Local man shares what it’s like to serve in city and state government simultaneously and whether it’s happened before
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IDAHO FALLS – For Rick Cheatum, state and local politics are a balancing act.
The 73-year-old Pocatello Republican serves simultaneously as a city councilman and state representative. He’s in his second term on the Pocatello city council and was elected to the state Legislature in Nov. 2022.
Cheatum tells EastIdahoNews.com running for House seat 28A — which includes all of Franklin and Power Counties and a “doughnut” in Bannock County — is something he decided to pursue after his predecessor, Randy Armstrong, decided not to seek re-election.
“I really didn’t want to run against an incumbent conservative,” Cheatum says. “After redistricting, Randy decided not to run and it left a vacant seat. I looked at that and what’s happening in the Legislature — what I consider radical movements that are happening on both the left and the right. I’m a moderate conservative … and I felt like I could be a moderating influence.”
Cheatum was part of the largest group of freshman legislators since 1890 when Idaho became a state. Fifty-one new lawmakers took office in December. The idea of bringing moderate views to the Statehouse was something they all had in common, he says.
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His position on the city council is something he says put him in a unique position to also be an advocate for people in local government.
“There seems to be an attitude by a lot of the folks in Boise … that they know how to run local cities and counties better than the local people do. I disagree with that,” he says. “Many times the issues we’re addressing (on the city and state level) aren’t even closely related but the experience across both seats has been very instructive, and in many of the things we address at the state level, it’s given me an advantage.”
Though his attempts to seek a second political office were not really an issue during the election, Cheatum says he’s gotten some backlash over it since then.
“I’ve had some people who feel I’m taking advantage of the system, I’m double dipping — I’ve heard all those things,” he says. “Frankly, I don’t think they understand how the system works.”
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In August, an EastIdahoNews.com user in Pocatello brought this to our attention and claimed there was a state statute that prohibited candidates from serving on the local and state level at the same time.
But that is not the case. Jared Johnson, Pocatello’s city attorney, says “there is no city ordinance or state code that prohibits a city council member from also serving in the Legislature.”
Earlier this week, EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the attorney general’s office for additional confirmation. They responded by sending us a copy of the AG’s manual on ethics in government. Page 11 of the manual explains “Idaho has no constitutional or statutory provisions prohibiting a state legislator from concurrently holding another public office.”
It goes on to say that even though there is a separation of power between state and local government, the duties of a city councilman “do not clash” with the duties of a state legislator, and therefore, it does not violate the state constitution to serve in two jurisdictions at the same time.
“This office can find no statutory or common law prohibition preventing a city mayor (or councilor) from serving in the Idaho Legislature,” the manual says.
John Iasonides, a deputy director for the State Controller’s Office — which oversees Idaho’s financial affairs — says there are other state legislators who also serve in city government.
Colin Nash, a Boise Democrat, serves concurrently as a city councilman and as a representative for District 16 seat B. Chris Allgood, R-Caldwell, also serves jointly as a state representative and as a member of his local city council.
Maryanne Jordan, another Boise Democrat, served on her city council from 2003 to 2017. She was appointed senator for her district in March 2015, which means she served in both roles at the same time for about two years.
Cheatum says former Pocatello Mayor Roger Chase served jointly in the state Legislature as well.
“In those days, we had a direct flight to Boise out of Pocatello. The city was flying him back and forth for meetings,” says Cheatum. “It is not unprecedented (to hold city and state offices at the same time) and I’m sure it’s happened in other communities across the state before that.”
Still, Cheatum says filling both roles simultaneously is something not many people have done, and it’s not something he recommends for everyone. It keeps him incredibly busy. Between January and March when the Legislature is in session, he puts in 14 hour days on top of his weekly assignments with the city council.
Cheatum’s term on the city council expires in 2025. He hasn’t decided whether he’ll run again, but he is planning to seek another term in the Statehouse in 2024.
From broadcast journalist to public official
Cheatum’s interest in politics stems back to his young adult years. He grew up in Kansas and got a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Kansas. He worked in the radio industry in various capacities throughout the 1970s, one of which included announcing the news.
“That first job I had in Garden City, Kansas, I was the only news person at the station. We were a 5,000-watt AM and a 25,000-watt FM. I covered city council, county commission, school boards, junior college boards — all the local things. I sat through every hour of every meeting, and I got intrigued with local government,” Cheatum recalls.
When he moved to Hutchinson, Kansas, the station he worked for broadcast all city council meetings live. Cheatum’s interest in local government grew even more.
A radio job brought Cheatum to Pocatello in 1977. About three years later, he started working as a car salesman.
He retired from a career in the banking industry in 2017 and decided the time was right to run for city council.
“I wanted to be a part of what was happening in this community. Pocatello’s been good to me … and I wanted to give something back,” Cheatum says. “We’re going to grow. Idaho’s been discovered. Even six years ago we were seeing those trends, and I wanted to have a hand in that.”
And one of his primary goals is to plan for the future. He says one of the biggest needs in Pocatello is to widen the roads and maintain city infrastructure to keep up with growth going forward.
In the Legislature, Cheatum serves on three committees: commerce & human resources, local government, revenue & taxation. Focusing on these areas has been a huge learning experience for him. After participating in his first legislative session, he feels much more qualified to do the job and is eager to put what he’s learned into practice.
“Give me two more years and I’ll have some serious experience, a better way to judge bills and what’s happening over there,” he says. “It’s a lot of work and I think anybody who runs for this position needs to take a really hard look. I am lucky that I (am retired) and don’t have a job. I can spend the time. For a younger person who works full-time, it would be impossible.”
WATCH OUR INTERVIEW WITH CHEATUM IN THE VIDEO ABOVE.