Idaho coalition launches effort to restore abortion rights through ballot initiative
Advocacy group Idahoans United for Women and Families is working to introduce a potential initiative on the 2026 ballot that would restore abortion rights in Idaho.
The organization filed a petition with the Secretary of State’s office Thursday, a first step toward asking Idahoans directly to weigh in on the state’s near-total abortion ban.
Spokesperson Melanie Folwell said the state’s laws don’t reflect its residents’ values.
“It's hard to sit with inaction while we continue to hear about doctors leaving the state. We continue to hear about women in dire medical emergencies,” Folwell told Boise State Public Radio. “We continue to hear about just the difficulties of navigating our state's quite extreme abortion laws.”
The group submitted four initiative proposals that would reinstate abortion access, with one including language protecting contraception and fertility treatment, such as IVF.
The group said it will select one of the four proposals based on feedback. To reach the ballot, the Coalition has to gather signatures representing at least six percent of eligible voters in the most recent election, from at least 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts.
“We are ready to build out the kind of team and volunteer effort across the state to gather to hit that threshold of probably upwards of 70,000 signatures.” Folwell said.
Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office has 20 days to review the petition and recommend changes.
As WA election certification nears, tight races settle out
As votes trickle in from last week’s primary, some tallies have shifted placements, altering who may move on to November’s general election.
In northeast Washington’s seventh legislative district, Andrew Engell’s November opponent is still unclear.
In a tight race for second, Soo-Ing Moody now leads fellow Republican Teagan Levine by 197 votes, though there are still more than 1500 votes to be counted among the five counties that comprise the district.
A close race for second in Washington’s legislative District 4 seems to have settled out.
As of yesterday’s count, current state representative Leonard Christian has 209 more votes than businessman Mike Kelly in the contest for state senator.
Both are Republicans, and with only 25 ballots left to count in Spokane County, it seems that Christian will go on to face Democrat Miguel Valencia.
In congressional District 4, which covers central Washington, incumbent Dan Newhouse has only lost ground to his Trump-backed challenger, Jerrod Sessler.
Sessler now leads by almost 10 percentage points — nearly 15,000 votes.
Tight Spokane County Commission race reflected in ballots, contributions
Spokane County Commissioner Al French, a Republican, is claiming victory in a tight primary election race against his Democratic challenger, Molly Marshall. French overcame a small deficit on Election Night and now has a 700-vote lead — about 51 percent — with few ballots left to count.
The closeness of the race is reflected in the amount of money raised during the campaign.
According to the Washington Public Disclosure Commission, French has a slight lead in fundraising, about $139,000 to Marshall’s $136,000. But Marshall has a nearly two-to-one lead in the number of contributors, 370-to-208.
French reports raising $63,000 from individuals, and an almost equal amount from businesses – many of them in development and real estate – plus nearly $10,000 in political action committee money.
Marshall reports raising $93,000 in individual contributors, nearly $11,000 in PAC money and $17,000 from donors classified as “other.” She also has $7,500 from labor unions.
Marshall has collected checks from many of Spokane’s progressive-leaning elected officials, including Mayor Lisa Brown, Council President Betsy Wilkerson, Democratic County Commissioners Amber Waldref and Chris Jordan, and Carmela Conroy, the likely Democratic nominee for the 5th Congressional District.
French’s contributors include Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley and City Councilman Rod Higgins, former Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward and Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner, the likely Republican nominee for the 5th Congressional District.
The primary election will be certified next week, then the candidates will wage a second campaign until November 5.
Idaho ends year with budget surplus, but future looks thinner
The state of Idaho wrapped up another fiscal year with a budget surplus. The money will go toward property tax reductions - but future surpluses are expected to continue to shrink.
The state closed the fiscal year in June with about $52 million more revenue than predicted. The surplus comes from two sources: sales, income and other taxes, and about $24 million in unspent money from the general fund, according to Division of Financial Management Administrator Lori Wolff.
But tax cuts of recent years also mean revenue forecasts for the current year are basically flat. Wolff told Boise State Public Radio the way lawmakers have shifted some revenue into public schools to potentially reduce the need for bonds and levies should help keep taxes in check, even as future surpluses shrink.
- - -
Reporting was contributed by Julie Luchetta, Owen Henderson, Doug Nadvornick and Troy Oppie.