Idaho cemented its reputation as one of the reddest states last week when, for the first time since 1928, voters elected Republicans to every single statewide office and every one of our four seats in Congress.
On the face of it, November 7 was a dismal day for idaho Democrats. But look more closely and signs of a coming shift to the center start to emerge.
The best news came from Boise, where voters flipped five seats to the Democrats. Here are the details of how Boise turned blue:
(More below the fold ...)
District 16: Les Bock edged first-term GOP incumbent Jana Kemp to turn the northwest Boise district all Dem, joining incumbent legislators David Langhorst and Margaret Henbest, who were unopposed.
District 17: The Central Boise Bench/Boise State district elected first-time legislative candidates Bill Killen and Sue Chew over GOP incumbents Kathy Garrett and Janet Miller. Killen, a former mayor of McCall, Idaho, was a proven candidate who ran against a legislator who won by only nine votes in 2004. The big surprise here was BSU bioethics prof/pharmacist Chew, who racked up nearly 60% against Miller, a popular moderate. Killen and Chew ran as a team with state Sen. Elliot Werk, who won 67% of the vote in securing his third term over feckless GOP challenger Tim Flaherty.
District 18: The southeast Boise district was another big surprise, as first-time candidate Branden Durst, a 26-year-old Boise State grad student, beat longtime incumbent Debbie Field, who was distracted by her job running Butch Otter's campaign. Third-time Dem challenger Phylis King finally knocked off GOP incumbent Julie Ellsworth, while freshman Dem incumbent Kate Kelly easily held her seat.
District 19: Idaho's most Democratic district, serving Boise's North and East ends, maintained its all-blue status with the easy reelections of Mike Burkett (who picked up 75% in a lightly contested race against fundamentalist Christian crank Charles Seddon), and Nicole LeFavour and Anne Pasley-Stuart, who both ran unopposed.
The Democrats took one other seat, too, in Idaho Falls, a heavily Mormon city in Eastern Idaho that consistently favors Republicans. Jerry Shively beat GOP incumbent Jack Barraclough, 51%-49% in Idaho Falls' District 33 for the House "A" seat. Democrats also came with 6% of beating the House Seat B incumbent in the same district, where Dem challenger John McGimpsey netted 47% to incumbent Russ Matthews' 53%.
In all, Idaho Democrats took six seats; came within 5% or less of taking four more seats; and 10% or less of adding another four more. Before the election, the GOP held 81% of the seats in the nation's most Republican legislature. They're now down to 75% - and if Democrats can continue to make gains and pick up another ten seats over the next few cycles, the balance will shift so that one in three lawmakers is a Democrat - much better than the one in five we had before the election and the one in four we have now.
Do we have a long way to go? You bet. Will Idaho ever cast its four electoral votes for another Democratic presidential candidate? Hard to say ... the last time was in 1964.
But Democrats now rule the roost in the state's largest city (which also has a popular Democratic mayor, Dave Bieter), and Dems are gaining strength everywhere from sci/tech-minded Idaho Falls to rural Idaho County, which is part of District 8, a vast area where two Democratic candidates (Scott McLeod and Darcy James) topped 45%. And ID-01 candidate and netroots favorite Larry Grant shaved more than 20% off the district's 2004 vote for George Bush in his narrow loss to Bill Sali.
In promoting the 50-state strategy, Howard Dean made it clear that Democrats couldn't expect to win everywhere right away. But the key is moving Democratic margins in the right direction. That's happening all over the country - including Idaho.