By Dorothy Moon, Idaho GOP Chairwoman
Let me fill you in on a couple of recent happenings that might not seem connected at first. Earlier this week, the Idaho Senate defeated a bill that would have made it harder for citizens to sue pesticide manufacturers for injury or disease stemming from their products. Pesticide companies must have been mad about that, because not only did they convince lawmakers to introduce that bill again — with just days left in the session — they hired another lobbying firm to try to push it through the Legislature.
At the same time that this bill was being debated in the Capitol, a plethora of lobbyists and power brokers filed to run for Republican precinct committeemen. I’ve heard that two former chairman of the Idaho Republican Party, who are also lobbyists — one who brought Common Core to Idaho, don’t forget — have done their best to contest as many seats as possible this year. Maybe one of them wants their old job back and hopes to stack the votes at this year’s state convention.
It’s interesting to me, and maybe to you too, that when they opened up their contact list to find candidates, so many of them turned out to be lobbyists and career politicians.
I was elected in 2022 because grassroots Republicans were tired of being represented by members of the political establishment. They were tired of party leaders that were in bed with lobbyists and career politicians and were all too happy to do the bidding of woke corporations that don’t have our best interests at heart.
I’m here to tell you that you have a voice and you have the power. Both the US and Idaho Constitutions recognize that all power is reserved to the people. Do you know what that means? It means that we’re not subjects of a king or a dictator, rather “we the people” are the ultimate authority in our state and our country.
Corporate lobbyists didn’t raise $90,000 for the War Hawk Museum, you did. Corporate lobbyists didn’t work booths at the largest Idaho fairs last summer, you did. Corporate lobbyists didn’t distribute welcome bags to new neighbors, put on Lincoln Day Dinners throughout the state, and host the Republican Presidential Caucus — you did. You are the true grassroots of the Republican Party!
You have the right to choose your lawmakers, your governor, and the leadership of your political party. The GOP is organized from the ground up, not the top down, and this May you will choose whether it answers to the grassroots or to big corporations and their armies of lobbyists.
