Ada County GOP Weighs In

The committee made one endorsement, one disapproval

On Thursday night, members of the Ada County Republican Central Committee (ACRCC) gathered for their regular April meeting. On the docket were some bylaw changes, a budget amendment, and a resolution regarding one Ada County legislator.

Rep. James Petzke entered the Legislature two years ago with high hopes. Not yet thirty years old, Petzke has a Master’s degree in finance from the Harvard Extension School and has started several businesses in the Treasure Valley. Unfortunately, his financial acumen has been used to expand government rather than shrink it, and his record on social issues has been disappointing as well.

Ken Merrill, a precinct committeeman in Petzke’s district, introduced a resolution Thursday night to express the committee’s disapproval of Petzke’s role in the Groundhog Day Massacre. As you might recall, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee created a new budgeting process in which they pass maintenance budgets first, leaving more time to examine and debate line item increases.

The resolution explains the rest of the story:

WHEREAS Representative James Petzke declared in a campaign filing statement to the Republican Party in 2022 that he would take “a strong fiscally-conservative approach to government”, and;

WHEREAS after previously indicating support for the budget reform process in JFAC, Representative James Petzke waited until JFAC Co-Chair Rep. Wendy Horman was out sick on February 2, 2024 to join with Democrats to derail the budget reform process, and;

WHEREAS Representative James Petzke was the ONLY Republican legislator from Ada County to vote against the budget reform process and vote to pass rival, much larger budgets on February 2, 2024 and;

The resolution was not a full censure, such as those brought against other Republican legislators throughout the state, but it expresses “disapproval” for Rep. Petzke’s role in the budgetary coup. The ACRCC overwhelmingly approved the resolution.

Both Monica McKinley and Adam Nelson are challenging Petzke in the Republican primary. Check out the race over at the Primary Pulse:

A few minutes later, Steve Bender, PC in 1408, moved to recommend Scott Cleveland’s primary campaign against Congressman Mike Simpson in Idaho’s second congressional district. Simpson, 73, was first elected to Congress prior to the turn of the century after spending 14 years in the Legislature. He has been in office for four decades, and is seeking another term this year.

Simpson gained national attention earlier this year when Cong. Matt Gaetz of Florida called him a “PAC piglet” for his slavish devotion to wealthy special interests during last year’s debate over who should be Speaker of the House:

Another PC moved to amend the motion, changing “recommend” to “endorse” and this was accepted by the committee. Some PCs asked to hear from Cleveland before voting, so he gave a two minute speech about the need for a new perspective in Congress before the committee approved the resolution nearly unanimously.

Scott Cleveland gained notoriety throughout Idaho when he ran an independent campaign against Sen. Mike Crapo in 2022, gaining nearly 50,000 votes. He re-affiliated with the Idaho GOP and is currently the 3rd vice chairman of the ACRCC.

I interviewed Cleveland during his independent campaign:

The resolutions disapproving of Rep. Petzke and endorsing Scott Cleveland demonstrate the sea change in the ACRCC over the last year. The previous leadership of the committee refrained from publicly endorsing or disapproving of Republican candidates, which frustrated many PCs who desired a more active role in rating and vetting potential nominees. Thursday night’s meeting, however, saw very little opposition to either resolution. It will be interesting to see how much influence the committee will wield with Republican voters in Ada County.