Idaho Statesman Identifies The Common Interest as one of 2007 Session's Top Movers & Shakers

On April 1, 2007, the Idaho Statesman ran a front page article by Greg Hahn entitled "The Session's Movers and Shakers: Every year at the Statehouse, a few folks rise to the top."

Number two on the list was The Common Interest. Under the heading, "True Bipartisanship Can be Uncommon" Greg Hahn wrote:

Former Harvard professor Keith Allred set out two years ago to found "The Common Interest," a bipartisan group of moderates, and to find it -- that intersection of party line and pragmatism that he thought could cut through the political grandstanding and produce good state policy.

Last year, Allred and his group seized on an idea Democrats loved but Republicans had always opposed -- tying the value of the homeowner's exemption to the rising price of houses in the state. Allred helped convince many Republicans, and the measure passed.

This year, Allred focused on primary elections, at first to stop some conservative Republicans from fully closing primaries to just registered party members. But Allred called his former colleagues at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and learned that studies show partially closed primaries produce elected officials who are more in line politically with the districts they represent.

This time, legislative Democrats opposed The Common Interest.

The fate of Allred and his group may lie in how he continues to walk those party lines.