City Council Races
Tuesday’s election greatly favored both Boise City Council members facing challengers.
Both Jimmy Hallyburton and Colin Nash easily fended off their opponents to win new, four-year terms, according to unofficial results from Ada County Elections with 70% and 69% of the vote respectively.
Hallyburton faced longtime Republican operative and real estate agent Lynn Bradescu and his former colleague on the city council, Lisa Sanchez, who received about 7% of the vote. Bradescu earned 22%.
The three vied to represent part of Boise’s North End and Northwest neighborhoods.
Nash took on political newcomers Josh Ellstrom and Derek James Smith to retain his seat as city council president in the West Bench district.
Current Garden City Council member Bill Jacobs will serve as the city’s first new mayor in two decades.
Jacobs, who was first elected in 2021, beat out Molly Lenty, who serves as a College of Western Idaho trustee.
As for Garden City’s two council seats, incumbent Teresa Jorgensen and Wendy Carver-Herbert narrowly took the top spots in the six-way race.
Voters willing to pay up for public lands, a little public safety, some schools
Boise voters overwhelmingly approved of a two-year property tax hike to raise $11 million dollars to fund land purchases for public parks and open space. The levy is the third such funding effort since 2001 and feeds a fund controlled by the city. More than 80% of voters approved the levy.
In Meridian, the city needed to replace federal grant funding used to hire 13 firefighters, and asked voters to increase its emergency services budget by just over $5 million. The funding will also be used to increase pay for city police officers and expand the city prosecutor’s office. The levy needed 60% approval to pass and 66% of voters said yes.
Fire Protection District levies were all defeated. Budget increases proposed in Star, Parma, Garden Valley and Middleton failed, with only Parma’s proposal getting close to the required 66.67% supermajority to pass.
Payette County voters rejected a $40 million 10-year bond to renovate and expand the county jail.
An ambulance district budget increase was shot down by Gooding County voters despite 53% approval. The $411k increase needed a 66.67% supermajority to pass.
Voters in Valley County turned out at a rate of 39% according to the Secretary of State’s office, and many in the McCall area supported a new ‘Mountain Community Recreation District,’ which passed with 63%, needing only a simple majority. Turnout in Blaine County was highest in the state, at 50%, 18 points higher compared to the May 2024 primary election.
Sun Valley’s Local Option Tax (LOT) was renewed with 70% approval, with no change to existing rates. But an increase to Blaine County’s recreation district budget was shot down by voters with 55% approval - short of the 66.67% supermajority needed to pass.
Schools fared somewhat better, though no districts got approval for new bonds.
Gooding’s $26.4 million school bond was roundly defeated, with 57% of voters rejecting the plan. Camas County School District’s proposed bond failed with just 15% support.
A $600,000 two-year levy for Valley School District in Jerome County failed by a three vote swing. Preliminary results show 280 votes against the levy and 276 in favor.
Supplemental levies passed in McCall-Donnelly, Kimberly, Blaine County, and in Mountain Home, where the margin of approval was just 20 votes. A two-year, $33.6 million levy in the Nampa School district was also close, passing with 52% approval.
Supplemental levies in Middleton, Filer and Minidoka County failed.
Fifty-five percent of voters in Owyhee and Twin Falls Counties voted to keep Bruneau-Grandview Elementary School open, despite low enrollment.
Ketchum Mayor
Voters in Ketchum say they want to stick with a strong mayor form of government.
About 60% of them rejected a measure that would’ve seen the city council appoint a city manager to oversee operations as Ketchum’s chief executive.
Current Mayor Neil Bradshaw declined to run again after first being elected in 2017.
Pete Prekeges, who owns the Ketchum bar and grill, Grumpy’s, overwhelmingly won the job with 81% of the vote over real estate investor John Wigdale.
Blaine County officials initially disqualified Prekeges in September because he registered his homeowner’s property tax exemption in nearby Hailey.
An Idaho district court judge sided with Prekeges after he appealed the decision. He holds a lease in Ketchum and is registered to vote in the city.
Caldwell Mayor
After surviving a recall effort that failed to launch earlier this year, Caldwell Mayor Jarom Wagoner is out after losing to Eric Phillips Tuesday night.
Phillips, a Navy veteran and former Caldwell police officer, said he ran to “restore trust” between the city and its citizens. He earned 57% of the vote compared to Wagoner’s 30%. Brad Doty took nearly 13% of the vote.
Wagoner served just one term in office after working for the city as a planner for several years. He was previously appointed as a state representative in 2017, but lost his re-election campaign in 2020.
Scott Tilmant, Chuck Stadick and Diana Register each won their respective races for seats on Caldwell City Council.
