On Monday I will be filing to run for the Senate Seat in the new District 14.

I have learned a great deal about Idaho’s governance and how it’s intended to serve the citizen’s needs. I’ve also learned of the great deal of wrangling required to work with all the folks in the Legislative and Executive branches in affecting governance to meet those needs. This was a job never on my”bucket list” but I’ve grown because of it over the last 6 years and thank the citizens of Meridian for the opportunity to serve them.

I’ve appreciated being the voice in the House for the citizens of District 20 and now would like the opportunity to focus the skills and experience I’ve garnered as a voice for the citizens of Eagle, Star and Meridian in the Senate. Having served in the Business, Transportation and Defense, Natural Resources and Conservation and Joint Finance and Appropriations committees, as well as, multiple Taskforces through the summer periods for the last 6 years I believe I’ve got a strong foundation to help continue to make Idaho a greater place to live, work and play.

I hope I can count on your continued support.

Ran into some unintended consequenses on the Vet Pref bill (H586), so will be taking it to the amending order for some minor changes and have organized a taskforce over the summer to align what needs to be fixed with all the stakeholders.

Here’s the link to the radio interview I did early morning yesterday about various legislative issues and our Medal of Honor memorial:

We were pretty busy around the Capital yesterday moving a number of bills on the House floor to the Senate, then Transportation & Defense Committee approving some bills to head to the House floor. Finished the evening in meetings and discussions with some County Commissioners and Congressman Labrador working on a pilot program to allow the State management of Forest Service forests…

Early start to the day at 6 am on KIDO radio 580 with Kevin Miller discussing the Medal of Honor HJM7 & other critical bills we are working

Thanks to Mr. Gordon Smith (former CEO of the Simplot Corp) for speaking at this months Wyakin Warrior Seminar Series tonight on his perspective of”What a CEO Looks for in an Employee”. He fielded some great questions with sage wisdom and experience for our attending students.

Completed a number of budgets today in JFAC and identified some issues with our employment system that greatly hinders getting personnel compensation increases to our state workers. Discussion is ongoing on how to fix that. Passed various bills on the House floor, and heard many Fish and Game bills in Committee (all these bills and info are available on the Legislative website: www.legislature.idaho.gov).

The Capital is such a quiet place at 6:30 am… it’s cool how the whole building just starts to come alive as the day wakes…

Ran some supplemental budget requests this morning, now honoring House members that have passed away in the past year in the House..

Good Board of Directors meeting for the Wyakin Warrior Foundation tonight, we decided to open up applications to Purple Heart recipients too