STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

It was, perhaps, the first time a candidate for office has ever campaigned atop a tractor in the Wood River Valley.

At least, certainly in the past 25 years.

Karma Fitzgerald, who is running for state representative in District 26, took her place atop a 1955 tractor as she rolled through the Bellevue Labor Day Parade. And, at 5 miles per hour, she easily evaded any speeding tickets.

With Bellevue’s Labor Day Parade smaller than pre-pandemic parades, it was a day for candidates to take the spotlight.

Laurie Lickley peddled a side-by-side bicycle, flanked by fellow Republican candidates Mike Pohanka and Jack Nelsen.

Ron Taylor, who is campaigning for Sen. Michelle Stennett’s Senate seat, ran from one side of the street to the other, handing out long-stemmed roses to spectators. And Rep. Ned Burns strode down the street behind a banner bearing his name.

Fitzgerald heard chants of “Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes,” as she puttered down the street. It was a reference to tonight’s “Cupcakes with Karma” meet-and-greet, which will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight—Wednesday, Sept. 7—at Iconoclast Books at 15 E. Bullion St. in Hailey.

“We’ll not only have cupcakes but we’ll have the Bubbly Truck with mobile mimosas!” she said.

Youngsters were too busy filling up their bags with candy to think ahead to the cupcake extravaganza. Even before the fire trucks marking the beginning of the parade had passed, many children already had sagging bags full of Tootsie Rolls, Aciduladitos and Sour Crawlers.

A riderless horse boasting boots turned backwards in the stirrups honored Grand Marshal Jim Paisley, who had passed away this summer. Paisley had ridden in the parade on his unicycle and helped to organize the Labor Day concerts following the parade in 2014 and 2015.

Some of the musicians he once played with—like those from the Kim Stocking Band—entertained hundreds of people at Bellevue Memorial Park following the parade as the new Bellevue restaurant Krafty hawked gyros and Thai chicken wraps. And there was much, much more, including churros topped with ice cream and drizzles.