Winder’s defeat a signpost on Idaho’s political path, which continues to turn right | Opinion

The far-right gained ground in Tuesday night’s Republican primary election.

The most significant event of the night was the defeat of Senate Pro Tem Chuck Winder, R-Boise, by a primary challenge from Josh Keyser, who ran sharply to his right. The Senate, once seen as the more restrained and tradition-bound chamber of the Legislature, has not lost its leader this way in decades, if ever.

With Winder’s leadership goes one of the last tethers to a long tradition of careful, practical leadership in the senior chamber.

Winder’s loss was just part of a broader shift in the composition of the Senate, which had already begun to shift sharply rightward over the last two election cycles. Sen. Linda Hartgen, R-Twin Falls, one of the most moderate members of the Senate, was defeated by Josh Kohl, who promises a much more extreme approach.

The night’s races add up to a significant shift. The median Republican senator is likely to be somewhere to the right of Sen. Lori Den Hartog, who not so long ago was one of the most conservative in the Senate.

Even if Democrats keep all their current seats in the general election, the ideological center of the Senate will nonetheless shift sharply to the right.

There’s a bit more uncertainty in the House, where more contested races had not yet been called as of early Tuesday morning, but if trends continue it, too, is likely to shift to the right to some degree.

Far-right primary challenger Kent Marmon decisively beat House Education Committee Chair Julie Yamamoto, R-Caldwell. Yamamoto’s defeat of Rep. Jarom Wagoner was hailed as a victory by that faction just four years ago.

The median lawmaker in the Republican faction used to be someone about like House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star. After Tuesday, it’s likely to be someone more like Rep. Ted Hill, R-Eagle.

The far-right gained seats in both western and southern Idaho. The far-right’s grip on seats in the panhandle remains firm, while moderates largely held incumbent seats and made significant gains in eastern Idaho.

That was mirrored in efforts to contest the leadership of county GOP central committees in Bonneville and Kootenai counties, two important centers of power for the far-right faction. In North Idaho, results were fairly mixed, with candidates who had organized to oust the far-right losing more races than they won.

But in eastern Idaho, moderates on the whole did very well in PCO races, including defeating the central committee chair. When the dust settles, the moderate faction may have picked up enough to take control of the committee.

Bryan Clark is an opinion writer for the Idaho Statesman.