Republican candidates for Idaho governor answer questions at Idaho Falls forum
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IDAHO FALLS — East Idaho residents got the chance to question some of this year’s Republican candidates for governor Wednesday evening at a forum hosted by the nonprofit Stand Up For Idaho.
The educational group describes itself as a “nonpartisan, nondenominational, nonprofit organization striving to inform and educate the public.”
While not all candidates gunning for the Republican nomination were at the event, voters in attendance had the opportunity to hear from Sean Calvert Crystal, Ron James, Mark Fitzpatrick, Lisa Marie and Justin Plante.
The five candidates answered questions about why they are running for governor and what qualifies them for the job, and shared their thoughts on issues like COVID-19, property taxes, cannabis and illegal immigration, religion and moral values.
Stand Up For Idaho said Republican candidate Ethan Giles declined to participate, and incumbent Gov. Brad Little did not respond to an invitation.
Here’s where each of the candidates stands on the issues brought up at the event:
Sean Calvert Crystal
Why are you running for governor?
Sean Calvert Crystal said his campaign, entitled Elevate Idaho, is based on honoring our past, shaping our future, restoring accountability to government, strengthening communities and protecting liberty.
“I’m here to work for Idahoans, not big lobbyists or big PACs, or anything like that. I’m here for you,” he said.
Taxes and other laws
When asked about property taxes, Crystal said he believes they should be phased out gradually.
He also described himself as “anti-masker” when asked about the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Crystal said he did not wear a mask when in public, and he disliked how that made him feel like “Public Enemy No. 1.”
“I walked into Target one day, and almost everybody didn’t wear masks,” he recalled. “The very next day, I was the only person in the store that was not wearing a mask. I was actually scared for my life for the first time in Idaho.”
When asked about cannabis, Crystal said neighboring states make billions on the cannabis industry from Idahoans, so he supports “sensible” cannabis policy. At one point, he and Plante debated over what should be done. When Plante proposed a 22% tax on cannabis products, Crystal said he did not agree with that because it is too high.
Idaho values and belief in God
When an audience member asked if the candidates “look to God for guidance,” Crystal said he is a nondenominational Christian and believes in the separation of church and state.
Ron James
Why are you running for governor?
Ron James, a current Teton County commissioner, said he believes Idaho’s government is “archaic” and out of step with the growth the state is seeing. He said the state is withholding needed funds from counties, and he wants to implement a 4% lodging fee on short-term rentals throughout the state.
“Especially (with) the rainy day fund; for Boise, they’re sitting on $1.3 billion a year in tax revenue — just sitting there,” James said. “Meanwhile, hospitals aren’t funded, our roads aren’t funded, our schools aren’t funded.”
Taxes and other laws
James said he doesn’t like how Gov. Little handled the COVID-19 pandemic, which he believes was never an emergency and was blown out of proportion. He said he never wore a mask when mask mandates were in place, and he only received one COVID-19 vaccination.
James said he is also in favor of legalizing marijuana.
Idaho values and belief in God
When asked what he thinks Idaho values are, James pointed to his local community in Teton County as an example. He said Idaho values are evident in how county residents come together despite their differences.
Regarding the question of whether he looks to God for guidance, James said he was raised a Southern Baptist. Then he shared an example of when he’s called on God for help.
When he was elected in Teton County, James said he “turned a blue county red,” and the resulting “persecution was relentless.”
“I stayed up many a night questioning myself if God put me in that position for a reason,” he recalled.
Mark Fitzpatrick
Why are you running for governor?
Mark Fitzpatrick said he is a retired police officer, an entrepreneur and the owner of Old State Saloon. He pointed out that his saloon has been in the news for hosting Heterosexual Awesomeness Month and offering a bounty for incriminating information on Boise Mayor Lauren McLean.
Fitzpatrick said he’s running for governor because he wants Brad Little out of office. He claimed that through his own investigations, he has found fraud in Idaho’s state government.
“We’ve also had to undergo the socialist agenda that has dramatically affected our society, including things as wicked as the transgender and queer agendas, CRT (critical race theory), DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) — and this was all under his governorship, and he did very little,” Fitzpatrick said.
Taxes and other laws
When asked about property taxes, Fitzpatrick said he thinks taxation is theft meant to “enslave us to a wicked government.”
Answering a question about how COVID-19 was handled, Fitzpatrick said Little never should have given himself emergency powers.
“Under my governorship, I will rally the people and the Legislature to create limitations on the governor’s office to basically be able to continue emergency orders like that,” he said.
Fitzpatrick said he never obeyed any mask mandates and was not vaccinated against COVID-19. He said he was “aggressively telling people to not comply with the scam.”
Fitzpatrick also said if he is elected governor, he will rally people behind bills that rid the state of “the massive amount of illegals that are here.”
He said he is not in favor of legalizing marijuana, as he believes doing so will lead to more teens using it.
Idaho values and belief in God
When asked if he looks to God for guidance, Fitzpatrick said God showed him that he wanted him to run for governor.
“I said, ‘God, would you please show me if I’m supposed to run?” Fitzpatrick said. “If this is something I should do, would you show me? And if not, would you close the door and make it very obvious? Well, in the next several weeks, he made it very obvious I was supposed to run.”
He also said he believes Idaho’s traditional values are under attack. “In the past several years, we’ve even got to the point where half-naked men are in libraries, they’re dressed as women. They’re reading books to children, and we are supposed to be celebrating this?” he questioned.
Fitzpatrick said if elected, he would work to cut the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, as he believes there is fraud in the department.
Lisa Marie
Why are you running for governor?
In listing her credentials for governor, Lisa Marie said she founded a drink company called ReddRox, which she said was “bigger than Gatorade.”
She also said she decided to run for governor to help Idaho’s missing children. She said Idaho has a consistent average of 30-60 children reported missing at any given time, and her platform seems largely based on stopping this. She also said candidates for office need more background checks.
“This isn’t about missing children,” Marie said. “Why are they going missing? And I’d like for you to really think about that.”
Answering another question, Marie said she believes there are probably 10 people running the state of Idaho.
“You’re being lied to by these people, and they’re in your backyard,” Marie said. “Don’t be afraid of them. I’m not going to sit here and start naming them off; I probably won’t make it to my car without being shot (if I do).”
Marie has previously run for governor and for U.S. representative. She has also run for sheriff in Ada County. “When I ran for sheriff, I had six warrants out for my arrest, paid $40 — no background checks, no polygraph test,” she said.
Taxes and other laws
When asked about property taxes, Marie said the “extreme elites” are not paying their fair share.
Regarding COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, Marie said there is a plant from South Africa called Rooibos that could help hydrate people, which she said was the biggest problem for those with COVID-19. She said she had been working to get large shipments of the plant’s concentrate to Idaho, but they were blocked by state officials.
“These are the people that are making decisions for you right now,” Marie said.
Idaho values and belief in God
When asked what Idaho values are, Marie said she loves that Idahoans can get along.
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Justin Plante
Why are you running for governor?
Justin Plante said he is originally from Colorado, and what he saw with population growth and farming in Colorado is now happening in Idaho.
“Housing developments popped up everywhere. It crowds out one farmer; they add more houses. It crowds out another ranch; you get more houses. We’re seeing the same thing here,” Plante said.
Plante said he is a mechanic, not a politician, so he’s created a repair manual for the government that includes audits, transparency, citizens’ task forces and accountability.
Taxes and other laws
Plante said he couldn’t promise to do away with property taxes, but he said he believes that by working together and electing the right officials, a change might be possible.
Plante said he didn’t like how state leaders handled the COVID-19 pandemic. When asked, he said he never wore a mask or got a vaccine and called himself a “pure blood.”
When it comes to how the state deals with undocumented immigrants, Plante said jobs that currently have a large undocumented workforce should have programs in place to fill those jobs in other ways, such as utilizing the Idaho Department of Correction.
Plante also said that while he wasn’t a fan of drugs, it doesn’t make sense that Idahoans can access legal cannabis in neighboring states and Idaho sees no money for it.
“The way I look at it, the state might as well make some money instead of us footing the bill for all the roads into Jackpot, into Montana, into Oregon,” Plante said.
He and Crystal debated over what should be done, and Plante was in favor of a 22% tax on cannabis products.
Idaho values and belief in God
Plante said he thinks having Idaho values means working together as communities and keeping farmland as farmland.
When asked whether he looks to God for guidance, Plante said he likes to keep his religion out of politics because, as governor, he would need to talk to everybody and hear everybody equally.
