Republican Dustin Manwaring and Democrat Mary Shea battle for Pocatello-area in District 29A

POCATELLO — A Democratic challenger is running to replace an incumbent Republican state representative for legislative District 29, Seat A.

The seat has a two-year term. District 29, Seat A encompasses the majority of Pocatello, Chubbuck and a portion of Bannock County.

Dustin Manwaring currently holds the seat. Details about his campaign are available here.

Mary Shea is running to replace him. Click here for details about Shea’s campaign.

EastIdahoNews.com sent the same eight questions to each candidate. Their responses, listed below, were required to be 250 words or less. EastIdahoNews.com is publishing the answers in their entirety, and 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.

Manwaring: I am native to Southeast Idaho and have lived in Pocatello for 15 years. I graduated from Blackfoot High School, earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Utah, and a Juris Doctor from Drake University School of Law. I started and run my own law practice in Pocatello, assisting clients primarily in business, estate planning, and land use. I am the Vice President of Lillian Vallely Youth Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit serving Native American youth, and assist several other local nonprofit boards.

My wife, Whitney and I have two young children. We are active in our church and community. I have served three terms in the Idaho House of Representatives. I was elected by my peers to serve in leadership this term as House Majority Caucus Chairman and I also serve on the Revenue and Taxation, Resources and Conservation, and Transportation and Defense committees.

Shea: I’m Mary Shea, a dedicated trial attorney with over 30 years of experience, with an emphasis on family law and civil rights. I am also a Child Welfare Law Specialist, working in the juvenile court system with our most vulnerable families in Pocatello. I’ve lived in Pocatello for decades, working as a lawyer, a former teacher and department head at ISU, a community advocate, and a small business owner. I’ve led numerous boards and organizations, including Idaho Legal Aid and the Portneuf Health Care Foundation. I’m a mother of three adult children. I love to ski, hike, kayak, and paddleboard in Idaho’s beautiful landscapes. I had the honor and privilege of substituting for Senator James Ruchti at the end of the 2024 legislative session, and I had the opportunity to debate against some bills that are unpopular here in Pocatello. I am ready to serve as Pocatello’s newest Representative, fighting for laws that promote a fair, just, prosperous, and fiscally responsible Idaho – a place where our children and grandchildren will want to stay and thrive.

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

Shea: I am running to move the needle in Idaho, to focus more on the needs of the people, and less on catering to largely out of state billionaire agendas that truly do not reflect our Idaho values.

I am committed to supporting public education, including pushing back on any voucher or tax credit schemes that threaten public education funding; that violate our State constitution; and that lack accountability to taxpayers.

I am focused on amending our extreme laws that are chasing our doctors out of state. The physical, mental, and financial harm they are causing to Idaho mothers and families is unconscionable.

I am also committed to policies that uplift everyone in Idaho, including promoting greater access to mental health and all healthcare services; addressing Idaho’s growing housing unaffordability; finding ways to help working Idahoans thrive economically; and supporting Idaho working families and children.

Manwaring: I am running to protect Idaho families, promote small business, and preserve our natural resources. I always ask whether a law is required to solve the problem or whether there is any other way without government involvement and red tape. I first ran for office to bring a Republican voice from Pocatello to the Idaho Legislature and to ensure that young professionals and those with growing families from the next generation have representation in Boise.

My focus includes a limited and stable income and sales tax system, workforce training and development of skills to keep Idaho students and adults educated and employed in Idaho, and empowering parents in education decisions. I support increasing access to healthcare and working to manage costs of healthcare and childcare for Idaho families. I advocate for strong personal privacy and consumer protections, while promoting the use of new technologies that increase the effectiveness and reduce the cost of government.

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

Manwaring: The key challenges of District 29 are economic uncertainty, healthcare access, and affordable housing. Families and businesses are facing rising living costs and inflationary effects. In rural areas, access to healthcare remains a serious issue, with limited services, and rising insurance costs. Having parent choice in education decisions and addressing mental health and career counseling concerns of children in schools continues to be an important issue.

I have successfully supported a reduction in the individual and corporate income tax rates to reduce financial burdens on families and businesses, while supporting new ways to increase job and income growth, including the Idaho LAUNCH grant program to assist with tuition and provide additional education and skills training.

I support expanding telehealth services to connect rural residents with quality care and promoting competition in the healthcare industry to lower costs for families. I have supported improvements to open enrollment for schools and will continue to look for ways to provide more parent choice in education while working to make sure we improve and meet our responsibility to fully fund our public schools, including more mental health counseling and college and career advising and exploration at an early age.

Shea: As I have been talking to voters, the concerns I hear about most often include the economy and high property taxes; supporting public education including the mental health, behavioral and special education needs of our learners; restoring reproductive rights; and making sure eastern Idaho ranchers and farmers have enough water to operate.

Nearly fifty percent of Pocatello households now qualify as ALICE (Asset limited, income constrained, employed). Families are feeling the effects of housing inflation; food inflation; rising child care costs; the high costs of credit; and wages that just are not keeping up. I will push our statehouse to use every resource we have to provide help to our working families, including fully utilizing federally allocated tax dollars; supporting Medicaid; supporting the ICCP program and working to help make child care more affordable; examining the sales tax and reducing or eliminating the grocery tax; fully funding our public education system; promoting early childhood education; and supporting higher education and vocational training through programs like LAUNCH.

Although the Legislature has worked on property tax relief over the past few years, Bannock County has not seen a significant drop in property taxes; we still have the second highest property tax rates in the State. I will keep pushing the State to meet its funding obligations so the County and taxpayers do not have to keep paying more than their fair share, and I will keep working to make sure Bannock County sees real property tax relief for our citizens.

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

Shea: I have seen our Legislature make a lot of costly mistakes for Idaho.

The Legislature has failed to adequately fund public schools, specifically neglecting facilities and resources for our most challenged learners. I would advocate for equitable funding to meet constitutional and other legal obligations, and I will support sustainable public education solutions.

The Legislature has been focused lately on passing divisive culture war bills that do not meaningfully help Idahoans. Many of them land Idaho in costly litigation, as we lose civil rights cases over and over, costing the State millions of dollars of taxpayer money. I will push against this trend and focus my efforts on legislation intended to uplift all Idahoans.

The Legislature made a big mistake omitting a health exception from our current abortion bans. Our doctors are leaving, and more tell us they will be leaving, because they cannot provide standard of care medicine to pregnant patients. I will work tirelessly to fix this error that is causing real harm to real Idaho mothers and their families. I will also continue my work to support a ballot referendum or initiative on this important issue, because I think Idaho voters should have a say regarding our fundamental reproductive rights and rights to bodily autonomy.

Manwaring: We must figure out how to strike the right balance between upholding our moral commitments to protect the sanctity of life without compromising our foundational values and ensure that medical practitioners have the clarity they need to perform their duties effectively and ethically with respect Idaho’s abortion and invitro fertilization laws. This will provide transparency to reproductive rights and help our health care providers recruit and keep physicians in Idaho and increase access to quality care.

We should do more to collaborate with local healthcare providers to craft policy that balances fiscal responsibility with healthcare access and ensure we are managing care in the most responsible way with respect to cost and delivery. We also need more focus on expanding medical programming and retaining local medical graduates to meet our growing demand and need for medical professionals, including family doctors and specialists.

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

Manwaring: We have a balanced budget in Idaho and cannot spend more than we receive in accordance with the Idaho Constitution. We are careful to budget conservatively and manage growth of government spending. The Idaho budget and appropriation process has evolved into one of the most streamlined and efficient state budget systems in the nation. We spend approximately 39% of our annual budget on health and welfare and 32% on education.

We have recently created a new office the state public defender and the state has taken on more of the burden to pay for and manage public defense, which was a place that needed more funding and to relieve more of the local burden on counties and taxpayers. Each year, the Legislature and the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee carefully review state budget requests and make investments and cuts where necessary to improve services and to meet legislative intent. One recent example was eliminating the cost of the needle exchange program. While the law was intended to reduce the spread of bloodborne diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C, the repeal of the law reflected a legislative decision that this specific harm reduction strategy was not cost effective.

Shea: Idaho needs to address continuing budget gaps in public education funding, including continuing to work to close our $1 billion dollar deferred maintenance backlog; our $80 million dollar special education deficit; and other anticipated significant budget shortfalls created by decades of underfunding. Idaho also needs to commit more resources for mental health and emergency services in our communities.

I would work to utilize federal tax dollars where it makes sense to use them and where grant or other funding requirements are not onerous. For example we could close our Idaho Child Care Program budget gap by tapping into the federal tax dollars allocated to help us pay for that program.

We simply cannot afford to fund a parallel private or homeschool system until or unless we are fully and adequately funding our public education system. I oppose voucher schemes by any name, because of the harm I have seen them cause to state budgets and educational outcomes when implemented in other states.

We should not be spending so much money defending legislation that violates Idahoans’ civil rights. We could save millions of tax dollars by simply stopping that trend.

I support the efforts of Representative Steve Berch to identify sales tax exemptions that may no longer make sense in today’s economy as a possible way to increase state tax revenues.

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

Shea: I support Proposition 1, and I would implement the will of the voters for any ballot initiative that passes constitutional muster. It is only fair that all taxpayers should be allowed to vote in all primary elections regardless of party affiliation. Our current system disenfranchises many voters in very red districts unless they are willing to register as Republicans, which no voter should feel forced to do just to be able to have a voice in who represents them.

Ranked choice voting is not confusing to most of us. It is as simple as counting to four, and it is just an automatic runoff process. Ranked choice voting cannot change the Idaho electorate. That just is not possible. It also does not favor Democrats. It favors any candidate who can appeal to a majority of the voters in the district. RCV may change our campaigns and hopefully our lawmakers for the better. It will require all lawmakers to be responsive to more of their constituents. I think those are good things that Idaho needs a lot more of right now; it is the kind of campaign I am trying to run and the kind of lawmaker I want to be. Idaho is catering too much to special interest groups who represent a minority of our voting population. We are getting a lot of unpopular and unconstitutional laws passed that way. Open primaries and rank choice voting are demonstrated to improve voter engagement and turnout. That is always a good thing.

Manwaring: I am against Proposition 1, which includes a “top four primary” and ranked-choice voting. I believe it will primarily benefit the Democratic Party. It will be costly to implement, is confusing, and will discourage voter participation. This disrupts the way we have also voted in Idaho and the expectation of one-person, one-vote because thousands of ballots will be destroyed in successive rounds of voting.

We should not be making it more difficult to vote or eliminate the party primary process. It is not helpful to voters and does not provide accountability to constituents if candidates must only declare a preferred party for the ballot. Unaffiliated voters may declare a party and vote in the primary, including on Election Day. Proposition 1 will create extended and costly general election campaigns, alienate those with disabilities, and busy parents that work and do not have extra time to spend ranking candidates in the voting booth. Proposition 1 is not a good idea for Idaho and would create more problems than it proposes to solve.

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?

Manwaring: I fully support or state’s decision to allocate funds towards enhancing security at the southern border. The issue goes beyond state boards and directly impacts the safety and well-being of Idahoans. By investing in border security, we proactively combat illegal activities like drug trafficking that affect our state.

The deployment of Idaho State Police troopers to the border also serves an educational purpose, providing them with invaluable training and experience. This training enhances our local law enforcement capabilities, ensuring our police forces are among the best trained in the nation. Additionally, this initiative showcases Idaho’s commitment to national solidarity and shared responsibility among states. Border security is a critical national issue, and the funds allocated are an investment in our nation’s safety, demonstrating Idaho’s leadership in addressing national challenges.

Illegal immigration impacts all of us. It can strain public resources, including education, healthcare, and law enforcement. I will continue to advocate for strong borders and legal immigration and robust visa programs to support our Idaho businesses and families. efficiently while also securing our southern border and protecting the United States.

Shea: I do not support using taxpayer dollars for an optical political stunt, but I do support Idaho using taxpayer dollars to make sure our law enforcement officers have adequate training, skills, and equipment to meet the challenges in our communities. America has faced a crisis at our southern border for the last decade, and I would like to see Congress and our next President embrace bipartisan solutions rather than continue to engage in political theater.

There is also no question that Idaho generally and District 29 in Pocatello specifically are feeling the effects of a fentanyl epidemic. There is no question that human trafficking is a serious problem in Idaho and in my community. As a practicing child welfare lawyer, I see the damage nearly daily. If our state law enforcement officers feel they got valuable additional training to meet those challenges by going to the border, I support the use of that money.

I can say that in my two plus decades of practicing in our local courts, I have never seen any evidence that undocumented immigrants are the ones trafficking humans or narcotics in my community. Most of the fentanyl coming into Idaho has been trafficked by legal US citizens, by the data.

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?

Shea: As western water resources become more scarce, managing the competing demands for our water resources becomes much more challenging. I attended the 2024 Idaho Legislators Water College in August, and we learned about the continuing negotiations between the stakeholders. We also learned about creative and emerging reclamation technologies that may help ease some pressures some time in the future.

I was pleased to see good faith negotiations moving forward, as the stakeholders and the State ultimately agreed to pause and not enforce the curtailment order to allow a better mitigation program to be negotiated fairly. The Idaho legislature should not interfere with the good faith negotiations unless lawmakers must get involved, to protect constituents; to protect livelihoods and the Idaho economy; or to protect our shared water resources. We should allow the good faith negotiations to continue and allow the water rights experts to do their best to manage this limited resource. Ultimately, if Idaho lawmakers must get involved, they need to make sure they dig in to understand fully the positions of all the stakeholders before legislating on such an important issue.

Manwaring: The Legislature should work to codify new agreements that may be reached between the surface and groundwater users to conserve, allocate, and recharge water in the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer (ESPA). This will encourage cooperation, mutual understanding, compliance, and respect for the shared resource. New agreements should consider and respect both: 1) “first in time, first in right” principle for water use; and 2) implementing a state water plan for optimum development of water resources in the public interest. Both requirements are enshrined in our state Constitution and must be respected as part of a long-term solution.

I also support improving the administration of a state water plan by clearly specifying how measurements of the ESPA are calculated and accurately recording the number of irrigated acres and water use. We can also continue to invest in new recharge efforts, expand storage capacity, eliminate leakage in water delivery systems, which all helps to avoid curtailments while continuing to plan for drought years and more demand.