Let Idahoans decide

By Kent Ivanoff
Reader Contributor

In business, I believe the best ideas rise to the top. It’s the foundation of a free market — an open arena where innovation, competition and consumer choice determine success.

As an entrepreneur, I’ve relied on the power of this principle firsthand. It’s why I’m passionate about the Open Primaries Initiative (Proposition 1). 

Just as the marketplace should be open to all who want to compete — especially those with innovative ideas — our political system should be open to every Idahoan who wants a say in the direction of our state.

Kent Ivanoff. Courtesy photo.

I was raised, educated and built most of my professional career in Idaho. But I’ve been frustrated by changes in our political landscape over the past decade. The politics and policies of the state I love have become increasingly foreign to me — hijacked by a vocal, powerful minority. They’re exploiting a closed-primary system to exert control and push a narrow, polarizing agenda that is out of touch with mainstream Idaho.

In the free-market business world, entrepreneurs chase innovative ideas that disrupt markets and generate better outcomes than incumbents. If you aren’t significantly better than the status quo, your business fails. 

It’s simple: You experiment and learn to find the innovations that work. And if you earn enough breakthrough wins, you get to transform a market.

Before launching my previous company, my partners and I recognized that more than 80% of major hospital networks used one, dated patient billing software. Because of their monopoly, that company grew complacent and patients saw increasingly poor outcomes. So we collaborated with leading health systems across the country to develop a solution that matched the needs of today’s health care consumer.

Our solution was far better than the incumbent’s. We offered patients transparency, choice and control for the first time in the U.S. health care market — and they loved it.

This ballot initiative mirrors those key elements.

Closed primaries enable complacency, which has allowed a small minority of powerful special interest groups within the Republican Party to seize control and drive a top-down agenda. It’s like a monopoly incumbent telling a market what it needs rather than an innovator listening and then responding to consumer needs.

There’s no pathway for change until we offer all Idahoans the chance to have a stronger voice through open primary elections and use general elections to ensure lawmakers are held accountable to their constituents. Proposition 1 is the disruptive innovation that can drive those outcomes.

I’ve voted Republican my entire life. But traditional Idaho conservatives like me have been pushed aside by political elites who are actively building barriers to prevent the true competition of ideas. 

It’s outrageous and it’s time to do something about it.

That’s why I support Proposition 1. This citizen-led initiative seeks to restore our free-market ideals of choice and competition into Idaho’s political process. It has the potential to be a game changer for our state. 

Let’s get back to an Idaho where the voters, not political elites, have the final say on how our state runs. Just like the marketplace where consumers determine the success of a business, it should be the people of Idaho who determine the success of ideas like Proposition 1.

In the end, it’s not about what party you belong to — it’s about ensuring every Idahoan has a voice so the very best ideas win.

Kent Ivanoff is a product of Idaho public schools and an entrepreneur who has co-founded multiple businesses, including VisitPay and American Direct Credit, both of which were ultimately acquired by publicly traded companies including R1 and Capital One Financial, respectively.