Because of statewide redistricting, the district boundaries for Legislative District 9 shifted, putting two incumbents against each other in the Republican Primary for one of the Idaho House of Representatives seats.
Here's what voters need to know about each candidate ahead of Election Day:
Rep. Judy Boyle
Rep. Judy Boyle of Midvale is running for her eighth term in the Idaho House of Representatives.
Her experience before becoming a representative includes working for Congresswoman Chenoweth as the director of Natural Resources, serving as a substitute state senator and working for the Farm Bureau. She originally ran for the Legislature after working to fill a vacancy.
"I've always been the person to run around and find candidates. And you have to fill three — you have to have three people and we could only find two," she said.
Eventually, this led to her putting her name in. The governor appoints these replacements and did not pick Boyle.
"Then I was encouraged to run and I did and I beat the incumbent," said Boyle.
If re-elected, her top priorities would include protecting individual rights and the constitution.
"Every year we review rules that the bureaucracy writes and there's always laws that need to be tweaked that we're finding," Boyle said.
Being on the Education, Agriculture and Resources and Conservation Committees, these issues are also a focus for Boyle.
As Idaho News 6 reported, during the 2022 session Boyle introduced a bill seeking to bring parents to the forefront of curriculum decisions. It requires school districts to create a curriculum adoption committee made up of 12 people, including six parents from the district.
The bill ultimately passed and became law after facing pushback from some over concerns of unintended consequences and possible difficulty rural school districts might face in complying.
On property taxes, she said it's a local issue, but one that is becoming a concern for the Legislature because of how many Idahoans are concerned. Boyle said there was an opportunity to address the issue during the 2022 Session.
"We did $600 Million that went to income tax reduction but I think the rest should've gone to property tax," she said.
Boyle expects the surplus to be even larger in 2023 and recommends using some of that surplus for property tax relief. Another solution is reducing mandates on local governments.
"We do have a lot of mandates for the cities and the counties and we need to reduce those so they don't have to continue with higher and higher taxes."
Rep. Scott Syme
Rep. Scott Syme of Caldwell is an army veteran, a realtor, has a small farm and is now running for his fourth term in the Idaho House of Representatives.
He said he was excited when he saw the new District 9 map after redistricting.
"I'm going home. This is who I am. This is where I grew up," he said.
If re-elected, his top priorities would be repealing the sales tax on food known as the grocery tax and lowering property taxes and crime.
"I know people that are having to sell because they are being taxed out of their homes," Syme said.
He said he'll work to move a bill forward that he introduced during the 2022 session.
House Bill 817 would create a tax-free food committee that would decide what foods are exempt from sales tax.
"Taking the tax off of groceries is good for some people, the grocery tax credit is good for others, so it's a really difficult issue to deal with."
On property taxes, he wants to work with local officials.
"I'm going to work with the assessor there in Canyon County and the assessors in Payette and Washington County to see what their ideas are as far as reducing the burden on folks," Syme said.
On crime, he said he's working with local police departments and the Office of Emergency Management.
"They have an interoperability unit there. So I'm working with them to get them to make sure that the Payette County Police can actually talk from there car to another car from another county," he said. "And also so they can talk to Oregon."
Syme also said that as a member of the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee, he ensures police are getting the funding they need.
