Small Town News

Candidates come to Council

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On Monday evening, nine candidates for county and District 9 answered questions and explained their stands on various issues before a local audience.

Joe Holmes, who is running for county commissioner against Jerry Yantis, had an unavoidable scheduling conflict and sent his apologies. Yantis, who was born and raised here, said he is running to "lead by example for the young people of our community to step forward and help out and be a bigger part of our community." He said he thinks he can bring fresh ideas to the county.

Steve Worthley ran for Representative for District 9A two years ago, and it running for the same position this time around. He was the only Democrat on the panel. As a former teacher, one of his themes was the deplorable funding the state provides for our schools.

Jeri Soulier is running against incumbent Judy Boyle for State Representative. Soulier supports local control, saying, "Government is best administered close to the people." She opposes closed primary elections because it discourages voting. Judy Boyle lives at Midvale and wants to keep working on improving the economy of rural Idaho.

Ryan Kerby and Howard Rynearson are running for State Representative to fill the seat vacated by Lawrence Denney, who is running for Secretary of State. Rynearson is a full time farmer near Payette, but worked for a long time in the lumber business. He does not approve of Governor Otter (he's too liberal) and seems to be to the right on issues more than Kerby. Kerby is school superintendent at New Plymouth, and says, although his strongest background is in education, he is supported by many and varied organizations around the state.

Monty Pearce and Abby Lee are running for the State Senate. Incumbent Monty Pearce tried to eliminate the sales tax on groceries, and says he will continue to push that if reelected. Abby Lee is working on a PHD in public policy administration, and she is passionate about education at all levels, and believes education is at a critical point.

Mike Paradis is running unopposed for reelection as District 2 (Council) County Commissioner. State takeover of federal land

All the candidates said the National Forests need to be managed better. None seemed in favor of selling any acquired federal land. Most were strongly in favor of the state at least managing the Forests, if not outright taking them over. Steve Worthley said he was not strongly for or against the state takeover, but is very supportive of the Forest Coalition efforts that are making progress in Forest management.

Most of the candidates strongly opposed Common Core State Standards, with the exception of Ryan Kerby and Steve Worthley. Kerby said he has studied Common Core thoroughly and sees it as a step forward. Worthley cited the positive reactions of students and teachers who have started some initial Common Core testing. Most of the panel seemed to think the standards came down as a mandate from the federal government. Yantis on roads When introducing himself at the beginning of the program, Jerry Yantis stated, "Contrary to popular belief, I'm not all about closing down the roads around here; the Forest Service has closed enough of them as it is."

By the end of the evening, several questions had been submitted to the moderator Murray Dalgleish referring to Jerry Yantis' view on closing the Middle Fork Road. Dalgleish posed the question, "Jerry, would you go on the record that you would not shut down the Middle Fork Road?" Yantis replied, "Here's the deal with the road issue. I think it's more of a PR deal, and if you cut the problem off before it becomes a bigger issue, then you've solved the whole problem. So if we have people in place that work for the county that are willing to stop by and talk to people a little along these roads, there won't be the issues that are popping up all over the county. I think the answer to all the road problems are, if you can have a PR deal where you'll stop in, you'll communicate with the public that lives along the road, I don't think they'll fight you in traveling it."

The issues and the views of the candidates are much too complex to cover in one article. Voters are encouraged to take every opportunity to learn about both.



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