Candidates for contested LD1 and Bonner County seats tackle issues at primary forum

By Zach Hagadone
and Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

Ahead of the Tuesday, May 19 primary election, candidates in contested races for Idaho Legislative District 1 Senate, Dist. 1 House and Bonner County offices gathered at the Sandpoint High School auditorium May 4 and May 5 to answer questions and make their cases to voters.

Sponsored by 88.5 FM KRFY Panhandle Community Radio, sandpointonline.com, the Bonner County Daily Bee, Selkirk Association of Realtors and the Sandpoint Reader, at total of about 150 attendees turned out for the two-hour forums.

The first, which featured LD1 candidates, was moderated by Clint Schroeder, president and executive editor of the Hagadone Newspaper and Media groups, which owns the Bee. The second forum was moderated by Reader Publisher Ben Olson.

To listen to full recordings of both forums, go to krfy.org.

LD1 House and Senate

All six candidates for contested Dist. 1 legislative seats are Republicans, providing plenty of opportunity for drawing internal party distinctions. After introductory remarks, candidates were asked about tax cuts, education funding, public lands, the influence of groups like the Idaho Freedom Foundation and their views on local control.

Incumbent House 1A Rep. Mark Sauter pointed to the challenges faced by the 2026 Legislature in backfilling revenue lost from previous tax cuts, as well as conforming to the Big Beautiful Bill Act. He said that while difficult, the expenditure cuts this year mean “it’s going to work out OK,” so long as legislators “watch our tax cuts very closely.”

Jane Sauter (no relation), who is challenging Mark Sauter for the 1A House seat, argued for further spending cuts, pointing to programs from the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “If they’re not effective, then they should probably just be nixed.”

Incumbent House 1B Rep. Cornel Rasor said while Idaho’s income tax rate has fallen from 7.4% to 5.3%, General Fund receipts from income tax have risen from $1.6 billion to $2.7 billion. 

“When you leave money in the hands of people who are providing jobs, infrastructure, housing and those kinds of things, they will invest it back,” he said.

He also argued for more cuts, including eliminating “hundreds” of state-level full-time employee positions that are vacant but still funded.

Chuck Lowman, who is challenging Rasor, cautioned against “willy-nilly cutting things off.” He questioned removing Idaho property tax, saying it would result in counties asking Boise to meet their needs. He suggested “a local option sales tax or a blended sales tax where we have a property tax amount coupled with a 1/4% sales tax that pays down on good years, [and] it pays it off on bad years.” 

Incumbent Sen. Jim Woodward said he voted for many of the income tax cuts referred to by Rasor, but the reduction to 5.3% meant “we took away our ability to maintain those basic public services,” including taking about $250 million out of the transportation budget and “we had to play games” with the Idaho Department of Lands budget, which means money hasn’t be pre-allocated to pay for fire suppression this summer.

“I voted for multiple tax reductions, but I still believe we have to take care of those basic services,” he said.

Former-one-term Dist. 1 Sen. Scott Herndon, who is challenging Woodward, has made eliminating property tax a central plank in his campaign, and said health care is one of the biggest budget concerns facing the state — specifically Medicaid expansion, which he called “way more expensive than we were told.” 

“We’re going to have to decide how much of our time we want to give away each year to fund it in government. Are we going to have to decide whether we want free markets?” he said. “I prefer free markets and lower taxes.” 

All the candidates expressed their support for public education funding, and to varying degrees agreed that the funding formula needs to be revamped — including related to how urban vs. rural schools are allocated support. 

Herndon claimed 79% of public education funding comes from the state, rather than property taxes, suggesting that it could be fully funded by the Legislature. He also proposed that enrollment, rather than attendance, should be the basis for allocating dollars. Mark Sauter agreed that funding should be based on enrollment, but attendance should count as well. In addition, he said that costs for special education have not kept pace with funding and need to be addressed in the formula. Jane Sauter especially expressed support for state funding for public education alternatives and suggested eliminating the LAUNCH Program to free up $80 million for K-12 education.

The remaining questions about public lands, outside influence and local control revolved around similar themes: how candidates would balance the various interests pressing on their offices.

On public lands, Herndon pointed to his work in the Senate on maintaining public access to Lake Pend Oreille at Camp Bay. Meanwhile, on public lands generally, he said, “I don’t think after 50 years, 100 years, 250 years that the right solution is to give that away.” 

Woodward underscored the importance of public lands to Idahoans and questioned Herndon’s stance on the issue, saying, “a couple years ago, he was ready to sell them. … [H]e campaigned openly on selling public lands.” Woodward also pushed back at Herndon’s criticism of his vote on a bill that would have criminalized trespassing on closed federal land, saying, “[I]f you’re trespassing, you’re actually trespassing, whether you’re on public ground or private land.”

Lowman and Mark Sauter came out strongly against selling public land, with both pointing to the Good Neighbor Authority as a tool to leverage local management of federal land, particularly with fire risk reduction. 

“I support keeping our public lands. Hands down. Full stop,” Sauter said, while Lowman warned that selling public lands would mean “you and I would never see them again.”

Rasor said that all land under federal control in Idaho should be managed by the state, while Jane Sauter said that while she’s “all about” keeping public lands in public hands, “if it’s going to cause a strain on people who are sitting on the other 37%, I say it’s time to expand [development].”

All the candidates resisted the idea that they would legislate according to the scoring systems employed by organizations like IFF, though those rankings have been prominent in campaign materials. Herndon, Rasor and Jane Sauter all said they approach legislation from a purely constitutional standpoint, while Lowman, Mark Sauter and Woodward emphasized legislating both on the Constitution but also the interests of Dist. 1 residents.

On local control, Lowman, Mark Sauter and Woodward were again in agreement, repeating that they believe in devolving as much authority to the local level as possible — with all three opposing the deregulation of short-term rentals as an example of state-level overreach. Herndon, Rasor and Jane Sauter said to varying degrees that the state must step in on various issues to supersede local authority, specifically citing the “bathroom bill,” legislation related to what can be displayed on municipal flagpoles and the STR bill as appropriate uses of state power.

Herndon and Rasor pointed to Idaho as a Dillon’s Rule state, meaning the powers of cities and counties come from the Legislature and statute, therefore superseding those authorities when necessary, to which Jane Sauter agreed. 

Lowman, Sauter and Woodward, however, were firm in their support for local control, with Woodward summing up their shared perspective: “I trust you at the local level to be able to make your own decisions, but the trend in the Legislature right now is taking it away.”

Bonner County

The four Republican candidates for contested county seats — two for clerk and two for Dist. 2 commissioner — responded to questions on property rights, county finances and election security, among other topics.

Clerk candidates Roger Rudd and Spencer Hutchings agreed that Idaho — especially Bonner County — does not experience “significant voter fraud.”

“We have lots of checks and balances put in place to make sure that there is no voter fraud. One of them is purging the voter rolls every two years,” said Rudd, explaining that purging the records ensures that “people that are on the voter rolls are actually living where they’re supposed to be living, are registered to vote and that they have residency to vote in the precinct that they’re in.”

Hutchings said the county “has had some pretty clean elections,” but questioned the security of electronic vote tallies and the accuracy of Idaho voter rolls.

“The feds have asked us to turn over our voter rolls, and for some reason, we’ve decided we’re not gonna do that,” said Hutchings. “I don’t know if we feel like we have something to hide, or if we’re just doing it to be obstinate, but if the feds want to look at our voter rolls … let them look at them.”

Rudd disagreed, saying that voter rolls contain “sensitive information” entrusted to the Clerk’s Office.

“[The] personal, sensitive information that you have given to your county office as a voter in Bonner County has no business just being sent willy-nilly to the federal government,” said Rudd. “I love the current administration, but they are not allowed to just come in here and bully voter rolls out of any county, much less the state.”

The question of weighing personal property rights against public health came up in multiple forms, with incumbent Dist. 2 Commissioner Asia Williams and challenger Jeff Roberts agreeing that private property rights have limitations.

“I believe your land is your kingdom,” said Roberts. “Anything within those borders of your property should be free for you to utilize as you see fit, as long as you don’t impact your neighbor in a negative way [or] create an extra tax burden or additional burdens on county resources.” 

He further cited strain on area emergency services and light, noise and dust pollution as considerations when ruling on land use. Williams added that it is the commissioners’ job to follow Idaho’s Local Land Use Planning Act, the county’s Comprehensive Plan and sub-area plans when considering land use applications, as well as to take into account all public input.

“When you look at the decisions I have made when it comes to property rights, you will see that I have paid attention to the impacts to every last one of your properties that have come through my review, to ensure that one person doesn’t benefit greater than another person when they’re coming and requesting to do something that’s different than what their property is zoned as,” said Williams.

Candidates in both races were asked about accepting federal grant money. Rudd and Hutchings both clarified that the Clerk’s Office has no say in whether the county accepts or applies for grants, but, if elected, they would ensure all money is properly stewarded and spent. Williams and Roberts agreed that the county shouldn’t be “dependent” on grants, but Williams conceded that some grants are necessary to maintain county infrastructure.

Roberts argued that Bonner County should not have accepted American Rescue Plan Act funds, as, “We saw such an infringement on constitutional rights” by the federal government through the COVID-19 pandemic. He further disagreed with a May 5 vote by Williams to open bids for a heated building to house airport snow removal equipment — a project to be 97.5% paid for by a Federal Aviation Administration grant.

“The county only had to pay a small portion of that, but that’s still taxpayer money, that’s still growing government and spending money here locally, and giving a nod to the feds, saying, ‘Yes, continue to tax American citizens. Can you just send that money to Bonner County?’” said Roberts.

Williams clarified that she also opposed ARPA, but that the previous board voted to accept funds before she took office. Further, she maintained that institutions like the airport “unfortunately” require grants so the burden doesn’t fall solely on county taxpayers.

“The moment that Bonner County decided that we wanted an airport, that meant that you were going to be accepting grant funds,” said Williams.

“I actually studied and became a grant writer and grant writer consultant so that I could make sure that Bonner County doesn’t get entangled in things that we don’t want as a community,” she added.

Commissioner candidates also weighed in on the future of the Bonner County Fairgrounds, both emphasizing the importance of public input. Williams added that the Fair Board requested her as its liaison, and that she is currently working to help create the fair’s five-year plan, ensure that all meetings are streamed via Zoom and elect new board members with financial experience.