From Idaho Chooses Life 

What is it about Democrats that drives them to obsess over election procedures, public finance, controlling the airwaves, “campaign finance reform” and the like?

We have witnessed an assault at the national level by Democrats: First they tried to overwhelm organizations like Family Research Council and American Life League into silence with new grassroots lobbying rules. They are seeking to tighten the already outrageous McCain-Feingold campaign finance scheme. And then there is the plot to restrict the free speech rights of conservatives by re-imposing the “Fairness Doctrine” over print and broadcast mediums.

And remember the incessant whining over stolen elections and voting violations?

Clearly Democrats will do just about anything to control the debate, to hold power, when they find free competition too disadvantageous.

It seems Idaho Democrats have finally caught the wave.

The Lonely Seven of the Idaho Senate have introduced a bill (SB1037) to bring “fairness” back to Idaho elections. (Translation: let’s change the rules so needy Democrats have a better shot at winning legislative seats).

SB 1037 is called the “Idaho Fair Elections Act”, implying that our centuries of experience with the ballot box have been little more than a sham. (How foolish we Idahoans have been not to elect more liberals! What other explanation could there be for the pathetic history of Democrats in Idaho? If not their message and pro-abortion values – then there must be something wrong with the process!)

This legislation would set up a 7 member commission to distribute public campaign dough to candidates for statewide or legislative office. They would acquire this money by sticking a ten percent surcharge on all traffic fines in the state.

The fact that Democrats would forcibly extract campaign monies from Idaho citizens does not even cause them an embarrassing pause in pushing the bill: In their Statement of Purpose, Senate Democrats claim that this scheme creates “an alternative, voluntary method of financing electoral campaigns.”

But it turns out that it is only “voluntary” for candidates. The rest of us will be forced to pay the printing bills for Democrat liberals to publish their campaign propaganda.

Certainly the GOP will kill this measure – but be prepared for a high-toned whine all winter long over how “mean-spirited” Bart Davis and Company can be.

From Idaho Chooses Life

Our annual Legislative Reception will be held on Thursday, March 1st at the Owyhee Plaza in downtown Boise. 6-8 pm. We are honored to have Congressman Hunter as this year’s guest speaker.

He represents the San Diego area and was, until Democrat takeover, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. He recently announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States.

Hunter has a very strong pro-Life record and has just reintroduced the “Right to Life Act” (H.R. 618), co-sponsored by Idaho’s Bill Sali.

From Idaho Chooses Life

Parental Consent Bill Keeps Moving

Senate Bill 1082 moved to the 2nd reading calendar in the Senate yesterday. That means we should see final Senate passage of the measure by the middle of next week.

Following passage of the original Parental Consent Law in 2000, Idaho witnessed a dramatic decline in teenage abortions. In 1999 there were 304 abortions performed on girls under 17; the next year, that dropped to 219.

But since the law was enjoined by Federal Judge Lynn Winmill—we have seen those numbers climb. Our estimate is that there were 393 abortions performed on girls last year in Idaho.

In fact, Idaho is bucking the national trend. Partial numbers for 2006 indicate that there were more than 1,124 abortions performed in the state; that is up from a ten year low of 801 recorded for 2000.

Coercion: The Ignored Abuse of Women and Girls

The “right” to kill a pre-born baby in this society is so highly developed that we are barred from telling parents that some strange doctor has just performed an emergency abortion on their 14 year old daughter — for fear that requirement might have a “chilling effect” on a girl’s supposed right to commit abortion.

But only 2 states in the union make it a crime to coerce a woman into aborting her baby, Utah and Tennessee. Utah’s law comes with absolutely no penalty. And we have been unable to find a single prosecution in Tennessee, where coercion is a misdemeanor.

The horrors of abortion are life-long for many women—which is to say nothing about the destroyed children. Idaho has a chance this session to lead the nation into creating real protections around a woman’s right to choose Life for her baby — and herself.

Sali Co-Sponsors “Holly’s Law”

Congressman Bill Sali has signed on as a co-sponsor of HR 63, entitled the “RU-486 Suspension and Review Act of 2007”. This bill would require the Food & Drug Administration to pull its approval of the abortion pill pending a scientific review of deaths and other serious health problems associated with its use.

The Annals of Pharmacotherapy reports that at least 5 women have died from RU-486, and another 607 women underwent hospitalizations and medical treatments for serious adverse reactions to the deadly drug regimen.

The bill is named for Holly, a young California girl who died in 2005 from the drug. Lead sponsor is Rep. Bartlett of Maryland.

The Idaho House State Affairs Committee passed the vote-by-mail legislation (discussed in previous posts here and here) and sent it to the full House by an 11-7 vote. This surprised a number of people, not all happily.

Chairman of the committee, Representative Tom Loertscher, whose weekly musings, “House Highlights”, appear in this column, was saddened by the vote. He is justifiably afraid mail-in voting will lead to massive fraud.

Strangely, Secretary of State Ben Ysursa is thrilled. He never believed the bill would make it out of committee. Ysursa is very confident that this vote scheme is the answer to low voter turnouts and lack of participation. As an added bonus, it will save the taxpayer money. He suggests that when county election officials come across a problematic signature (the “proof” of each mailed-in ballot’s authenticity), they will just hire “document examiners” to determine if it is a match to the voter’s registration card.

“County clerks aren’t going to bring in some system that’s susceptible to fraud”, Ysursa said.

Of course not. No one has ever attempted to forge another’s signature. Who would think of doing such a thing? Certainly not a political candidate, nor his operatives.

Most Idahoans have completely forgotten about the Republican primary between now-Lt. Governor Jim Risch and former Senator Jack Noble. The legal proceedings for that contested race made it all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court. One of the issues was an absentee ballot purportedly filled out by Risch’s son.

“Document examiners” were unable to definitively say who actually signed that ballot, but many thought it was Risch himself. There were many other points of question, including ballots sitting out of sight of observers in unlocked rooms, and the wife of the chief election judge taking the “dimpled” ballots or ones with “hanging chads” into an unobserved room where she helped the voters decide who they really wanted to vote for (she punched their ballots).

The result of that case was very disappointing. In spite of irrefutable proof of illegalities in the voting, the Supreme Court refused to act. In essence they gave every person who attempts and/or succeeds at vote fraud in Idaho a free pass. By the way, Risch won that primary, but Noble succeeded him when he moved on to lieutenant governor.

So, in the big picture, maybe mail-in voting won’t increase vote fraud. We’ve already got it. But just maybe it will make it easier to commit and more difficult to detect.

To my untrained and admittedly biased eye, it appears that the real reason for mail-in voting is to ease the burden of election officials. (Of course, they could just quit their county jobs and go work for Wal-Mart, but the retirement isn’t nearly as good.) Sorry, but that is not a worthy goal.

In a Constitutional Republic, such as the United States, nothing matters more than an untainted citizen voting system, no matter what the cost in dollars, time or gray hairs for the county clerks.

So mail-in voting works like a dream in Washington and Oregon? Since when have Idahoans felt they had to “keep up with the Joneses”? (In my observation, state bureaucrats are the only ones who keep score on that account anyway, and mainly to see if their paycheck compares favorably to similar out-of-state bureaucrats’.)

Have we forgotten the brave Iraqis who risked their lives to vote? Have we forgotten how few people today or in the annals of history have had the privilege, much less the right, to vote for their leaders?

Let’s keep things in perspective. And lets keep our voting system. Contact the members of the House today.

House Highlights: 11 February 2007

February 13th, 2007 by Halli

By Tom Loertscher
The theoretical midpoint of the session has been reached, but if past sessions are any indicator it will remain just that, theoretical. I must admit that it does have a bit different feel to it this time, as the number of pieces of legislation that have been printed is still lagging, is spite of a last minute barrage at the end of the week.

Another sign of the near mid session is when the county officials descend on Boise. There were a lot of them from our five counties making their way around the capitol visiting with us about county priorities. I can’t recall a time when commissioners and clerks from all over the state have been so dedicated to a single piece of legislation, vote by mail. It reminded me a lot of some of the hard sell commercials I’ve heard while listening to old time radio shows.

Mid session is also the magical time when the non-privileged committees can no longer print new bills. Every year there is a flurry of items that come before those committees for their first review. Health and Welfare, for example, had fourteen proposals and all of them were printed by the committee. Does that mean they are all good ideas? Time will tell. My mother had the best description of a large number of things coming at you all at once. There is everything “from soup to nuts” in this bunch of bills.

Some old ideas seem to have multiple lives around here much like the proverbial cat with nine lives. As a couple of these bills were introduced, again, a former colleague turned lobbyist smiled across the room at me. After the meeting he asked me just how many times we had been dealing with these issues. My response? More than I can count.

I’m trying to remember how that old saying goes. Good news is hard to find but bad news never seems to leave. That can be said about legislation as well. Two that keep coming year after year are daycare licensing and Soma. As with all licensing, the urge seems to make things more restrictive and more expensive. And as for Soma, a drug that is said to be a muscle relaxant, has a long story behind it as well. One too long to talk about.

This may be the middle of the session by the calendar but we have not dealt with half of the business that we will see this year. As the pace accelerates and as history would tell us, ninety percent of the work on legislation still lies before us. Moving fast on things is not always the best way. It’s a bit like driving too fast on a slick road, you could end up in the ditch. We may not end up in the ditch around here but we could make a mess by not being careful.

Posted in Guest Posts, Idaho Legislature, Politics in General, Rep. Tom Loertscher, Taxes | No Comments »

Time to Act on Dangerous Mail-Only Voting

February 13th, 2007 by Halli

There has been a full-court press on at the State House by county officials promoting mail-only voting. They claim, with justification, that turn-out is much greater in the small (with less than 125 registered voters) precincts in Idaho where mail-in voting is allowed. Mail voting would make the process so much easier if used in all areas of the state, they claim.

However, just as law-making is a purposefully labored process, there are some hassles inherent in going to a polling place. “Freedom isn’t free”. The hassles may include driving to the polling place, finding a parking place, braving the weather, standing in line, listening to the redundant recorded instructions, and using that pesky punch card (or whatever ballot your county uses). It shouldn’t be too easy to vote.

Mail-in voting will increase voter turnout. Is that a plus? As renowned radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh observes, we don’t want everyone voting. How many times have you heard from your friends, “I don’t know if I’ll vote because I haven’t taken time to learn about the issues or candidates.”

If that is true, perhaps we should ask them NOT to vote. With no knowledge of the issues and candidates, these individuals are more likely to make voting decisions based on greater issue or name recognition rather than the actual political points in question. I don’t believe that increased voter participation will improve the outcome of our elections.

Of course, mail-in voting would simplify the process for county elections offices. But that’s not really the question for a public election, is it. The point of an election in our Constitutional republic is to learn the will of the people, not to reduce stress for bureaucrats.

Mail-in balloting also has a great potential for fraud, as mentioned in a previous post. County officials maintain that security would be greater with mail-in voting because voter signatures on ballots can be compared with signatures in electronic storage at the county election office. Well, I feel better now. No one has ever tried to forge a signature, nor succeeded in doing so…

It goes without saying that absentee balloting for the aged, homebound and absent should remain an option, though the potential for abuse exists here as well.

If you agree, please contact your legislators about this issue, and let your opinion be heard. Legislators do pay attention to messages from home, and will probably respond to you personally.

Posted in General, Idaho Legislature | No Comments »

Idaho Parental Consent Abortion Bill Passes Senate Committee

February 12th, 2007 by Halli

This breaking news is very GOOD news for Idaho’s girls and unborn babies. The legislation has been re-worked since previous similar laws were struck down by courts.

The language in this bill is similar to laws in other states which have passed judicial muster. It is important to urge your senator to support this bill when it comes to the floor of the Senate.

If it passes the Senate, it almost certainly will be sent to the House State Affairs committee, chaired by Rep. Tom Loertscher, a true champion of life. At that point, it will be critical to contact members of that committee and your representatives to urge their support.

Parental Consent abortion laws have been shown to reduce teen abortions significantly, thus reducing deaths of pre-born children, and the numerous ill effects of abortion for the mother.

Posted in Idaho Legislature, Idaho Pro-Life Issues | No Comments »

Have You Visited the Legislature Yet?

February 12th, 2007 by Halli

Just a reminder that floor sessions of both the Idaho House and Senate are streamed online by Idaho Public Television. Audio feed from the daily Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee (JFAC) are also available.

Today in JFAC we were treated to testimony by Roger Madsen, director of the Department of Commerce and Labor, as he discussed the Governor’s proposal to split the two apart once again.

In the House, we witnessed Representative Janice McGeachin present a truly touching, scriptural opening statement and prayer. And the annual tribute to President Abraham Lincoln was also broadcast, including some lovely live music.

OK, so this isn’t all that compelling - yet. From here on out, however, the pace is guaranteed to pick up as JFAC starts setting budgets on Monday, February 19, and more bills make it to the floor of each house. Do what I do - turn it on and listen while you work around the house and learn more than you can imagine about your legislature.

And then there is always the personal visit to the marble halls of the Idaho Capitol. If you have an opportunity to visit Boise, don’t miss out on the legislature. Be sure to let your legislators know you are coming, ask for suggestions for meetings to attend, and request a personal meeting.

Posted in Idaho Legislature, Property Rights, Taxes | No Comments »

Update on Closed Primary Legislation

February 12th, 2007 by Halli

With pleasure we report that a new bill creating closed Idaho primaries was voted to print in House committee this morning. That means there will be a hearing, and it is hoped that RINO’s can be sidetracked this go-round.

This bill would actually create “modified” closed primaries, as each party, Republican, Democrat or Libertarian, could opt to open their primary to all voters.
Do contact your legislators and urge them to support this legislation for reasons mentioned previously.

Posted in Idaho Legislature, Politics in General | No Comments »

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