We were in the hunt to prevail with The Common Interest position on primary elections until the very last days of the legislative session. While we did not prevail this session, many influential leaders think we ultimately will on this issue. We also received extensive press coverage of our work and substantially added to our reputation and influence. For example, in the Idaho Statesman's front page Sunday article on the sessions movers and shakers, we were listed number 2. For more details, read my session report.

The results are in for our members' choice of issues to work on in 2007: election reform, K-12 education, and healthcare. Here's the full report on our results. --Keith

We're ready to choose our 2007 legislative issues. Here's are descriptions of the issues from which we'll choose. --Keith

With the polls now closing in northern Idaho there are many ballots yet to be counted. But we know for certain that it has been a remarkable experience for The Common Interest. In response to some of the most negative and misleading campaigning that Idaho has seen, Idahoans embraced our practical, substantive, non-partisan approach. Since we posted our voter information 10 days ago we’ve set several new records. We crossed the 1,000 members mark and now have 1,024 members. We had the record number of visits to our website in a single day (725 on Oct 30; our previous record was 517 on May 7). We had the record number of visits to our website in a single week (2,485; our previous record was 1,576). We had a total of 3,786 visits to our website, showing that are reach is far beyond even our 1,000+ members

Although the press coverage clearly helped spread the word, it’s been clear that most of this big response has come from you letting your friends and family know about our voter information. Many thanks for your help. Keith

We did it folks! One week before the Nov. 7 election, The Common Interest surged through its goal of having 1,000 members by the time the polls closed on election day. The pace of new members joining quickened when we posted our voter information over the weekend. What we’re seeing at The Common Interest confirms what has been splashed across news reports in recent weeks. There is a rising interest in Idaho and in the rest of the country for a practical approach to the problems we face, an approach that emphasizes substance over partisanship. After we posted our voter information on the website you all started e-mailing the link to your family and friends. And they seemed to like the objective, substantive look we’ve turned on issues that too often become the target of shrill partisan and special interest politics. Thanks to all of you who helped make this happen. It's going to be exciting to see what the future holds for us. Keith

Governor Jim Risch is convening a special session of the Legislature on Friday, August 25, to consider a new proposal to eliminate the school property tax and raise the sales tax 1 cent. Click here to see the information that we will provide to Legislators on this issue. The proposal will be placed on the November ballot for an advisory vote if it passes. In that event, we'll provide a 3-5 page brief on the issue as part of our voter information.

Keith

The polls for today's primary election are now closed and The Common Interest has completed another of the commitments made when we launched. Since we posted our voter information page on May 14, we've had over 2,500 visits to our website. We're proud of that voter information and have received many compliments. It's one of the most complete voter information pages in the state. In addition to complete scorecard information about how incumbents voted on issues on which we took positions, we provided opportunities for incumbents to explain those votes. We also had many challengers respond to our questionnaire about how they would have voted on our issues and explain their votes. Beyond scorecard information, we provided considerable supplementary materials on candidates.

Two of the best websites for tracking the results are the Secretary of State's website and Boise's Channel 7 website.

Keith

Dan Popkey wrote very positively about us in his widely-read column in the Sunday edition of the Idaho Statesman. In preparation for the piece, he attended a gathering of members in our home and spoke with Legislators about their views on us. It's clear that we're gaining an excellent reputation in the state.

Click here to read his column.

I hope you'll send the link to friends and family who might be interested in us. We had 47 new members join within 36 hours of this hitting newstands.

If it's easier for you, here's the full link: http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060507/NEWS010702/60507001/1002/NEWS01

On Monday, April 17, the Governor signed the last of the proposals we supported this year. Though each victory was in question right up to the end, the signing made it official: THE COMMON INTEREST SCORED THREE MAJOR VICTORIES THIS SESSION. Here are the highlights.

1. Substantial, Lasting Property Tax Relief for Homeowners: In recent years, homeowners have carried an increasingly disproportionate share of the Idaho property tax burden providing a windfall to business, agricultural, and other special interests. In spite of strong opposition from these special interests, the most powerful in the state, this inequity will be addressed through a substantial increase in the Homeowner’s Exemption (HOE). We played a major role in making that happen. In spite of even stronger opposition from the same powerful groups, your HOE will not only receive a one-time increase, but will also increase each year at the same rate that Idaho home values increase. Here, we played the decisive role. Indexing the HOE to the Idaho House Price Index was The Common Interest’s idea for maintaining equity between homeowners and other property owners into the future. Our analysis indicated that the inequity arose because homes have increased in value much more rapidly than other categories of property and because their value is assessed using different methods than those used for other categories of property. The relevant Senate committee found our analysis compelling, and so recommended the Idaho House Price Index amendment. That analysis and the overwhelming support of our members for this approach secured its victory through multiple, dramatic rounds when many thought that special interests would defeat it. This year and in every coming year, Idaho homeowners will not pay more, and other property owners will not pay less, than their fair share of property taxes, because of The Common Interest. This is undoubtedly our biggest accomplishment to date.

2. Much Stronger Requirements that Legislative Committees Remain Open to the Public: Rules that allowed legislative committees to close their meetings to the public for any reason have been replaced by new rules that allow closing to the public only under specified, extraordinary circumstances, such as to discuss pending litigation or security threats. Again, we played the decisive role. In fact, The Common Interest actually suggested much of the language in the new rules. I believe that Idaho now has the best policy for legislative committee openness of the 11 western states. Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis concluded his closing arguments for the new rule by saying, “the independent group The Common Interest strongly supports this new rule” and then read from the letter I had sent to all senators expressing our views.

3. New Protections for Your Property Rights Against Government Abuse of the Power of Eminent Domain: Last year in the Kelo decision, the Supreme Court upheld a move by New London, Connecticut, to take a number of well-maintained homes and sell them to developers of a new, privately owned, high-end conference and business center. We played a major role in getting four bills passed into law that will prevent the same type of thing occurring in Idaho and that will provide additional protections against abuses of the power of eminent domain. In the case of one bill, our preliminary questions helped lead to modifications that improved it substantially. In the case of three other bills, our overwhelming support helped them get out of committee when it looked like they might not, and helped them secure the Governor’s signature when it looked like he might veto them.

This record of achievement proves that when common citizens take the time and effort to become engaged in a thoughtful and organized way, we can triumph over partisan and special interest politics. Government by the people triumphed in the Idaho Statehouse this year.

These victories would not have been possible without your strong support. The positions we advocated this session were the result of approximately 1,000 hours that you as members spent reviewing your assigned issues and recording your views on the website. Many of you also took the extra step of personally contacting members of the Legislature or the Governor’s office and sharing your views. On both the property tax and eminent domain issues, I believe your personal contacts gave the final push necessary to secure victory in what were very hard fought battles.

Our success is not only reflected in concrete legislative victories, but in the striking increase in the credibility and clout we have in the state now generally. I’m stunned by how far we’ve come so quickly.

We have little time to rest on our recent victories. The primary election is just over a month away on May 23. One of the main reasons that we have elected officials in the past who are more extreme ideologically than we are as a people is because of low voter turnout, particularly in the primaries. The research is clear—when voter turnout is low, it is the “true believers” on the hard right and hard left who tend to vote while the more moderate and independent minded tend to stay at home. As primary voter turnout has decreased, the number of independent-minded candidates to choose from in the general election has decreased.

To help correct this trend, voting in the primary election was one of the two commitments you made when you joined The Common Interest. Please be sure to vote on May 23. Please also encourage your friends and family to do the same and refer them to our website for voter information. This also presents a great opportunity to invite friends and family to join our organization.

The length of the legislative session (3rd longest in history) has left us little time, but we are now calculating legislative scorecards for candidates and preparing to post the information on the website.

Your voluntary donations will help provide the resources necessary to provide this voter information. You can donate by sending a check (make checks out to The Common Interest, send to PO Box 1964, Eagle, ID, 83616) or with your credit card right here on the website.

It has been a real privilege to join with you in accomplishing so much in so little time. Many thanks for your interest and support.

Keith

We had an interesting and successful first legislative session. Since we were less than two months old when the session began, I viewed this session as an opportunity to demonstrate who we are and how we work. Accordingly, we focused on producing high quality briefing materials and representing the views of our members to the legislature. We began to build a solid reputation on these accounts. We were remarkably well received by members of the legislature and by the press. We received praise on our briefing materials from many sources and saw them quoted a number of times in legislative floor debates.

At least on the Qwest issue, we also turned out to have a surprisingly strong influence on the vote. Qwest had proposed that the state no longer regulate the price of local telephone service. Qwest argued that the rise of cell phones created sufficient competition that they were no longer a protected monopoly. They had proposed a similar measure last year, which was defeated by one vote in the Senate. Since, by all accounts, the bill had been substantially improved over last year to address many legislators' greatest concerns, and since Qwest was the largest donor in legislative campaigns last fall and had personally lobbied most of the legislators, the conventional wisdom held that Qwest's bill would pass rather easily this year.

In our research on the issue, we identified five rigorous national studies that found that about 5 ½ % - 6% of American households had "cut the cord" of their landline phone to rely exclusively on their cell phone. A somewhat smaller percentage, about 5%, of Idaho households, have done the same. After reviewing this and other information provided in the briefing materials, 92% of the 105 randomly chosen members of The Common Interest assigned to the issue said that they were opposed to the measure. You can review the full briefing materials and our members' views on it at by clicking here: http://thecommoninterest.org/Issue.aspx?iid=5.

Although our briefing materials were available to House members and were cited extensively in the floor debate, we didn't have our members' views in hand in advance of the House floor vote. The House easily passed the measure 48 to 22. Three days after that vote, we announced that 92% of our members assigned to this issue were opposed and that The Common Interest was therefore officially opposing the measure.

A short time later, I testified in the Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on the issue. I reviewed the evidence in our briefing materials with them, indicated that 92% of our members were opposed, and encouraged them to vote against it. Then a very interesting thing happened. Chairman Burtenshaw indicated that he would entertain a motion on whether the measure should be sent to the floor of the Senate, but his words were followed by a long moment of silence. This was surprising because everyone expected that Qwest would have lined up one senator to make the motion and another to second it. As the silence continued, the senators began to look at each other as if to say, "You make the motion; I don't want to make the motion." Finally, the motion was made and seconded and the vote taken. The result? 5 to 4 in favor of the bill.

Surprised at how close the committee vote was, I began to think the bill might yet be defeated on the floor of the Senate. I e-mailed all the members who had been assigned to the issue to explain the situation and encourage them to contact their senator. In contrast to the way political parties and special interest groups usually operate, I also encouraged the 8% of our members who were in favor of the bill to contact their senator as well. I then began reviewing our briefing materials and the views of our members with individual senators. It was becoming clear that the more we talked to senators, the closer the vote was getting. Finally, in one of the most dramatic moments of the legislative session, the Senate vote on the bill split evenly, 17 to 17. Lt. Governor Jim Risch then broke the tie in favor of Qwest.

It was frustrating to come so close and not have our members' position prevail. Nevertheless, I was still amazed that the vote was as close as it was. I'm convinced that the measure would not have come this close to being defeated without us. I think this should give us all real encouragement. If we continue to grow this organization, the voice of the common people for the common interest can prevail over special interests.

We felt equally pleased with our briefing materials on the question of financial support for K - 12 education. The Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee (JFAC) recommended a budget for K-12 education that was 2.2% higher than last year for a school system that is expected to educate 2.1% more students in the coming year. 82% of the members assigned to this issue opposed that level of funding as too low. 69% also opposed the governor's recommended increase of 3.6% as too low. Members were split on Superintendent of Instruction Marilyn Howard's recommend increase of 8.8%. 3% of our members thought that was too little, 53% supported that level, and 44% opposed it as being too much. You can review the briefing materials and our members' views on this issue by clicking here: http://thecommoninterest.org/Issue.aspx?iid=6

K-12 education funding is split up into several separate bills, each of which passed both the House and the Senate by wide margins. We might have had more influence had we managed to get our briefing materials out soon enough to take positions before JFAC set its recommended budgets. Even so, it would have been tough to change the outcome, particularly in a year of very constrained budgets. We will have to become a much larger and more influential organization before we can significantly influence the education budget.

The last issue our members picked to investigate this year was the proposal in the Senate to adopt a rule similar to one in the House that allows legislative committees to close their meetings to the public for any reason as long as two-thirds of the committee members vote to close them. The Senate approved this measure shortly after we had chosen our three issues and before we had a chance to brief and vote on the issue. I e-mailed the members assigned to this issue and suggested that we postpone the briefing and voting process on this issue until after the end of the session. Accordingly, we are currently developing the briefing materials on this issue. I recently had a very productive interview with Senator Bart Davis, the Senate Majority Leader who sponsored the bill. I came away from the discussion convinced that there is real potential for us to have influence on this issue.

Many thanks to all our members for a lot of hard work. The most exciting moments of the last legislative session were sending out e-mails notifying our members that the briefing materials were available and then watching as their responses came in. When we all joined the organization, we committed to give an hour of our time to review a pressing legislative issue. I can't express how encouraging it was to see so many of our members fulfill that commitment by reviewing the briefing materials. I was particularly impressed by how thoughtful and insightful members' open-ended comments were. I've come away from our first legislative session with a renewed faith in our shared vision of government by the people and a renewed energy for working to more fully realize that vision. It is a great privilege to join with all of you in that effort. Thanks to all of you for making our first season a success!

The three issues which we will brief and then poll our members on this year are:

1. Closed Legislative Committee Meetings
2. K – 12 Education Funding
3. Qwest Proposal to Deregulate the Telephone Industry

We are currently developing the briefing materials for each of these issues. Even before we complete the briefing materials, each of you will soon receive an email notifying you which issue you’ve been assigned. This will allow members who wish to begin following and researching their issue to do so.

On Monday we held a press conference to announce these three issues. Excellent articles appeared Tuesday in the Idaho Statesman and the Spokesman-Review (The Spokane, Washington paper widely read in northern Idaho). The Associated Press ran a wire story on us that was picked up by the Lewiston Tribune on Wednesday. Several of you have emailed to tell me that you’ve heard coverage on various radio stations. Two talk show radio programs have invited us to be on their program. Members in the Sandpoint area can tune in to KSPT 1400 AM and KBFI 1450 AM on Monday, February 21 from 12:15 – 1:00 pm. Members in the Lewiston area can tune into KRLC 1350 AM on Wednesday, March 2 from 10:30 – 11:00 am.

More than a dozen members came to the press conference. Many thanks to each of you. Thoughtful statements by Wendell Martin and Anne Hutchinson are quoted in the Statesman article.

You can read the Idaho Statesman article at:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050215/NEWS06/502150345/1056

The Spokesman-Review and Lewiston Morning Tribune articles are available online if you have a subscription or are willing to pay for an online subscription. The Spokesman-Review article can be found at:
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/idaho/topstory.asp?ID=54106

The Lewiston Tribune article can be found at:
http://www.lmtribune.com/02162005/northwes/233571.php

In our first session of the legislature we plan to do our briefing and polling process on 2 – 3 issues. In the next few weeks we’ll randomly assign some members to help us pick those 2 – 3 issues from a list of 10 – 20 issues with short descriptions of each. We’ll then develop the briefing materials for those 2 – 3 issues and assign every member to one of those issues, probably sometime in February. Members will then have a week or two to review the briefing materials and share their views. I doubt that we’ll have a lot of influence this session, but I think we will be able to demonstrate that we are a credible organization that provides voice to common citizens without any hidden agendas.

We’re starting to appear on the media’s radar screen. We will be featured on NPR radio stations in southwestern and southcentral Idaho this Fri, Jan 13 at 5:30 – 6:00 pm. I was interviewed by BSU President Bob Kustra for his New Horizons in Education program. The program will also be available after Fri on News 91’s website: http://radio.boisestate.edu/stations/npr/NewHorizons.asp.

Then on Thur, Jan 20 at 8:30 pm mst/7:30 pm pst – 9:00 pm mst/8:00 pm pst we will be featured on Idaho Public Television’s Dialogue program. Thanks to members Stephanie Binder-Kitz and Jerry Baltzell for joining me on the show. The program will be aired again on Sun, Jan. 23 at 5:30 pm mst/4:30 pm pst and then will be available on their website: http://idahoptv.org/dialogue/recentupcoming.cfm. Tune in and tell others! It looks like more media coverage will be coming. KTVB Channel 7 in Boise has expressed interest in doing a show. The Lewiston Tribune interviewed me. Other papers are considering doing editorials on us. Let me know if you see media coverage on usby emailing me at KeithAllred@TheCommonInterest.org.

Republicans, Democrats and Independents join together today to launch THE COMMON INTEREST. On this day 141 years ago Lincoln called on the nation to overcome its internal divisions by renewing its commitment to “government by the people.” Frustrated by one of the nastiest elections in memory and by the dominance of special interests, we take up Lincoln’s challenge today, vowing to give a stronger voice to the people’s demands for government that serves the broad common interest.

Come back to this blog in the days ahead to track the progress of this new effort to promote government By the People.