Mayoral races, city council seats and local initiatives got decided Tuesday night. Idaho was one of more than 30 states to hold elections. Unofficial results point to low voter turnout, some political upsets and some wins that were expected. We’ve highlighted some.
You can find unofficial election results for Ada County here as well as for Canyon County.
Boise’s Mayor Wins Third Term
by Scott Ki
BOISE, ID – Boise Mayor David Bieter won a third term Tuesday night. He beat David Hall, a political science student at the College of Western Idaho. Bieter celebrated his victory by joining friends, supporters, and most of his city council at the Basque Center downtown. Bieter says his most important agenda item is to improve the economy. That means creating a business friendly environment and streamlining the permitting process. He also has another project in mind. “Always a high priority for our citizens is a public transportation system that really works and that’s going to involve local option authority and we think that probably has to come by initiative,” the mayor said. Local option authority is when a city government is allowed to impose a tax for specific projects.
Boise’s Eberle Gets Another Term
by Scott Ki
BOISE, ID – David Eberle holds on to his seat on Boise’s City Council. The director of Boise State’s Environmental Finance Center beat challenger David “Pappy” Honey by a four to one margin. Now that’s he’s been reelected, Eberle hopes to revive an old idea. “I would like to see the start of a public transit system and with that, whatever those modes are, with a streetcar downtown,” he said. Eberle also says the economy is on his mind. “It’s my goal to have Boise beat the national average in terms of more employment, more jobs, and better quality of living and I think we’re well on the road to doing that.” Eberle has served on the city council since 2004. He begins a new term in January.
Reynolds Keeps Job As Eagle’s Mayor
by Adam Cotterell
Jim Reynolds will remain the mayor of Eagle. This was actually Reynold’s first election despite being the incumbent. He was appointed to the job a year ago. Reynolds says his top priority is economic development. He says Eagle has created a reputation as anti-business. He wants to change that and bring back growth that stalled during the recession. “So now we’re looking at how can we grow, but grow sensibly and grow in a very controlled fashion, not with the chaos that we had before.” Reynolds says the city will work to attract new businesses so that more people can both live and work in Eagle. He’ll have to work with his challenger Norm Semanko, who also ran on a pro business platform. Semanko is on Eagle’s city council.
Meridian’s Mayor Gets Another Term
by Scott Ki
BOISE, ID – Incumbent Tammy de Weerd will serve a third term as Meridian Mayor. She says her top goals include ways to attract better paying jobs to the city.
“We have started to target business enterprise zones to be able to attract those family wage jobs. And we’re in the midst of that right now. I would like to see that progress further,” de Weerd said.
She beat out four challengers – former state Senator Gerry (jerry) Sweet and three political newcomers. Her opponents made the construction of the new city hall an issue in this campaign. Meridian lost a lawsuit against the building’s construction manager. De Weerd says the city will evaluate options for the lawsuit and then move forward.
Kuna’s Mayor Loses To Past Mayor
by Scott Ki
Boise, ID – A former mayor of Kuna beats out the current one. Greg Nelson once served as mayor from 1983 to 1993. Now he’ll serve another four years after his victory over incumbent Scott Dowdy. Current city councilman Richard Cardoza also ran.
Nampa’s City Council Seats Decided
by Scott Ki
Boise, ID – In Nampa, four-term city councilman Stephen Kren won his reelection bid for seat two. He faced 41-year old Lance McGrath, a librarian at Northwest Nazarene University. The 59-year old Kren also serves as precinct chair for the Canyon County Republican Party. Meanwhile Bob Henry beat incumbent Curtis Homer for Nampa City Council seat number four. This is Henry’s third run for city council and first victory. He also beat out two political newcomers – Chuck Harris and Justin Harrison. Homer meanwhile leaves office after serving four years.
Caldwell’s New City Council Makeup
by Scott Ki
Boise, ID – Everyone knew there’d be a new city councilor to occupy Caldwell’s seat number six when incumbent Bob Sobba decided not to run for another term. David Clark will take that open seat. He beat Jeremy Feucht Tuesday night. The 46-year old Clark has some experience in city government. He serves on Caldwell’s planning commission. Clark also founded a company called Social Media Gurus. Meanwhile Shannon Ozuna retains her seat on Caldwell’s city council. She narrowly beat Kent Marmon, a former city councilman from the mid-1980s and Erik Makrush (mack rush). He’s a policy analyst for the Idaho Freedom Foundation.
Hailey Voters Say No to Plastic Bag Ban
by Sadie Babits
Voters in Hailey turned down an effort to ban plastic grocery bags Tuesday night. Wood River High School students were behind the proposal. Earlier this year, they gathered enough signatures to get the citywide ban on the ballot. The school’s environmental club wanted Hailey residents to use recycled paper bags and reusable bags.
Ketchum’s Mayoral System Stays
by Sadie Babits
Voters in Ketchum Tuesday night rejected an idea to shift the town’s local government from a mayoral system to one run by a city manager. BSPR’s Adam Cotterell reported on this attempt to change government in the past few weeks. The current government, including the mayor, will now stay in place. But the initiative did shake up what would otherwise be a normal election year. Two council seats would have been on the ballot Tuesday night. Now there’ll be a special election next spring for those seats.
Copyright 2011 Boise State Public Radio.