Picture this–
You are hiking Idaho’s backcountry. Butterflies flit. Birds chirp. Marmots whistle.
And deer flag their tails. After a morning of hiking, sunshine bathes your face, mountain air fills your lungs, and a frigid lake soothes your feet: Idaho bliss.
A cell phone ringtone shatters the stillness.
In this fantasy, Idaho’s leaders aren’t 20 years late getting cell service to rural areas.
You answer.
A grandfatherly voice on the line has called with a dire warning!
“Hello, I am warning you that your public lands are worthless unless you sell them—today. The forests are just bonfires. The deserts are government staging grounds. The sky is falling! We can save everything by selling—today! Act now! If you don’t sell your public lands—today!—you will lose your job, your house, and probably your children.”
The voice on the phone is my opponent, House Speaker Scott Bedke.
Oh, I know, I know, he seems like a solicitous grandfather. Don’t be fooled. Mr. Bedke is no different than any scammer who preys upon the elderly to make himself richer. His record on public lands proves it.
Take a moment to remember back to 2006. That year, former U.S. Rep. Butch Otter nearly lost his gubernatorial campaign when he proposed selling Idaho public lands to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. Butch hit a buzz saw of opposition, so he backed off. Mr. Bedke took note, learning that he couldn’t get elected if he told the truth about his scheme to sell Idaho public lands.
Finally, by 2013, Mr. Bedke and his cronies hatched a new scheme. They started preaching that the U.S. government was legally obliged to give public lands to states. He downplayed the fact that Idaho couldn’t afford basic management costs of public lands. For example, the federal government paid $230 million–in Idaho–to fight one year’s forest fires.
Bedke’s scam went like this:
1) Transfer federally managed lands to state ownership.
2) Go broke fighting fires.
3) Sell the lands to wealthy cronies to pay for firefighting costs.
If Mr. Bedke called our elderly parents to sell that idea, we would say he was a scammer, or a grifter, or a con artist. Since he’s in the Idaho House, surrounded by extremists who he has cultivated, we call him Speaker of the House.
Idaho truly needs leaders who aren’t there to scam us. We need leaders who will protect our priceless public lands from the Mr. Bedke’s of the world.
I am tough, I am fair, and I am honest. I am stepping up to be the leader Idaho needs.