Democrat Jayson Meline running against incumbent Republican Dan Garner to represent Legislative District 28

POCATELLO — A Democratic challenger is running against an incumbent Republican state representative for Legislative District 28, Seat B.

The seat has a two-year term. District 28 encompasses parts of Pocatello and Chubbuck and Bannock, Power and Franklin counties.

Dan Garner currently holds the seat. Details about his campaign are available here.

Jayson Meline is running to replace him. Garner did not provide responses to EastIdahoNews.com.

EastIdahoNews.com sent the same eight questions to each county candidate. Their responses, listed below, were required to be 250 words or less. EastIdahoNews.com is publishing the answers in their entirety, without any grammatical or style editing.

The general election is Nov. 5.

Candidate Questions & Responses

Tell us about yourself — include information about your family, career, education, volunteer work, and any prior experience in public office.

Meline: I am a father, grandfather, uncle, and son in a great family. I completed my education in Pocatello School District 25, Brigham Young University-Provo, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Arizona State University, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. My educational background consisted of finance, international relations, judicial interpretation-translation, forensic linguistics, public administration. I have worked for corporations, in government, the non profit sector, and small business. At present, I work in the insurance industry. I have never sought or held public office.

Why are you seeking political office? Briefly explain your political platform.

Meline: My platform is to be a listener first to those in my district with an open and independent mindset; and less ideology to build constructive consensus across various interests.

I support the legislature’s role to effectively manage and be true stewards over growth including resources to preserve Idaho’s autonomy regarding management of water resources.

I want the legislature to preserve; not infringe upon local control whether it be libraries, housing, managing growth.

I will advocate for education, particularly for parents with special needs children and the schools’ ability to meet their IEP needs.

What are the greatest challenges facing people and communities in your district? What is your plan to meet those challenges?

Meline: Overall, inflation combined with population growth to include affordable housing over recent years and the ability to preserve a rural way of life they can sustain as well as provide education in a time of accelerated disruption and change that best prepares their children.

There are conflicts on land use with local government councils and planning & zoning commissions that affects private property rights, environmental impact, and population density. There are questions on land ownership, acquisition by out-of-state legal entities and what their intentions are with the land they are acquiring.

• a) Do not turn down federal funding available that is not entangling; yet provides vital resources in a State where over 60% of the land is under federal control and limits development and tax base. This is evident with funding for special needs children the legislature turned down that would have helped school districts meet IEP needs of special needs children.
• b) Continue to suppport Idaho Launch and other post-secondary education programs for our workforce and economic development.
• c) The legislature has passed some legislation to preserve agricultural land. I would continue to investigate other means with oversight in collaboration with local governments on how to secure resources for land management to preserve agriculture for our nation’s food supply.

Have you seen any mistakes made by the Idaho Legislature in recent years? How would you work to correct these errors?

Meline: Yes. Too many to count due to fanaticism, zealotry, and ideology within the legislature.

How would you work to correct these errors?

I would apply less polarizing ideology in setting the legislature’s priorities and approaches to the issues we face.

The infamous library bill that included private right of action violated local control. The law demonstrates lack of trust of local communities and the individual to address concerns regarding materials from patrons. It encourages litigation with associated costs as opposed to mediated solutions at the local level. In the end it was an approved solution looking for a problem. A perfect example of zealous ideology being applied as opposed to balance and practicality. The law needs repealed.

What parts of the state budget could use more funding? Are there places in the budget where cuts could be made?

Meline: Education will always be a constant investment. Vocational rehabilitation needs a strong review and potential increase given the reported 4.5 million shortfall reported at the end of the legislative session.

There can always be opportunity for cuts and savings in a budget regardless of revenue projections or departments. Legislative oversight over State budgets across departments and agencies with an expectation of gaining at least 10% operational efficiency annually can go a long way to limiting spending even with inflation or for a growing State such as Idaho

What is your position on Idaho’s Proposition 1 ballot initiative that would end closed-party primary elections and create ranked-choice voting?

Meline: I support the initiative. There is nothing in either the State or US Constitution that requires membership in a party to vote.

The right of political association is not greater than the right of the individual to vote regardless of their party membership, or decision to be non-affiliated.

We need greater and open competition where the voters truly pick the candidates and parties; not the parties and candidates picking who they want as voters under closed primaries.

Good and balanced representation comes from more participation and constructive competition from a greater pool of candidates voters can choose in an open format, not a closed one.

What is your position on Gov. Brad Little using Idaho State Police resources to bolster security at the United States southern border? How does illegal immigration impact the constituents in your district?

Meline: In terms of ISP being trained on signs of human smuggling and trafficking interdiction combined with the ancillary issue of effective narcotics trafficking, I see that as productive use of resources to help ISP be more effective.

However, I do view sending the ISP did nothing to bolster security at the southern border and served more as political symbolism to appease a specific ideology with the governor’s own party than tacit protection of the border.

Immigration, illegal or legal, has multi-faceted impact in District 28. Many employers rely upon migrant labor to operate industry with no viable means to obtain in a timely, cost effective, and efficient manner H1A/H1B visas for their workers based on limited cuotas set at the federal level.

Many rural communities throughout District 28 have maintained populations in large part due to migrants, both legal and illegal, that have started businesses and raised families over a long period of time in rural areas of District 28.

Schools can be impacted with limited to non-proficient learners of the English language. Fortunately, many school districts within District 28 have well established bilingual programs incorporated into their schools to enhance learning; that do not create an impediment for all learners.

There is a consensus within migrant populations as well as the general population to follow the law, including immigration. However, given the federal government’s inability to respond in a comprehensive way to immigration, there is a tremendous amount of contradiction everyone can see within District 28 in terms of illegal immigration as far as its impact and potential solutions.

A battle over the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer recharge led to a temporary water curtailment for thousands of acres of farmland in 2024. How should the Legislature respond to this issue?

Meline: The deadline set by Governor Little for irrigation and water districts is coming up right at the time of the election. It will be interesting to see what the stakeholders with the Department of Water Resources propose. The legislature will want to give all attention to the outcome of their negotations over the last several months in forming plans of action within the role of the legislature and be prepared with appropriation and needed legislation to support hopefully a consensus driven solution. One issue that needs addressed is not determining curtailment after crops are planted to prevent the issues this past spring with strategic long term approaches driven by objective data not political ideology.