East Idaho Elects: Meet the two candidates competing for District 33 Senate seat
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IDAHO FALLS — Local residents have their choice of two candidates to represent them in Legislative District 33 in the Idaho Senate. Incumbent Tony Potts and challenger Dave Lent.
Rep. Tony Potts
After being appointed to the Idaho legislature in 2017, Sen. Tony Potts is up for election in the district.
Growing up, Potts moved around the country. While attending school at Brigham Young University-Idaho, he and his wife moved to Idaho Falls and decided they wanted to stay.
“I always thought I would run for office,” Potts told EastIdahoNews.com. “I just thought it would be a little later in life.”
He said he wasn’t sure what to expect when he first arrived at the legislature but decided he was going to get to work as soon as he got there.
“I learned a lot the first year,” he said. “I think we got some great things done. Obviously, one of the largest tax cuts in the history of the state of Idaho.”
He said one of the biggest things he wants to work on if re-elected is deregulation.
“We got to make sure that we just get out of the way,” Potts explained. “People that have businesses know how to be successful. People that run our school districts know how to be successful. So, we’ve got to get rid of regulation that’s stopping that. We’ve got to make sure that we give local control back to our school boards.”
He said that people tend to think that because Idaho is ranked 49 in school funding that it ranks that low in student test scores as well. He said Idaho’s students score around the national average.
“I think that we’re doing well with the resources that we’ve got but we could always definitely do more to improve the learning process,” Potts said.
He said he also hopes to tackle the grocery tax during the next session.
“It’s money that’s coming in that’s not going anywhere,” he explained. “We need to give that back to the people.”
Potts said he wants to be available to the people of Idaho Falls, regardless of party.
“It truly has been a pleasure to serve the people of Idaho Falls,” he said. “I look forward to doing it again.”
Learn more about Tony Potts at pottsforidaho.com.
Dave Lent
Dave Lent spent much of his childhood working in his father’s gas station in Shelley where he grew up. Lent said he is uniquely qualified to address some of Idaho’s education issues.
Lent works at INL as the director of training for Fluor Idaho. For the past 12 years, he has been a member of the District 91 School Board.
“In my perspective, from the school board and by profession, being responsible for the other end of training in industry, I have a very unique perspective of the whole process,” Lent told EastIdahoNews.com. “I essentially see K (kindergarten) through nuclear facility operations.”
He said that perspective is what makes him uniquely qualified to help Idaho’s education program get to where it needs to be.
“We’re looking at designing some programs at the College of Eastern Idaho that would be direct feeders (into the workforce),” Lent explained. “My goal is to tie those all the way back into high school so that we’ve got high school kids that are tracking towards high paying technical jobs at the INL.”
He said the end result of these kinds of career technical programs would be long term, sustained economic growth through better paying jobs.
“There’s probably no one in the state that has the credentials and background that I do that’s going to be in the legislature,” Lent said.
Lent was the chairman of the District 91 School Board when Compass Academy was created and when the bond to build a number of elementary schools and modernize local high schools was passed.
“I am an advocate for flexibility and options for parents and students,” he said. “I realize that not every school is the best for every student. My goal is for parents and students to have the right options so students can excel academically and as they prepare for their careers.”
Learn more about Dave Lent at lent4idaho.com.