Out-of-state groups think influencing Idaho politics is ‘cheap.’ Lawmakers want transparency

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Lawmakers made stark warnings Friday about out-of-state money in Idaho elections.

Last year’s election cycle saw “unprecedented” amounts of out-of-state campaign spending, Senate Majority Leader Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, said at a press conference. Large expenditures focused on attack ads and — this legislative session — on introducing bills that “were not going to go anywhere and (would) jam up our system,” added Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa.

“Idahoans need to wake up and see how this out-of-state money is really hurting the process of legislation in Idaho,” Anthon said. “It’s going to hurt our policymaking. It’s going to hurt our politics, and, ultimately, it’s really going to hurt Idaho.”

Lawmakers introduced two bills in the House State Affairs Committee — of which Crane is the chairman — to change campaign finance transparency rules in Idaho. Existing state law is “very dated,” said Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane, a fellow Republican.

The bills aim to increase the frequency and detail of reporting out-of-state donations, as well as lobbyists’ spending. They also would increase limits on individuals’ campaign contributions and simplify the donation reporting process.

Idahoans for Open Primaries was the biggest spender in the 2024 election, according to the Secretary of State’s campaign finance tracking website. The group received nearly $5.6 million in donations — $4.5 million of which came from out of state.

Idaho Federation for Children PAC — with ties to the Maryland-based American Federation for Children, the top pro-school choice group in the country — received $560,000 in out-of-state funding in 2024, according to the campaign finance site.

Increasing the frequency of reporting will help lawmakers see who paid for an attack ad, and also allow voters to see who mailed them a campaign flyer, McGrane said.

“I think Idahoans have a right to know who’s trying to influence them in their opinions,” he said.

Out-of-state campaign spending a nationwide trend

Idaho isn’t the only state adjusting to the increasing “monetization of politics,” as Crane put it during the press conference. But Idaho saw a particularly large spike in the 2024 election cycle, lawmakers said.

Special-interest groups may believe their dollars go further in Idaho than in other states — that “it’s cheap to get control” here, House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, said at the event. Plus, McGrane said, as people move to Idaho from other states, they may bring their politics and strategies with them.

“A lot of the people that are moving here are fleeing from somewhere else where it’s been really bad, and they’re afraid that what they left is going to happen in Idaho,” Moyle said. “So now you have these out-of-state groups playing on that. They’re trying to utilize that as a source of revenue.”

Both bills were introduced unanimously, which clears the way for the committee to hold public hearings in the near future. Crane asked the committee to hold the bills for two weeks to allow for them to be discussed in caucus and “percolate” among lawmakers.

New bills to combat libel against candidates, ballot fraud

In the same committee meeting, lawmakers introduced bills to make libel a “felony crime” and to allow political candidates who believe they have been libeled to submit the material to the Secretary of State Office. If the secretary of state found the claims to be false, the office would publish its findings on its website, according to the proposal. The committee voted unanimously to give both bills a public hearing.

Lawmakers also held a public hearing for a bill that would increase the security of ballots and make them harder to tamper with, counterfeit or duplicate, while avoiding tying the ballots to specific voters’ identities. County clerks from Ada, Canyon and Kootenai counties testified in favor of the bill.

Reporter Ian Max Stevenson contributed.

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