BOISE — Rep. Bryan Zollinger, R-Idaho Falls, has announced that he will be one of two co-chairman of the new Idaho House Freedom Caucus. Rep. Mike Kingsley, R-Lewiston, will be the other co-chairman.
The two held a meeting with reporters in the press room at the Capitol to announce the idea.
“We have great ideas, but they’re never going to go anywhere,” Kingsley said, referring to several bills that couldn’t get hearings before House committees.
Zollinger and Kingsley said they hope unifying the House’s conservative wing would mean more clout, making it harder for committee chairmen to refuse to hear their bills.
Zollinger and Kingsley are freshmen who have been aligned with the House’s most conservative wing but haven’t been as eager as others with similar ideology to throw monkey wrenches into the legislative gears.
The two told reporters they have about 12 House members ready to sign up.
At a meeting Monday — open to the press, unlike most caucus meetings — Zollinger said the group is still gathering input on how it should be constituted, how it should act and what it should stand for. As a preliminary guide, he said, the group would use adherence to the Idaho Republican Party’s platform.
“If you’re adhering to the platform, you belong to this group,” he said.
About two-dozen legislators showed up to hear their pitch following the floor session, though some did not appear sympathetic to the cause.
“My fear, in doing something like this, is that what we’re doing is dividing our (Republican) caucus,” said Rep. Janet Trujillo, R-Idaho Falls. “Because we are a caucus, and we’ve had that fracture.”
Rep. Wendy Horman, R-Idaho Falls, said she’s interested in discussing issues between leadership and those lower in the ranks, but she would need a better understanding of what’s required to belong to the group.
“I would love to participate in something like that, but not if it obligates my vote to the caucus,” Horman said.
Those matters haven’t been decided yet, Zollinger said.
Caucuses are groups of lawmakers that meet privately to set their members’ legislative strategy. Both the Republicans and the Democrats have caucuses, and there are also caucuses dealing with specific legislative topics of concern.
But the Idaho House Freedom Caucus represents the first formal split within the House GOP. Though Zollinger and Kingsley say they want to heal, it could allow discontent to turn the Freedom Caucus into a party within a party.
House Speaker Scott Bedke, R-Oakley, attended the meeting as an observer. He spoke at the end, taking a conciliatory tone.
“I understand your frustrations, and they’re real, and they’re valid,” he told the group of representatives.
And Bedke said that perhaps it’s time to re-examine the level of control committee chairmen hold. So-called “personal bills” — bills that are introduced as a courtesy to individual lawmakers, not through the traditional committee hearing system — are generally never heard in the House.
“In any organization, you end up developing sacred cows through the years,” Bedke said, adding that it was healthy to “skewer a cow every now and then — and barbecue it.”
