Victory for Conservation Voters of Idaho!
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Competence and a maturing political machine turned out moderate and liberal voters in Boise on Tuesday.
City Councilwoman Maryanne Jordan swamped religious activist Brandi Swindell, as voters chose centrism and experience for the grinding work of transportation planning, managing growth, shielding neighborhoods and saving open space.
Swindell tried to make the Ten Commandments our signature symbol, but Boiseans are more interested in their broader quality of life than a single stone monument.
This contest had its roots in the 2001 Foothills levy, when voters agreed to raise their taxes by $10 million to preserve open space in the Foothills. Next came 2002, when conservationist Democrats captured legislative seats on the Bench and in Northwest Boise. In 2003, Mayor Dave Bieter and Councilwoman Elaine Clegg were elected by a similar coalition.
"We're reaching voters who care about natural places such as the Foothills, clean air, clean water and open space," said Lee Flinn, who led an independent effort on behalf of Jordan and two other council incumbents for Conservation Voters for Idaho.
Flinn targeted 14,000 frequent voters citywide, about 15 percent of registered voters, who got two slick mailers with glowing images of the Foothills, downtown and Ann Morrison Park. One backed Jordan alone, the second endorsed her and incumbents Vern Bisterfeldt and Jerome Mapp.
Bisterfeldt, who had token opposition, won easily. Jim Tibbs, with cross-cutting appeal as a former police chief, human rights activist and hale fellow well met, beat Mapp, who made voters weary after 12 years in office.
Jordan had what Mapp lacked: her own organization, with the experience and savvy to lure voters. More than 100 volunteers made calls Tuesday from a rented room at the Boise Centre on The Grove. They targeted four legislative districts with Democratic senators, 16 in Northwest Boise, 17 on the Bench, 18 in Southeast Boise and 19 in the North End.
Significantly outspent by Tibbs, Mapp ran a relic campaign, with no get-out-the-vote effort Tuesday "because people are sick of it," he told me. Tibbs volunteers started Thursday and called voters through Election Day.
Swindell was overwhelmed in her first campaign, with just a dozen people making calls from her Emerald Street office. She had aid from the Keep the Commandments Coalition, which helped send 26,000 grim flyers displaying a crane lifting the Ten Commandments monument from Julia Davis Park for the move to St. Michael's Cathedral.
But Swindell's activism in the pro-life, anti-birth control, anti-stem cell research movements didn't sell with voters more troubled by Boise's growing pains.
Bryan Fischer, the pastor who formed the Keep the Commandments Coalition with Swindell, wrote on his blog Tuesday, "The North End of Boise will turn out to vote against Ms. Swindell, and her race likely will turn on whether enough pro-family citizens on the west side of town take the trouble to go to the polls."
Instead, Swindell trailed across the city, not just in the naughty North End. Her campaign wasted effort leafleting churches like Capital Christian Center in Meridian, where many folks are ineligible to vote in Boise. Her appeal to church members to call congregants from home and deliver church directories to the campaign also fell flat.
"I think we got one directory," said Jordan Gerke, a Swindell volunteer. "Any attempt to paint this as the Bible thumpers putting Brandi in is just not accurate."
Somehow, Swindell failed to deliver many of the 20,000 people who signed her petition calling for a vote on moving the monument. And she missed other opportunities. Dennis Mansfield, a former congressional candidate popular with evangelicals, was puzzled he wasn't asked for help. "The traditional faith-based network wasn't tapped," Mansfield said.
Even if it had been, voters have established a pattern. They want a well-run city that protects what's best about Boise. That means leadership from consensus builders, not ideologues.
November 9, 2005 | Filed Under: Announcements, Issue Advocacy, Public Financing | Permalink
