Dawn of the final day
Daily Digest 5/18/26
Election day is reckoning day
Tomorrow is the primary election day in Idaho. You and I know that our state’s real election is in May, not November, so it’s imperative that you show up. All the work, all the campaigning, all the hopes and dreams of the past two years come down to one fateful day:
Fast forward to the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, where lawmakers clamped down on Boise flying the LGBTQ+ pride flag, codified medical freedom into state law, banned agencies from imposing mask mandates, prohibited forced DEI in higher education, stopped taxpayer subsidies for far-left teachers unions, and even made some of the first real cuts to the state budget in more than a decade (though increasing Medicaid costs still caused the overall budget to rise).
All of this was made possible by good candidates standing for election in the Republican primary and citizens doing their part by turning out to vote. Tomorrow’s primary will decide whether we continue this momentum or take a step back toward rule by a centralized political machine that had no qualms about locking you down just a few short years ago.
And the machine is hard at work, make no mistake. Gov. Little has been campaigning for his people—those he believes will carry out his agenda. Conservatives who charged into politics following the Covid lockdowns have found themselves divided, as the overriding issue of government overreach has faded and we now disagree on a host of other issues. Nevertheless, politics is a team sport, and in most cases there are only two teams on the field at any given time. The governor, along with four other statewide elected officials, has decided that figures including Sen. Jim Guthrie and Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen are on their team, and they’re going all-out for them.
Who is on your team?
Where’s the money, Lebowski?
This has been a very expensive primary election. Five candidates have received six figures in donations thus far, with hundreds of thousands more being spent by PACs and other third-party groups. As I wrote above, the governor’s machine is spending a lot of money to assemble a team that will carry out its agenda. Today, Tim Oren explained where much of that money has come from, and where it is going to:
This layering of pass-through entities attempts to obfuscate the actual path of influence. A dairy farm’s donation might flow through, for instance, the Idaho Dairy Industry PAC, the Idaho Victory Fund, and Idaho Liberty PAC, before ending up paying for a mailer supporting Jim Guthrie. Do we think he’s ignorant of where it originated?
The value of this information hiding may be eroding, however. AI is making it easy to trace connections among organizations via required disclosures – as with my Grok session above. Secrecy by obscurity may be waning, which may eventually threaten the layers of consulting and management fees and commissions generated by the influence network.
Weekly newsletters
I repost regular newsletters from our federal delegation as well as statewide elected officials. Congressman Simpson, Secretary of State McGrane, and Attorney General Labrador each have weekly newsletters, while others such as Congressman Fulcher send them out monthly or at varied intervals.
Let me know if there is a political newsletter you’d like to see reposted at the Gem State Chronicle. Here’s what came out this weekend:
A couple of press releases too
I subscribe to quite a few press lists as well. In some cases I receive multiple releases each day. For example, Congressman Simpson’s comms team is very prolific, touting every federal funding line item that he is able to appropriate. Again, let me know if there are elected officials or agencies that you’d like to see features. Whether we agree with them or not, it’s important for us to know what people in our government are saying.
Gov. Little: Operation No Return removes dozens more illegal alien criminals
Congressman Simpson: Rep. Simpson Advances Funding for Montpelier Police Department Radio Upgrade
Gov. Little: Idaho’s housing unit growth rate leads the nation in 2025
Tomorrow is Election Day. If you have not already voted, please make the time to do so tomorrow. It’s so important! Visit voteidaho.gov to find your polling place.
I’ll be at the Idaho GOP watch party starting at 7pm at the brand-new Residence Inn in Eagle tomorrow night. I’ll be pulling double duty, helping Chairwoman Moon set up the event and also joining Matt Edwards for live coverage on Idaho Signal. Stop by and say hi!
Thanks as always to sponsors Lynn Bradescu’s Boise Realty, Money Metals, and the iLuvIdaho Voter Guide. Please reach out if you have a small business and want to partner with the Gem State Chronicle.
New Saint Andrews College will be returning as a sponsor next month, so go ahead and check them out too! Thanks also to all of you for supporting this work!