| Jim Jones | The Hill |
The 2022 general election in Alaska witnessed a dramatic move to the center by most of the candidates and a substantial reduction in divisive partisan posturing. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), who would likely have lost her seat in a winner-take-all GOP primary, retained her seat, and a Democrat, Mary Peltola, won the state’s only House seat. The two endorsed each other in the general election — something that would never have happened under a typical party-controlled election system.
”Nevada approved a voter initiative to establish ranked choice voting.
In 2022 the voters of Nevada, Idaho’s southern neighbor, approved a voter initiative to establish a ranked choice system in that state, despite opposition from both parties. And it is a certainty that Idaho voters will have an opportunity to vote upon a ranked choice system in the 2024 general election. The Idaho Legislature will mount a furious effort to oppose such an initiative. In 2021, legislators enacted a statute making it virtually impossible for the people to exercise their right to initiate legislation, but that legislation was struck down as violating Idaho’s Constitution.
The conflict merchants will do everything else under the sun to frustrate the effort to bring responsibility and pragmatism back to governing in Idaho, but they won’t succeed.
Jim Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served eight years as Idaho attorney general (1983-1991) and 12 years as a justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). He is a regular contributor to The Hill.
