Boise Mayor

It’s Friday, which means it's time for our Reporter Roundtable when Idaho Matters gets you up to date on all the news that made headlines this past week.

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean was invited, along with a select number of U.S. mayors, to participate in the UN Climate Change Conference. McLean says it’s about being “at the table,” not just with leaders of some of the planet’s greatest oil producers, but with leaders who are committed to limit the rise in average global temperatures.

With all precincts reporting, Mayor Lauren McLean bested Mike Masterson by 12 points. In his concession, the former Boise police chief said he’d be returning to what he called the second best fallback job: retirement.

Boise Mayor Lauren Mclean will keep her position after winning 55.4% of the votes. At her watch party at the Lounge at the End of the Universe the atmosphere was festive throughout.

“At the times when it's most difficult, is when we most need people committed and called to service.”

Election day is just around the corner and the race for the Boise mayor’s seat has been heated. There are four candidates hoping to get the job and we wanted to hear from all of them, so we’re sitting down today with each one to find out their vision for Idaho's capital city.

“Life was good,” said Mike Masterson, referring to his eight-and-a-half years after he retired from being Boise Police Chief. But after writing a couple of op-eds in the Idaho Statesman, pushing back against Mayor Lauren McLean, Masterson said he started hearing from “all types of contacts.”

Affordable housing, for many, is the number one topic of discussion in the race for who should be Boise Mayor. For Joseph Evans, candidate for the job, it isn’t a topic. It’s his day-to-day dilemma.

It’s complicated. In fact, that’s an understatement in trying to reconcile the Boise mayoral candidacy of Aaron Reis, who is also in the process of legally changing his name (more on that in a moment). Reis says, at least for him, it’s not about an election contest.

The race for Boise mayor is heating up and we wanted to take a look into some the issues surrounding the election.