Candidates vying for seats in Idaho’s fifth state legislative district were asked questions ranging from their qualifications, protection of public lands, LGBTQA rights, immigration policies and more in a legislative forum Monday.
The event, hosted by the Department of Student Involvement’s Center for Volunteerism and Social Action, included candidates Bill Goesling, David Nelson, Laurene Sorensen, and incumbents Sen. Dan Foreman, Rep. Magaret Gannon and Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy.
Foreman said his primary issues were “pro-life” issues and policies regarding abortion.
“The Constitution guarantees life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness … all your other constitutional rights don’t matter if you’re deceased. … I can’t think of anything better than protecting human life,” Foreman said.
Democratic Senate candidate David Nelson, competing with Foreman, said his primary issues revolved around Proposition2 — Medicaid expansion.
“It’s our chance to do what our legislature has refused to do for that last four years and expand Medicaid to cover those who don’t have coverage,” Nelson said.
Democratic legislative candidate Laurene Sorensen said the issue most important to her was “interdisciplinary,” and included approaches aimed at combatting poverty and improving access to healthcare and education.
“I want to cut at the roots of poverty in our state so everybody, every worker, every child, every veteran, every elder, can live their lives with dignity and without fear … that means expanding healthcare,” Sorensen said.
Republican Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy said to her, education was a top priority.
Cody Allred | Argonaut
Legislature hopefuls discuss policies and platforums at UI campus forum Monday.
“Education changes everything … whether it’s a four-year degree or its career technical, all education is important,” said Troy, who is vying for a third term against Sorensen.
To Democratic Rep. Margaret Gannon, the issue that was most important to her was local governance and education.
“Education is my major passion … I believe in the local governance of schools and I believe that schools need to be appropriately funded … I’m very interested in continuing education too,” Gannon said.
Republican legislative candidate Bill Goesling said his most important issue was broadband connectivity.
“We have places here in Latah County that do not connect to the system. Here at the university, we have a lot of broadband … but there’s need for continuous improvement of broadband services,” Goesling said.
Candidates also touched on the issue of voting rights in Idaho.
Foreman said he believes voter rights in Idaho are beneficial and cautions against mail voting to combat fraud.
“Whatever we do to try and encourage people … I don’t want to see us get careless with our identification … or with mail-in voting efforts … we need to be careful,” he said.
Nelson said he believes Idaho effectively promotes voting rights, but believes voting by mail would be a right he would support.
“I would like to see more early voting … if we could do vote by mail … that would be a great way to increase our participation in all elections,” Nelson said.
Sorensen said she also supports the idea of voting by mail and said she wants to educate voters of the different forms of identification for voting that can substitute a driver’s license.
“A lot of our identity has to do with our driver’s license … I want every poll worker … every county clerk to be clear there are alternate forms of ID that are also acceptable, because there are a lot of misconceptions out there … there are people who think if they don’t have an Idaho driver’s license, they can’t vote… so part of it is education and part of it is simplifying it,” Sorensen said.
Troy said she believes Idaho has sufficient voter rights with absentee voting and allowing voters to register at the polls.
“Being able to register to vote at the polls is a great benefit … anybody can vote,” Troy said.
Bill Goesling said absentee voting can help for those who want to vote earlier, but believes voters should understand the ballot before taking to the polls.
“You can ask for absentee ballot … you can get it by mail … you can vote by mail … and then you can vote early… my real concern is the availability of people understanding what the candidates are presenting,” Goesling said.
Margaret Gannon said she wants to see voting by mail and to better advertise early voting.
“Latah County has early voting and it’s well advertised … but it’s not that way in every county because some county offices aren’t big enough to be able to do that … but in truthfulness, it should be equal for all placed in Idaho to have more mail-in or early voting and I think that by and large we do a really good job,” Gannon said.
The Center of Student Involvement filmed the meeting on Facebook Live. The livestream can be found on the University of Idaho Center for Volunteerism and Social Action Facebook page.
Cody Allred can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @CodyLAllred