The Second Rule for Idaho politicians is “if it’s not my problem, it’s not my problem.”
(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.