Idaho House narrowly passes bill banning legislators from also holding certain local elected offices
Idaho Gov. Brad Little gives his annual State of the State address on Jan. 6, 2025, on the House floor at the Statehouse in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)
The Idaho House on Tuesday passed a bill to ban Idahoans elected to state or federal offices — including the Idaho Legislature — from simultaneously serving in elected city, school or highway district positions.
House Bill 362, sponsored by Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, would automatically vacate local elected offices that officials hold when they swear into elected federal, statewide, or legislative offices.
Several state legislators have served in local offices while in the Idaho Legislature, which is a part-time Legislature that typically only meets during the first few months of the year.
Ehardt's bill is a modified version of a similar bill she brought last year, House Bill 497. That bill narrowly passed the House, by one vote, but did not advance in the Senate.
The Idaho House passed the new bill on a wider 43-27 vote on Tuesday, after about 10 minutes of debate.
Ehardt said she and several other lawmakers see the bill as addressing 'divided loyalty.'
'We really feel like if you're serving here, you should serve here,' Ehardt said. 'It also ends up creating a consolidation of power. And I don't think any of that's ever really good.'
The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. To become law, Idaho bills must pass the House and Senate, and avoid the governor's veto.
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Following concerns from the Idaho Association of Cities about the bill's impact on small communities, Ehardt told the House that the new bill offers several exceptions to the automatic vacancy trigger for officials from small communities, such as for elected positions in:
Cities with less than 1,000 population;
School districts with less than 500 students enrolled; and
Highway districts 'located primarily' in a county with less than 10,000 population.
If passed into law, the bill would take effect July 1, 2026.
Rep. Rick Cheatum, R-Pocatello, serves on Pocatello City Council, and voted against the bill.
Serving in both offices 'has been very advantageous for both the city and my service to the three counties that I serve to have the information and the knowledge that I've obtained in doing both jobs,' he told the House.
'This bill would not affect me, unless I seek re-election to City Council this next year. But I think it's wrong to carve out small cities and say 'It's OK,' and tell folks in bigger communities that 'It's not to serve both ways and give part of your life to your community,'' Cheatum said.
Echoing concerns he raised in a committee hearing on the bill on Friday, Rep. Todd Achilles, D-Boise, argued the bill violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by treating officials differently based on numbers for small communities that lack an 'empirical justification.'
'The thing that gives me the most pause with this bill — is that we're canceling a citizen's vote. We're overriding the votes of Idahoans who are voting in a school district, highway district or city council because of some arbitrary delineation of the size of those entities,' Achilles said. 'And what that means is that this Legislature is saying 'We know better than those voters.''
As she closed debate on her bill, Ehardt pushed back on that notion.
'There's no voter suppression here. What we're actually asking is that we, as with the rest of the options, if you look through that section, we eliminate the ability to serve in different areas all the time,' she said. 'For example, you cannot serve here — and I know it's a little more extreme, you can't serve here and also serve federally.'
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At least two current Idaho state lawmakers hold local elected offices that could be affected by the bill.
Rep. Cheatum serves on Pocatello City Council. And Rep. Chris Bruce, R-Kuna, serves on the Kuna City Council.
Ehardt was first appointed to the Idaho Legislature in December 2017, after she lost a runoff race for Idaho Falls mayor, Local News 8 reported, and as her first term on Idaho Falls City Council was coming to an end, East Idaho News reported. She won the 2018 general election for the Legislature and is in her fifth legislative term.
Some current and former lawmakers resigned from local elected offices soon after winning state legislative seats.
After being elected to the Idaho Legislature in November 2022, Rep. Dan Garner, R-Clifton, resigned from the West Side school board, the Preston Citizen newspaper reported.
In November 2022, newly elected Rep. Josh Wheeler, R-Ammon, resigned from Ammon City Council — after being elected to the Legislature, East Idaho News reported. That same month, newly elected Sen. Treg Bernt, R-Meridian, resigned from the Meridian City Council after being elected to the Legislature, BoiseDev reported.
In 2021, Bellevue Mayor Ned Burns was appointed to the Legislature as a Democrat, KIVI-TV reported. Former Rep. Burns resigned as mayor in January 2022, the Idaho Mountain Express newspaper reported. He lost his legislative seat in the November 2024 election.
Some former lawmakers have also simultaneously held local elected offices while in the Idaho Legislature.
Former Rep. Thyra Stevenson, a Lewiston Republican who died in 2020, served as a city councilor while in the Legislature. Former Sen. Dan Johnson, a Republican, served as Lewiston's mayor while in the Legislature.
Former Rep. Colin Nash, D-Boise, had a substitute in the Idaho Legislature in 2024 while he served on the Boise City council.
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