Election heats up at first Legislative Debate
David Pace
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – With three weeks to go until the May 19 primary election, voters heard directly from candidates running for Legislature in Legislative District 32 Tuesday at Compass Academy.
The debate, organized in part by the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber, featured face-to-face discussion of issues including housing affordability, education funding, medical marijuana, and water rights in Idaho.
Legislative District 32 Seat B incumbent Erin Bingham and candidate Brian McKellar disagreed over whether Medicaid expansion should be maintained or repealed.Brian McKellar: “They talked about cutting Medicaid expansion, which I know is a tough thing to swallow here, but it would have saved us $150 million. It would have made all the school budgets, it would have made the protection budgets, it would have made the transportation budgets whole, but our legislat[ors] couldn’t get around it. So what happened? We made cuts to every other service.”
Erin Bingham: “My opponent wants to cut Medicaid expansion. However, they have the votes to cut Medicaid expansion, and they still didn’t cut it. And why is that? Because it doesn’t save money. So Medicaid expansion was created for the working poor. The state pays 10 percent of that cost, and the federal government pays the remaining 90 percent.”
In the race for Seat A, incumbent Stephanie Mickelsen and candidate Kelly Golden contrasted on immigration.
Stephanie Mickelsen: “When they start disparaging the farmers and the dairy farmers in this state, and calling them slave owners, I’m going to stand up and to say something because that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Every employer that has been in business for any time at all knows that they have to fill out and keep I-9s and make sure that the people that are working for them are legal.”
Kelly Golden: “If it were up to me, I would love to see Idaho with 100% legal, vetted workforce by 2030. Now, that doesn’t mean no immigrant labor. That means legal, vetted labor. Because of the variety of industry that we have in Idaho, we’re positioned in our country to be able to help figure this out to lead the way, to not fall behind and let the feds figure it out.”
We’ll have more coverage of the Bonneville County Coroner’s race from Tuesday’s debate later this week.
A second debate with candidates from Legislative Districts 33 and 35 will be held on Thursday at 6 PM at Compass Academy.
Legislative District 32 candidates debate Tuesday at Compass Academy.