cians who aren’t afraid to take on complicated issues.”), narrowly beat his challenger, Toby Schindelbeck, a former competitive bodybuilder from California, by less than 200 votes. “There’s a lot of frustration at what’s happening in the local level of government, and a lot of outrage about what’s happening in the federal level of government,” he says. “I think I was lumped in with that.” Voter turnout was particularly low — less than 22 percent in Kootenai County and a mere 25 percent statewide. NIPAC’s Brad Corkill blames the party’s closed primary system for his group’s heavy losses, which restricts voting to registered party members only. In 2007, the right-wing-controlled Idaho Republican Party Central Committee sued the state for the right to close its primary. The party won the lawsuit in 2011. Voter turnout has since hit historic lows in Idaho, where 59 percent of the state’s 742,000 registered voters are unaffiliated with a party. “The closed primary did exactly what the party wanted it to,” Corkill says, “which was limit voter participation and ensure that more fringe candidates would get nominated.”
“The closed primary did exactly what the party wanted it to, which was limit voter participation…” Case in point — the 4th District race, where voter participation wasn’t even half as high as the Coeur d’Alene mayoral race that Souza lost last November: Seven-term incumbent Goedde lost to the conservative activist, who received nearly 54 percent of less than 3,500 votes. By comparison, roughly 8,400 people voted in the mayor’s race, where Steve Widmyer handily defeated Souza, 56 to 42 percent. “We were outmaneuvered. We were out-organized,” Corkill says. “The candidates that got the nomination are running on issues they really can’t do anything about, which is taking back federal lands and abolishing Obamacare — these are issues over which they have no influence.” For his part, Goedde says he was surprised by the outcome of the primary, but he doesn’t regret his positions on controversial issues, like supporting Idaho’s state-run health insurance exchange or voting against a guns-on-campus bill. In her campaign against Goedde, Souza criticized the Senate Education Committee chairman for, among other things, championing Common Core. “I’m sorry; raising standards students must meet to graduate is important, and rejecting those standards is asinine. I can say that now,” Goedde scoffs. “I think [Souza is] going to have a real rude awakening if she thinks she’s going to be able to change federal statutes. ... It’s great when you’re trying to entice people to the election booth, but it’s nothing more than meaningless promises.” deannap@inlander.com
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