To paraphrase: A New York felon who leads a shady gang of billionaires is gutting our national security, relief programs for hungry kids, and our expert federal workforce so they can pay themselves more money (“tax breaks” is the term of art). And, that New York felon loves seeing the same thing happening to Idaho!

To be clear, President Trump only cares about Idaho schools because he wants all states to follow his lead on gutting public education. His goal is to end public education altogether. Gut the department of education nationally – check! Now onto the states –  check! Thanks, Brad Little.

Don’t let them fool you–it’s not alarmist to call this out. In fact, I’ve been warning for years that Brad Little and his puppeteers have been working on this. 

It’s simple math. The GOP supermajority wants to give money to their wealthy cronies, who are affiliated with private, usually religious schools. (The bonus is that they buy the loyalty of parents this way too). They shift that money from public schools. It’s $50 million this time. Does anyone really think that’s a cap?

If you are interested, let me go a little more deeply into how the school voucher program works to hurt Idaho kids:

School vouchers drain funding from public schools, which rely heavily on local and state taxes. When students head for private options, the money follows them. This cuts money available to run, staff, and maintain the local public schools. These schools, particularly rural ones, already struggle with overcrowded classrooms, outdated facilities, and insufficient educational materials. So, the funding loss makes it even harder for public schools to offer high quality education. This fuels a cycle of disinvestment and declining standards. Oh, and say goodbye to things like sports, clubs, and after school programs. That’s where cuts come first.

School vouchers weaken the public education system. Public schools serve students from various socioeconomic backgrounds, races, and abilities, providing an equitable education regardless of a student’s circumstances. School vouchers starve this opportunity-creating system by shifting resources to private institutions that have lower accountability standards. Private schools do not adhere to the same, high standards of public schools, such as teacher certification, curriculum requirements, and access for students with disabilities. Lack of oversight decreases educational quality for private-school students, especially those with special needs or those from marginalized communities. Cuts to public schools makes it harder for them to serve a diverse student population as well.

Count on school vouchers to exacerbate inequality by benefiting wealthier families. That bears repeating: School vouchers help the wealthy while harming the poor.

Trump and today’s new brand of billionaire robber barons have captured our federal government and they love the all-GOP, all-the-time make up of Idaho’s state government.

Shifting money from the public schools to the private and religious schools favors the rich and hurts the poor and that’s why Trump likes it. Brad Little? Who knows. He’s not known for his courage, so it’s likely that he’s just scared to death of Idaho MAGA. And, he’s probably scared of the President. Or, maybe he really doesn’t care about Idaho kids.

It doesn’t really matter what drives our governor. What matters is that he is complicit, and acts enthusiastic, about a terrible terrible school voucher program that can only hurt kids and destroy our education system that has a long history of helping America find her “best and brightest” hidden among our poorest and most disadvantaged populations.

The post HB93 – Making the Rich Richer? appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

(First rule is “me and my wealthy buddies come first.)

Poor Mr. House Speaker Mike Moyle can’t live by the Second Rule any longer. That’s why he is talking about fixing an actual, real problem that hurts us all. The problem? Dark Money in elections.

Sound familiar? It should. Folks have sounded the alarm for years after the US Supreme Court Citizen’s United ruling let corporations and nonprofits spend big dollars electing candidates. That means Political Action Committees (PACs)—(whose names usually include words like “truth”, “freedom,” “America,” and “conservative”)—now run smear campaigns where transparency has gone from shady to pitch black.

A well-seasoned old political goat like Moyle wasn’t troubled by this until last year when it finally became his problem. In the closed Republican primary, PACs spent nearly $190,000 to beat Moyle.

Moyle told the Lewiston Tribune he wants to stop PACs from “saying something that’s not truthful and then hiding how much they spent, where they spent it, and what they did until after the election when it’s too late to counter it.” Poor little fella. It hurts when your frenemies turn on you, doesn’t it? If I don’t sound empathetic, it’s because I am not.

For a dozen years, the meanest, crookedest, stupidest kinds of campaigns have elected the meanest, crookedest, stupidest kinds of politicians. Moyle didn’t care because he kept getting re-elected and his party became the undisputed heavyweight chumps of every branch of Idaho government.

But one-party rule can’t stand long before it starts to fall under its own weight. Now that Moyle is at the top of this mess, it’s finally his problem.

If we get some good policy changes because the self-interests of Speaker Moyle accidentally align with the self-governing interests of the public, great!

Be clear, this good policy work isn’t for us taxpaying Idaho citizens, it’s for Moyle. And, he is a model for his whole party—especially those who are trying to chop him down.

This matters because of the other issues at the forefront this year. 

For instance, my opponent, Gov. Brad Little, wants to spend tax dollars on private, religious schools (if this sounds okay, pretend it’s for a religion that you don’t like). He has taken the position … Gosh, the program will be fine! We’ll do good! No way will it blow up in our faces … until well after you finally vote to retire me.

Yes. Brad lives by the Second Rule too.

In the meantime, our best defense is one where we keep the whole team on the field all the time. I encourage everyone to find creative ways to make sure that the politicians who are mismanaging our state finally all end up where Moyle is.

Let’s all work to make sure our problems are “their problems” too.

The post Second Rule of Idaho Politics: If it’s not my problem, it’s not my problem appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

As governor, I would fight this attack on a minority group—the LGBTQIA+ community—for the following reasons:

• It makes zero sense to take rights away from people who harm no one.
• Leaders should not kneel to the insatiable demands of a powerful group, with a self-proclaimed religious mandate, especially when that same group demands that the government honor their “religious freedom”—be assured, many religious folks support marriage equality.
• It is disgusting for crass politicians to inflame the passions of their most vociferous supporters for political gain.
• It is puny and cruel to create laws that give one class of people more rights than another based on who they love—this Apartheid for the LGBTQIA+ community.
• This bill is part of a noxious nationwide effort to set American rights back 165 years, or so, and turn America into the kind of theocracy that once burned innocent women in Salem for political gain.
• The only debate here is just how much freedom do our lawmakers think is too much freedom for the people who elected them.

On a personal note, I am a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, mother of a gay daughter, and friends with so many in the queer community whom I love and admire. We all know that printing this bill is a direct attack on our Civil Rights. Voting to give this bill the platform of a hearing in our Capitol breathes life into some of the darkest political and societal impulses that history warns can only have ugly, dangerous consequences for all of us.

To say that I am disappointed would be a gargantuan understatement.

The post I oppose the decision to print a bill seeking to outlaw same-sex marriage in Idaho appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

One kind of “freedom” in Idaho is being called “school choice” or “parental choice.” There’s nothing wrong with “choices.” But politicians are debasing, defunding, and dead-ending public education to pay for their so-called choice. It’s absolutely unnecessary, and it’s needlessly cruel to thousands of kids. But the corrupted political leaders have worked hard to make us believe you can only have good public education or good private education—not both. And at this point, they aren’t even hiding behind words like “choice”, they have decided to make your choices for you. So what if you can’t afford private school for your family. They don’t care.

These elected Idaho GOP officials are thieves, stealing your freedoms, and now your public school dollars. Thieves? Basically, yes. What is really happening is that corrupt politicians have discovered that the ghost-givers behind rightwing Super PACs will shovel them tons of campaign dough—just look at the millions that lined their pockets this last campaign cycle—as well as jobs and perks for their friends and families. The hitch is that the private donors will only give big if politicians funnel our tax dollars to them in return. One example: Prager University. Need I say more? Well I will.

It’s a simple scam. But Idaho politicians are fully in charge and they aren’t going to tattle on each other. It helps to have full collusion with the governor’s office, the attorney general, the Legislature, and don’t count on the judiciary staying independent forever either. In fact, they would prefer that we all just stay out of their “business” and continue our straight-ticket, party-line voting because they sure have relied on that for years. And why wouldn’t they? It seems to be working for them.

I know we’re all pretty worn out after being hammered for political attention for the past year. I am not suggesting that you do anything right now. Relax. Enjoy the holidays with family and loved ones. Recover. We are all going to need our strength and stamina to survive the whirlwind that will be the next two years.

So when the middle of January rolls back around, be ready to stand up for yourself and your families—Lord knows there are scarce few politicians who will stand up for you. (And I am so grateful for those who will, but they are vastly outnumbered.)

By then, when you hear Idaho legislators bad-mouthing teachers, or threatening to pass bills to raise your kids for you, or passing laws about what you can read, or telling you that your boys are one trip to the school nurse from becoming girls, or that the school historian’s section on the Civil War is a Marxist plot, or calling you a pedophile because they are completely devoid of any actual moral compass, all the while insisting on kids being read the Bible in public schools, then it will be time to engage. Folks, I thought we dealt with this nonsense seventy-five years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court said no thank you to prayer in school. All that nasty rhetoric will be your cue that they are unabashedly coming after your kids’ learning experience, your town’s gymnasium, your school library, and your reasonably sized classrooms.

And, they’re not just going to gobble up and divert the money from your schools either … that increase in the property tax on your home? Sales tax on your groceries? The gays, and the immigrants, and the universities didn’t do that. The all-powerful political machine that runs this state did —and, frankly, they look like they’re just getting started. So buckle up. We’re in for one hell of a ride.

I am sure you agree with me. That’s an awful big price for “freedom” in Idaho.

The post Freedom Shouldn’t Cost This Much appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

A politician like Brad Little can be slippery because he can seem like a good-natured son of Idaho wealth. But it helps to pay attention to the people who he takes the greatest pains to please:

These people outlawed abortion in Idaho.

These people want to imprison doctors who give basic reproductive care.

These people want to outlaw women from traveling out of state for healthcare.

These people want to outlaw contraception.

These people don’t want parents to protect children from gun crime.

These people won’t protect children from cults that deny them life-saving medical care.

These people want to tell us what books we should read.

These people call us “pedophiles” if we oppose their anti-freedom attack on libraries.
These people fight to keep the minimum wage low.

These people fight against workers’ rights to organize.

These people don’t want sick people to have medical marijuana.

These people take millions from oil lobbyists and will not support alternative energy.

These people fight against laws to protect Idaho’s pure public waters.

These people complain about forest fires but won’t budget to fight them.

These people want to sell public lands.

These people say climate change is a liberal hoax.

These people call the rioters who desecrated our Capitol on January 6 “heroes.”

These people try to fix their friends’ “problems” by throwing money at them.

These people fix schools by starving them to death.

These people hate that facts refute their worldview.

These people want to censor public colleges and universities.

These people call human rights for LGBTQ people “special” rights.

These people call human rights for people of color “special” rights.

These people are confused.

These people are mean.

These are the people who Gov. Brad Little was talking to this week when he signed an executive order to bully transgender girls and women out of sports. He is them.

The post Brad Little’s People Fight the Bad Fight appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

The nicest thing I can say about that convention is that, while the convention was terrible for freedom, it was great for irony!

The people who attended all have “freedom” and “liberty” tattooed to their shirts, bumpers, buttons, flags, and forearms. Yet, they re-elected an anti-freedom chairwoman, Dorothy Moon, and doubled-down revoking the last 100 years of gains for women’s rights.

One hundred years? Well, they didn’t propose revoking the 19^th Amendment, which guarantees a woman’s right to vote, but I doubt the idea offends them. They did pass a platform plank to revoke every Idahoan’s right to vote for Idaho’s U.S. senators.

In the post-Roe v. Wade era, only fools, appeasers, and cowards deny the danger that extreme, anti-freedom forces in the Republican Party pose.

As for specifically taking away the rights of women, these lovers of “freedom and liberty” declare that embryos are people and that abortions (with zero exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of a pregnant person) be classified as murders. Thus, their platform reads, “We support the criminalization of all murders by abortion within the state’s jurisdiction.”

That means no more in vitro fertilization, IVF.

Logic tells me there must be energy behind finding ways to allow the State to track, record, and intercept our mail. Otherwise, Idaho women still have freedom to buy abortion pills. And, the State will need to prosecute that illicit mailing as murder and attempted murder.

Does any of this feel remotely like freedom to you? Does it look like liberty?

It sure does to my opponent, current Gov. Brad Little.

Mr. Little just sent a fundraising letter declaring that he wants to “KEEP IDAHO RED.”  

Ironically, Mr. Little bragged about his Idaho Launch program, which provides workforce training grants, as proof that Idaho Dems aren’t helping. Come on, Brad. That’s nuts. Not only were Democrats crucial for passing that program, IDGOP Chair Moon and her anti-freedom flag wavers have declared they don’t want Idaho funding education past high school—that’s the Red State opposing good ideas, not Democrats.

It’s worth repeating: Moon and her red state radicals want to end state-funding for higher education. That’s Idaho Republicans proposing a HUGE TUITION HIKE on Idaho families.

It’s all very very bad. And, by now, this isn’t the absent rambling from Idaho’s lunatic fringe that we can ignore. These are policy objectives that Brad Little will let become law, even if he whines about it a little. These ideas are what Idaho Republican lawmakers will champion. These ideas could potentially become instruments of State oppression because a few people—out-of-touch, mean people who only love freedom when it’s written on a t-shirt—held secret deliberations for a couple days in Coeur d’Alene.

It’s true. I have nothing nice to say about Brad Little, or Dorothy Moon, or her beady-eyed gang of red state radicals dead set on taking away our rights.

So, my campaign will operate under this guideline: It doesn’t matter if you can’t say anything nice as long as you’re telling the truth.

The post Moon, Little, and the Red State Radicals Agree: Freedom’s Just a Word On T-Shirts appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

That’s why I think Idaho should give a big “thank you” to Eric Posey of Post Falls for standing up to one of Idaho’s far-right lies.

Last week, an Idaho jury awarded Mr. Posey $1.1 million in a civil suit against a blogger who claimed Mr. Posey, a drag show performer, had exposed himself to children—which he did not do. The lie amounted to the sort of free speech abuse that former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes likened to yelling fire in a crowded theater. The blogger’s lie piggy-backed onto the “conservative” rhetoric of the day that accused good people of being “groomers.”

Among many propaganda projects hatched by far-right communication networks, the “groomer” ploy has been successful. Extremist groups have rallied to the cry to protect children from obscenity. That’s nonsense of course. We all live here. We know our libraries. We know our librarians. We trust them because they have earned our trust.

But the slurs have done their damage. During this year’s primary elections, Idaho’s majority party shifted even further to the right.

Still, I believe in the power of truth. I believe that in truth we find justice.

I am running for governor to fight for truth and justice. Together, we can stop the lies about librarians, school teachers, performers, LGBTQ  people, political opponents, and anyone who looks like an easy target for cruel, darkly funded, anti-democratic campaigns.

I am running for governor because I believe that all of us—the right, the middle, the left, and even the apolitical and disaffected—ALL OF US want fairness and respect and love.

I take heart knowing that the bloggers, the operatives, the haters, and the muckrakers, the whole steaming pile of them, are not so powerful as they would have us believe. Otherwise, why would they need to dishonestly label themselves with words like “Liberty” and “Freedom” and “Patriotic” and “Rights”?

If the truth about who you are is so repellent that you cannot be honest about that, then yours is not a movement that can last long.

Mr. Posey just won a battle. It’s up to the rest of us to continue the struggle.

The post Let’s Celebrate a Victory for Truth appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

“Bad governors sign bad laws. Terrible governors sign bad laws even when they know they shouldn’t.”

In 2023, when Mr. Little signed the law targeting transgender children, he said, “… as policymakers we should take great caution whenever we consider allowing the government to interfere with loving parents and their decisions about what is best for their children.” Pickens, who was born in Pocatello and now owns a Boise-based law firm, said Republican politics is hurting Idaho kids:

“Mr. Little will interfere with parents’ medical decisions when it’s the divisive, anti-freedom bill of the day from the Idaho GOP’s unhinged Chair Dorothy Moon. If you want a lesson in hypocrisy, look at the years that Democratic legislators tried to require a religious sect in Idaho to get medical treatment for their children who die painfully of treatable ailments such as appendicitis or respiratory infections. Why not interfere with parents whose medical decisions are actually killing their kids? Why only interfere with parents who seek treatment that doctors recommend?

Instead of helping kids, Idaho far-right Republican lawmakers only help their party leaders. If that means transgender kids will be more likely to attempt suicide, they don’t care. If that means painful, preventable deaths for kids unlucky enough to be born into a religious sect that hates modern medicine, so be it.

Judging by the legislation they write, Idaho Republican leaders don’t care about kids. Their anti-abortion fervor that endangers the lives of Idaho women means they don’t care about adults either. Since the transgender law comes with a threat to imprison doctors for 10 years, they want to put a punctuation mark on it all.

Judging by what Governor Little lets become law, Republican leaders don’t care a bit about freedom.“

(For a sobering look at the results of Idaho’s religious medical exemption law, read “Idaho Religious Exemption Law: Unneeded death and suffering to children.”)

The post Gov. Little Lets Far-Right Republicans Kill Freedom and Kids appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

Pickens made the following statement:

“I want to thank Governor Little for announcing he’s not running for governor because he wouldn’t sign these terrible bills if he were listening to the thousands of people who begged him not to sign these laws. Little has no fight left in him and he won’t even stand up to the anti-freedom forces in the Idaho Republican Party that lets a few rigid, angry and mean voices dictate the agenda simply because they are frightened of them.

Good bye and good riddance, Mr. Little. You have missed your chance to lead with courage and dignity and instead you are leaving with a whimper – the dying gasps of the liberty we took for granted.

The list of repellent laws is long and consequences of Mr. Little timid leadership are already harming the lives of Idaho people. Doctors are leaving the state in droves for fear of being prosecuted for treating pregnant women. Businesses will find it much harder to compete for talent with other states that don’t paint targets on members of the LGBTQIA community. And don’t forget that Mr. Little still hasn’t let us know what—in real time—he is doing to address the dangerous, disastrous and disgusting racist attacks on collegiate athletes last month on a downtown Coeur d’Alene street.

So, thank you, Mr. Little, for not running again. You’ve done too much already.”

Pickens is a mother, a business owner, and multi-generational Idahoan who left the Idaho Republican Party when it became clear that the party was choosing to pursue dangerous policies that would attack freedom, target unpopular groups for political gain, and threaten our democracy.

xxx

The post Statement from Terri Pickens: Thank you Governor Little for letting us know you don’t intend to run again appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.

“I apologize to the NCAA players, staff, and supporters of the Utah Utes who were targeted and threatened by an unforgivable racist attack this week in Coeur d’Alene. I extend my apology as well to the players of UC-Urvine who were also made to feel threatened and sought safe harbor outside of the Coeur d’Alene. I apologize to the city of Spokane and to the organizers of the NCAA tournament.

Today, I declare an end to the days where racists and others who share ideologies based on hate and bigotry feel at home in Idaho. You are unwelcome. It may be your right to fill your heart with malice and hatred, but it is an American right to live a life free of tyranny and fear. 

In the short-term, I am allocating as many resources as it takes to hunt down, identify, and prosecute the people responsible for this racist attack. Longer term, we will review Idaho laws and make them as punitive as necessary to dissuade this kind of public attack. Further, we will work with the NCAA to make sure no team ever has to feel unsafe traveling freely in America. Someday, it is my goal that people think of Idaho when they think of what it looks like to stand up to and defeat hate-filled ideologies and the people who would terrorize their neighbors.

Let me be clear, my office and most Idahoans consider any attempt to bully or belittle or harass someone based on their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or religion to be reprehensible and criminal.

Public displays of racism, or the malicious targeting of any group for whatever malign bigoted purpose, will be a thing of the unfortunate past.

Today, I say “go away” to the racists and haters. Today, I say, “go to prison” to the racists and haters who terrorize their neighbors.”

–My name is Terri Pickens and I am running to be Idaho’s next governor. Like you I am tired of the mealy-mouthed platitudes of our current governor who is convinced that he has to placate far-right, anti-freedom extremists. Appeasement does not work. What works is a serious, courageous, transparent campaign to stamp out the forces of hate who are now terrorizing Idaho communities with impunity. Under my watch, Idaho will earn a reputation for true freedom, true liberty, and become a beacon for human rights. I am not bullied or confused by the far-right’s embrace of hatred. I am not deterred in my commitment to justice for all. Idaho needs a leader who will be a champion for human rights. I am that leader.

The post Statement from the Idaho Governor that We Need: appeared first on Terri Pickens for Idaho Governor.