Gunning For the System
Priscilla Giddings is challenging one of the most powerful leaders in Idaho
For most voters, the position of Lieutenant Governor of Idaho does not seem very prestigious. Like the position of Vice President of the United States, the lieutenant governor has few real duties. He or she technically presides over the Idaho State Senate, but that is usually merely a ceremonial role. When the governor is incapacitated or out of state, the lieutenant governor acts in his stead, but this transfer of power usually only matters in case of emergency.
However, what politicos know is that the position of lieutenant governor is often a stepping stone to the highest office in the state.
Of the last nine Lieutenant Governors of Idaho, dating back to 1975, five went on to serve as governor. One, Jim Risch, went on to serve in the US Senate after that. The incumbent, Janice McGeachin, is trying to follow in those footsteps by challenging Governor Brad Little in this year’s primary.
In addition to grooming a candidate for a future gubernatorial campaign, the office of lieutenant governor also gives a politician a bully pulpit to direct the conversation in the state. McGeachin has certainly been doing that during her tenure.
It is for all of these reasons that the race for lieutenant governor should not be ignored. This year, two Republicans are vying to replace McGeachin: establishment apparatchik Scott Bedke, and conservative firebrand Priscilla Giddings.
Scott Bedke is one of the most powerful elected Republicans in Idaho. He was appointed to the State Legislature in 2000 to fill a vacant seat, and has been reelected every year since. In 2012, he defeated House Speaker Lawrence Denney (now the secretary of state), winning the position he holds to this day.
Scott Bedke has not been challenged in either a primary nor a general election since 2004. Despite this, he raises tens of thousands of dollars every year for his nonexistent campaigns. In 2020, the sitting speaker raised more than $115,000… for what? I dug into Bedke’s 2020 contributions and some interesting things jumped out.
Approximately one third of contributions to Scott Bedke’s 2020 campaign were from out of state.
Of the $78,305 donated from Idaho, less than $10,000 came from communities in or near Bedke’s own 27th District. A large portion of donations came from the Boise metro area.
Just over $3,000 was donated by other campaigns. Were legislative candidates buying favor with their boss?
Less than 15% of Bedke’s contributions came from individuals. The rest were from corporations, campaigns, and advocacy groups.
I think we can speculate about what is going on here. Corporations and lobby groups do not donate to Scott Bedke to help him win, rather they donate to buy a seat at his table. This is how the system works; this is how the game is played. Bedke’s top donors over the years are big corporations such as Simplot, Micron, Blue Cross, the Idaho Association of Realtors, and more.
Not content with raking in huge donations for nonexistant campaigns, Speaker Bedke also appears to control a not-for-profit political action committee that has made a large donation to… himself. State records show an unincorporated nonprofit called New Horizons PAC, initially formed in 2012, with Scott Bedke as agent. Bedke’s campaign contribution report for 2021 shows $5,000 from New Horizons PAC.
What does this mean? I am not entirely sure. There are laws regarding nonprofits and political action committees that are intended to prevent the organization from being used to benefit its own officers. I am not prepared to accuse Speaker Bedke of any malfeasance at this time, but it certainly looks suspicious. Using nonprofits to funnel or even launder money for nefarious political purposes is the sort of thing we castigate Democrats such as Bill Clinton for, but perhaps this is simply how the system works, how the game is played.
Bedke’s campaign for lieutenant governor is being bankrolled by the same big corporations and special interests that have been buying influence for twenty years. Last week, Bedke spoke at a $1000 per plate dinner at the Grove Hotel in Boise with familiar sponsors such as Amalgamated Sugar, Blue Cross of Idaho, Micron, and Simplot.
As Speaker, Bedke has tremendous power to shape the legislative sessions. He decides which bills go forward and which do not, and currying favor with him is imperative for young legislators looking to have a successful career in politics. In addition to the power Bedke wields on the House floor, he surely engages in plenty of backroom deals that the public never hears about. This is the way the system works; this is how the game is played.
Last week, Speaker Bedke spoke to Idaho GOP Chairman Tom Luna and Ada County GOP Chairman Victor Miller on their weekly Red Wave Radio program and explained his priorities for the 2022 legislative session. Like most establishment Republicans, Bedke’s focus is on jobs and tax cuts, with hardly a thought to spare for the cultural and social issues that are currently animating the people of Idaho. Halfway through the interview, Miller reminded Bedke of the vaccine mandate issue, and the speaker ignored the specter of employer mandates and instead spoke only about Idaho’s case against the Biden Administration. Regarding Critical Race Theory and other Marxist ideologies being taught in public schools, Bedke had absolutely nothing to say.
In 2021, Speaker Bedke decided not to adjourn the House sine die, retaining the ability to return to session if necessary. When the big healthcare firms began mandating Covid-19 vaccines for their employees last summer, conservatives demanded action. The Idaho State Republican Party passed a unanimous resolution demanding the House return to work to protect the health freedom of our state’s workers. Bedke steadfastly refused.
When the speaker finally acquiesced to a special session, it was not for the purpose of protecting employees from mandates, rather he chaired a vote to censure his opponent in the 2022 lieutenant governor’s race, stripping her of committee assignments and dragging her name through the mud. Most legislators voted with him. Were they concerned with the consequences of publicly opposing the powerful Speaker of the House?
Who has drawn such ire from Scott Bedke?
Priscilla Giddings grew up in a Christian home, graduating valedictorian from Salmon River High School in Riggins, Idaho, and enrolling in the Air Force Academy. She spent several years flying combat missions in Afghanistan, returning home to Idaho in the mid-2010s after realizing that the ideals American soldiers were fighting for half a world away were being trampled back home. She won her first race in 2016 and has represented the 7th District ever since.
Compared to the mighty Scott Bedke, Representative Giddings ran much less expensive campaigns. She raised over $22,000 for her first campaign, followed by $7,000 and $9,000 in 2018 and 2020, respectively. She did not face a Democratic opponent in the latter two elections, but fought a relatively close primary in 2020.
Representative Giddings takes the difference in contributions as a point of pride, explaining that most of her donors are individuals compared to the big corporations that favor Speaker Bedke. “It really does show who wants to work for the people versus who is holding the position to help these global companies,” she told the Idaho Dispatch recently.
Representative Giddings says that she had originally planned to remain in the legislature, but every time she tried to pass good legislation that was supported by the people of Idaho leaders such as Speaker Bedke blocked it from even coming to a vote. The final straw was watching the way Idaho’s leadership used the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to engage in unconstitutional and immoral impediments on the individual freedoms that we have long taken for granted.
Perhaps part of her decision to run was surely the reaction of House leadership to her brand of conservative politics. Giddings has made quite a few enemies in her short political career because she challenged the system and refused to play the game.
During the 2021 legislative session, a bill was brought before the House that would allocate a $6 million federal grant to an early learning program in Idaho. Sounds good, right? Representative Giddings read the fine print. This “early learning program” was sponsored by the Idaho chapter of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, a left-wing group that fully embraces identity politics and the Marxist worldview of Critical Race Theory. This anti-American and anti-white ideology has already infected nearly every area of our society, and here was the legislature allocating millions more dollars to be used to indoctrinate Idaho’s children. Usually these grants are simply rubber stamped by our leadership, but Representative Giddings was one of the few who were willing to stand up and say “Wait a minute!”
I suggest this is why the establishment brought an ethics complaint against her, and Speaker Bedke himself chaired a vote to censure his rival. A message was being sent: Play the game or be destroyed.
The particulars of the censure involved a criminal complaint against a fellow legislator, Representative Aaron von Ehlinger of Lewiston. An anonymous woman made allegations of sexual assault against von Ehlinger, and the corporate media smelled blood. Governor Little himself made a statement in support of “Jane Doe” and condemned von Ehlinger. Remember, at this point there had been no criminal trial, no convictions, not even the name of the accuser was officially public. Apparently a presumption of innocence is a right reserved only to those who are favored by the establishment. Even after the justice system dropped their investigation, the House still voted to expel Representative von Ehlinger from the State Legislature.
At one point, Representative Giddings shared a link to an article that published the name of the accuser. This was all the excuse that Speaker Bedke and his friends needed to go after a vexatious rival. The ethics committee ruled that Giddings had “doxed” a “sexual assault survivor” and last autumn the House voted to censure her.
Representative Giddings has been in the real world, and she understands that sexual assault accusations are often used as political weapons. Remember the litany of allegations leveled against Judge Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings? Anyone with critical thinking skills who listened to that testimony knew they were nonsense, but corporate media breathlessly repeated them and demanded that Kavanaugh be punished on the word of a crazy woman. Whether the accusations against Representative von Ehlinger were true or not, it was obvious that they were used as a weapon against someone who was not playing the game.
The attacks on Representative Giddings remind me of a similar story at the national level. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was elected by her district to shake up Congress, and she wasted no time. For one thing, she used the power given to all representatives to force roll call votes on every possible bill, rather than let them simply be rubber stamped by a rump Congress. This was one of the reasons that the Democrats, as well as leaders in her own party, participated in a censure of their own. As Giddings - an Air Force combat veteran - would agree, if you are taking flak then you are over the target.
In the end, the choice of our elected officials rests not with big corporations, not with special interests, and not with vindictive leaders. It rests with the people of Idaho. I think most conservatives understand that the censure was a farce. The contrast between the two candidates for lieutenant governor could not be starker: Speaker Bedke is a swamp creature, an establishment apparatchik who lives for the game. Representative Giddings is an iconoclast, a conservative champion who has a proven record of fighting for the people against the system.
This race might be as important as the gubernatorial race itself. If Scott Bedke wins in May, he will be lined up for a run for governor in 2026, and all of his big corporation and lobbyist friends will be with him. The people of Idaho can send a powerful message to the establishment and special interests by voting for Priscilla Giddings this year.