This coming Tuesday, District 6 residents in Boise will be voting for a new City council member. Voters in the North End and northwest will choose between incumbent Jimmy Hallyburton, former council member Lisa Sánchez and newcomer Lynn Bradescu.
The three-way non-partisan race has garnered a lot of attention. Hallyburton and Sánchez are former colleagues and political allies with progressive values, while Bradescu, a conservative, is a first-time runner.
Hallyburton is running for his third and last term, while Sánchez is running for a seat she lost in 2023 amid controversy. They have name recognition and previous campaigns to draw from, but Bradescu has fundraised significantly more than her opponents. The latest Ada county finance report shows her campaign has raised about $30,000, against Hallyburton’s $19,000 and roughly $500 for Sánchez.
“It does mean when you see somebody raising that many funds that they're running a serious campaign, and you should take them really, really seriously,” Hallyburton said.
Jimmy Hallyburton, the incumbent
Door knocking in the Sunset neighborhood one evening in October, Hallyburton went over his priorities with volunteers.
“We don't say anything negative about anyone on the doors. That's not who I am,” he told them. “If people want to get negative, that's up to them. You don't need to go there.”
Going over his pamphlets before they all headed out, he recapped the list of things he’s been working on as a council member.
“The pathways master plan, bringing the new fire station south of town, making sure that everybody is within ten minute's walk to a park,” he said.
On that day, Hallyburton ran into many friendly and familiar faces. Almost everyone who answered their door enthusiastically supported him.
Born and raised in District 6, he’s worked as a U.S. Forest Service hotshot, started the Boise Bicycle Project and has been serving as a city council member for six years. He supports the Open Space ballot proposal asking voters to approve a third levy to preserve city-owned outdoor spaces and Boise’s Climate Action Plan.
While the race is non-partisan, Hallyburton knows politics could affect the final tallies.
“I get nervous about it because if somebody were to pick up 35% of the vote, then Lisa [Sánchez] and I were to split up that second part, it could be really, really close,” he said.
“My big concern is that people are so worked up about what's happening at the national level, as they should, and they don't know what to do about it. And they forget about what's happening at a local level,” he added.
Hallyburton said he enjoyed speaking to people in his district, even those with yard signs supporting his opponents.
“I don't care if somebody is for me or against me,” he said, “if they've got concerns in the neighborhood, I want to address them.”
As of Thursday, he and his team have knocked on 9,000 doors, hoping to get to a thousand more by election day.
Lisa Sánchez, the former council member
A few days later, candidate Lisa Sánchez and about a dozen volunteers also met up at Sunset park for a round of door knocking.
“We got to eat,” she told her volunteers as they waited out the rain with a full spread of tacos. “I can't have you guys collapsing on me!”
While volunteers headed out to apartment complexes, she door-knocked on Harrison Boulevard. Reactions from residents varied, with many politely declining to tell her who they would vote for, while others recognized her from her previous role at the city.
Sánchez served as council member for five years but was removed in 2023 after she lost her rental home and briefly moved out of the district. She sued the city but lost, her contentious exit bringing a lot of media attention to the City.
Sánchez said the legislature’s move in 2024 to get rid of renter protections she had helped draft pushed her to run again.
“As I moved back into District 6, I encountered application fees upwards of $90,” she said, “That's three times the amount had that 2019 rental application fee ordinance been in place.”
“Renters comprise, what? 35, 40% of Boise?” she added. “But we as a people do not really have a lot of elected officials representing our interests. I never hear that being discussed about whether we should have renters in these leadership roles. I think we very much need to. We have a lot of landlords in these roles, but not a lot of renters.”
She said seeing the effects of the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-immigrant policies was also a factor in her decision to campaign for her old seat.
“I have to lean into this privilege of being a legal U.S. citizen by birth who gets to run for office,” she said. “Even though I've been through some challenges as an elected official over the last few years, it's actually strengthened my resolve. What is my community going to think if they see somebody like me give up?”
Sánchez said she’s not worried about her candidacy splitting the vote between her and past ally Hallyburton.
“I’ve always been underestimated in my races, I feel that good leaders are shaped by adversity and by being challenged," she said.
Lynn Bradescu, the newcomer
Newcomer Lynn Bradescu is a real estate agent, a landlord and a precinct committee woman for the Ada County Republican central committee. She also serves on the Boise City/Ada County Housing Authority Board.
Bradescu did not make herself available for an interview and stopped responding to messages after initially agreeing to meet with Boise State Public Radio.
Speaking to host Matt Todd on The Ranch Podcast last month, she pushed back against the Open Space proposal on the Boise ballot.
“I love open space believe me,” she said. “I love the Greenbelt and I love all those things. But I'd like to see the private sector pay for it.”
She also discussed looking into the city’s staffing budget as a way to reduce expenses.
“I want to know why we have so much staffing? 2,133 employees. The population hasn't grown that much. What are they doing down there?” she said.
Her campaign website does not lay out any specific information about her plan, but in an interview with Scott McIntosh with the Idaho Statesman’s Editorial Board in September, she said her priorities were “zoning, the budget and growth.”
“'I’m running for City Council because my friends, neighbors, and family encouraged me to do this. Because for six years, we don't feel that the city of Boise has been listening to the constituents,” she said.
Election Day is this coming Tuesday, Nov. 4.
