the city’s water renewal bond, ensuring that sustainable water treatment won’t result in a massive spike in sewer bills but will be paid down gradually over time.

Most of these victories came in the face of rather negative and partisan campaigning driven by the Ada County Republican Party and allied organizations. Despite dumping considerable effort and funds into this effort — an ongoing campaign to render local elections partisan and ideological rather than practical and commonsensical — these organizations largely failed in their aims.

But there were setbacks. Natalie Jangula, an enthusiastic attendee at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, where some attempted to stop the certification of the presidential election with violence, won a seat on the Nampa City Council.

Overall, though, there’s a trend here that says good things about the Treasure Valley, where the forces of reason still hold a significant edge over the burgeoning far right.

The results were similar on the eastern side of the state, where Bonneville County GOP operatives lost every Idaho Falls City Council race they involved themselves in — despite likely breaking the law.

But further down the ballot, a somewhat different story unfolded. In many school board races, candidates who ran on virulent opposition to masks, vaccines and the phantom of critical race theory triumphed over candidates who focused on bread-and-butter education issues.

In West Ada, Lori Frasure and Angie Redford beat out the education-focused Brent Hart and Anita Beckman in a race that was nonpartisan in name only.

Similar stories played out in Nampa school board races, and in many races in north Idaho.

The most contentious school board race in the state happened in Post Falls, where David Reilly, a man newly arrived in the state infamous for making vile antisemitic comments, was running to set school policy. Reilly lost, thankfully. But the fact that he got the backing of the Kootenai County Republican Party shows a continued, distressing drift of the Idaho GOP into truly dark territory. And the fact that he managed to garner almost 47% of the vote, and that two other Kootenai GOP-backed candidates won seats, shows that there are lots of people willing to follow them.

These elections matter for the obvious reason that school board members set school district policy. What they do over the course of their terms will have enormous, long-term effects on the students who attend the schools they preside over.

Students who live in districts with die-hard opposition to mask mandates will have higher levels of sickness during future COVID-19 surges, which are likely. Students whose school board members are obsessively searching libraries and textbooks for things to label “critical race theory” are likely to have an impoverished understanding of history.

It also matters because school boards are often the farm teams for future city council members, mayors and legislators. Look at a big school board now, and the chances are decent you’ll find someone who will be writing state laws in 10 years.

Celebrate today, but get ready to keep doing the work of democracy tomorrow. The far right is not going to take a break. Sensible people do so at their own risk.

Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members J.J. Saldaña and Christy Perry.