STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Laurie Lickley presented herself as the only candidate who can move the needle since she represents the majority party. Ron Taylor pledged to continue to advocate for better education funding and women’s reproductive freedom. And Kala Tate held herself out as someone who is uncompromising on numerous issues.

Incumbent Ron Taylor and his two challengers had the opportunity to make their case for the District 26 seat in the Idaho Senate this past week at the Pizza and Politics hosted by Mountain Express at Mountain Humane.

The event was hampered somewhat by pour acoustics—some of the candidates had trouble hearing the audience questions at times and some in the audience had trouble understanding what the candidates were saying.

• Ron Taylor, 60 and the Democrat senator, has served in the Idaho Senate for two years, having won the district’s Idaho Senate seat from Lickley in a 52 percent to 48 percent vote in 2022. A firefighter and paramedic for nearly three decades, he lives in Hailey.

He decided to run for office after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Though in the minority party, he says he’s colorblind and doesn’t see red or blue: “We build relationships, get people who support what we support to move forward.”

Taylor said his biggest concern is Idaho’s public school system: “Idaho is not doing a good job when it comes to education and that’s the legislature’s fault.”

He said he would continue to work against public dollars being used for private education because, he says, every public dollar spent on private education is a dollar taken from public schools, which are already underfunded and staffed by teachers who are underpaid. Providing funds to sectarian schools runs counter to Idaho’s Constitution, he added.

Taylor says he supports an enrollment-based school funding formula rather than the current attendance-based formula. And he would reinstate the summer lunch program that the Senate defunded during the last session.

Taylor said he would love repeal Idaho’s abortion restrictions or at least continue to work to provide exceptions for abortion. Legislators, he said, have no business being in the doctor’s office—abortion should be between a woman and her doctor.

Taylor said he supports Proposition 1, which is on the Nov. 5 ballot in Idaho, as it would provide for open primaries giving voters a chance to vote for those they feel will best represent them, no matter their party affiliation.  He cited the plight of military veterans who do not wish to register as Democrat or Republican: “How would you feel? I support Prop One 100 percent because it gives everyone the right to vote.”

He is fully opposed to the proposed Lava Ridge Wind, in which outside interests want to pub giant wind turbines up in the desert near Minidoka. Whether you’re red, blue, yellow, green or purple—that’s one issue that Idahoans have been able to come together on, he said.

“I am into renewable energy, but we have to have Idahoans sitting at the table deciding what’s best for Idaho,” he said, adding that Idaho could be a leader nationwide in renewable energy.”

As one who’s concerned about climate change, Taylor says he prioritizes preserving recreational access to public lands and preserving natural resources including the water in the Big Wood and Silver Creek, housing affordability and reproductive rights. He is also is concerned about the future of health care in Idaho, not just for women but for all Idahoans and feels strongly about continued funding for Medicaid and Public Health Services.

Finally, he would support repealing the bill which made libraries liable for lawsuits stemming from book challenges.

• Laurie Lickley, the 56-year-old Republican candidate, is a cattle rancher and small business owner in Jerome. She served two terms in the Idaho House of Representatives before losing to Taylor in 2022. She has been an advocate for early childhood education and she served for three years on the Idaho Behavioral Health Council while the council bolstered mental health resources for youth.

  Blaine County Democrats did a line dance during this year’s Wagon Days Parade in Ketchum. Is that supposed to advocate for voting the party line?

  Her top priorities including inflation, the economy, roads and other infrastructure.  She believes growth continues to be one of Idaho’s biggest challenges as it puts pressure on water, agriculture and public lands.

  She believes the legislature needs to get back to funding education appropriately. She says she supports school choice, noting how her children attended a private Christan school when they were young. But she says she has concerns that subsidizing private school tuition could siphon money from public schools in rural areas.

  “We have good data that rural school districts are suffering. We need to come up with a plan,” she says.

  Lickley voted for two bills allowing civil lawsuits to be filed against medical professionals who perform abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected. And a bill that would ban almost all abortions. But she said Thursday night that the government should be kept out of the doctor’s office, She also expressed support for access to contraception and IVF and removing criminal liability for physicians and pregnant women experiencing life-threatening pregnancies.

  She said she will respect the rights of the people to make their own decision on Prop. 1. She herself is for open primaries but has some questions about the implementation of ranked choice voting.

  She said she is adamantly against the Lava Ridge Wind Project, citing how the project ignored the concerns of impacted stakeholders.

  She added that she would not have supported the library bill that the legislature passed earlier this year: “Libraries and librarians have my full support.”

• Kala Tate, 40, of Carey is the new kid in the mix. Running as an Independent, she bills herself as a Christian conservative who will fervently fight for freedom from tyrannical government, passionately pursue freedom for religion, promote freedom for family and put to death immoral ideologies.

She says she decided to run for Idaho Senate because she believes there is no longer a conservative voice in the state legislature—the state legislature is filled with Republicans-in-name-only, or RINOs. She is, she says, a Jesus-loving conservative mother who will lay down her life for the next generation.”

“We’re in a state of emergency” she said, adding that her top priority is bringing morality back to the Idaho legislature.

Asked how she could get things done as an Independent, she responded, “I plan to be a team player as I figure it out.”

Tate is against woke ideology funding in schools and says she would not would not approve of vouchers from the government for private schools because it would introduce more government control in the system.

A former mid-wife, she is pro-life with no exception: “I believe in pro-life all the way without exception. You do not have the right ever to take the life of another human being.”

She is against Proposition 1 as she believes it would cost money to implement “and it’s quite confusing.”

Asked how she would have voted on the library bill, she responded, “I’d like to see more security take place in communities over events harmful to minors.”

Tate said she does not believe climate change poses a threat to Idaho—climate change legislation is just another way to take people’s freedoms away. She is against Lava Ridge and any other wind farm being proposed for Idaho. Lava Ridge would harm the land, wildlife, water and human beings.

She would also like to eliminate grocery and property taxes and she says she is leaning towards eliminating all welfare-funded programs.