Idaho Main Street or Dead End?
What’s really behind the “Main Street Caucus”
By Brian Almon
Just before the 2023 legislative session, conservative Republicans unveiled the Idaho Freedom Caucus (IDFC). Not only did this create the opportunity for conservatives to work together to promote good policy, it also tapped into a network of state legislators throughout the country who were pursuing the same goals.
Moderate and liberal Republicans struck back a few months later, unveiling the Main Street Caucus (MSC). Despite its name, these lawmakers are not centrist at all, but represent the far left wing of the Idaho GOP.
Using the Idaho Freedom Index as a metric, members of the Idaho Freedom Caucus are more than 50 points more conservative than members of the Main Street Caucus. The MSC is nearly 25 points more liberal than the average unaffiliated Republican.
While the IDFC lists twelve public members on its website, the MSC does not list any affiliated members. In August of 2023, however, 25 members of the MSC publicly signed an editorial calling for “better disagreement” in politics. I’ve used that editorial to determine caucus membership on the Primary Pulse as well as to calculate average scores.
What if you don’t trust the Freedom Index? Maybe you think it’s too libertarian or doesn’t reflect conservative principles. I disagree, but for the sake of argument I calculated the same averages based on the Institute for Legislative Analysis’ Idaho GOP Platform Rating as well. The results were more or less the same. The Main Street Caucus is not even moderate; their members are clearly to the left of the average Idaho Republican.
According to the Main Street Caucus, Republicans should be solely focused on the economy. Its members shy away from culture war issues to the point where many of them voted against keeping harmful materials out of the hands of children, banning child gender mutilation, and prohibiting public funds from being used for gender transition. They were also not concerned with cities and counties imposing mask mandates, with MSC member Sen. Jim Guthrie holding a bill prohibiting such in his drawer in Senate State Affairs while MSC member Sen. Abby Lee joined the Democrats to kill a bill that would have restricted the authority of health districts.
In 2023, the Legislature passed H71, banning child gender mutilation. Six Republicans joined the Democrats in opposition to this bill — Rep. Matt Bundy and Sens. Treg Bernt, Linda Hartgen, Geoff Schroeder, and Julie VanOrden. All six are public members of the Main Street Caucus.
So long as GDP goes up and unemployment goes down, members of the MSC expect you to be satisfied. They are absolutely not concerned about indoctrination in public schools, the breakdown of public morality and the misery that has ensued, or what kind of world we’re leaving for our children. Like the Bill Clinton campaign in 1992, they want you to accept that “it’s the economy, stupid!”
It’s not clear what “conservative principles” the Main Street Caucus actually holds. I’m sure if you asked one of its members he or she might say low taxes or keeping government out of the private sector. However, the MSC certainly supports government subsidies of the private sector. Rather than training their own employees, big businesses in Idaho instead donate to politicians and PACs who then divert tax dollars their way, using high school graduates as the bag men. Remember Rep. Megan Blanksma explaining that the purpose of the Launch Grant was to provide a certain business owner — who donated a lot of money to the governor — with trained employees?
Blanksma does not publicly identify as a member of the Main Street Caucus, but its membership overwhelmingly supported the Launch Grant, which passed with less than a majority of Idaho Republicans. This theme — members of the MSC working together with Democrats to support progressive legislation — is the story of the recent session.
Consider how Democrat priorities such as forcing insurers to reimburse for six months of contraception not only received committee hearings, but were passed and signed into law, while conservative priorities, such as banning DEI in state-run universities, were held in committee drawers. I’ve heard from people in the room who believe that members of the MSC actively coordinated with Democrats to kill good conservative bills such as Sen. Brian Lenney’s anti-SLAPP legislation. I’ve also heard anecdotes about members of the MSC conspiring with Democratic leadership to whip votes one way or another during floor debates.
So what exactly is the Main Street Caucus? Is it a PAC? Apparently not. Someone registered the MSC’s domain name idahomainstreet.com in May of 2023 and filed articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State in July. “Mainstreet Idaho Caucus, Inc.” is a corporation founded by Rep. Josh Wheeler, with Gretchen Clelland, Brian Garrett, and Jeff Sayer on its board of directors. The filing was handled by Smith & Malek PLLC, a partner of which, Luke Malek, initially filed for lieutenant governor in 2022 and has donated to many establishment candidates.
I’ve been told that membership in the Main Street Caucus costs $1,000, which seems to line up with the Sunshine Report:
As you can see, Sen. Guthrie, Mark Harris, and Dave Lent each gave $1,000 to the MSC, along with Reps. Greg Lanting, Jerald Raymond, Julie Yamamoto, Rick Cheatum, and Stephanie Mickelsen.
The full list of lawmakers who signed the August 2023 editorial, however, includes more than those eight:
It is unclear if all public members of the MSC made the same contribution and only those eight reported it, or perhaps the $1,000 buys something above and beyond mere membership.
The structure of Mainstreet Idaho Caucus, Inc. raises some questions. Any group that engages in electioneering must report its donations and expenditures to the Secretary of State, which is why many political advocacy organizations stop short of urging you to vote for or against a candidate. Idaho Freedom Action, for example, urges viewers to call this or that lawmaker and express their disapproval of the way in which he or she voted.
Yet isn’t a corporation engaged in political speech whose members are the legislators themselves implicitly engaged in electioneering? I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not sure how that works. Rep. Vito Barbieri drafted a bill last month that would define such organizations as political action committees, but despite passing the House it was unilaterally killed by — guess who? — Senate State Affairs Chairman Jim Guthrie, a public member of the Main Street Caucus.
One could argue that the Senate simply had no time to take up H744, but committee chairs always manage to get things done when they truly want to. The same committee fast-tracked a resolution condemning racism when an alleged incident in Coeur d’Alene was in the news.
One would think that members of the Main Street Caucus, which would have been affected by this bill, would have declared a conflict of interest according to House Rule 80, but none did.
The MSC produces a podcast hosted by Executive Director Brennan Summers. Last year they interviewed Cong. Mike Simpson, who appears to be allied with the MSC, or possibly even involved in its founding. Summers worked for Simpson starting in 2018, and was described in Idaho Falls Magazine as Simpson’s “point man” in his district.
Cong. Simpson is a member of the national Main Street Caucus. While members disavow the term moderate, they publicly state their goal of a “fiscally responsible and socially inclusive” Republican Party. I’m not sure if there is direct coordination between the national Main Street Caucus and Idaho’s little club, but they appear to be on the same ideological page, at least. Like its national counterpart, the Idaho MSC constantly votes in favor of left wing social policies while supporting taxpayer handouts to big businesses.
There has long been a push within the Republican Party to ignore social issues in favor of fiscal conservatism, but the Main Street Caucus is not even that. Its support of subsidies like Launch and regulations like six months of contraception show that its members are no friends to the free market either. Instead, they act on behalf of the big corporations who have cornered the market and bought the government. Every public member of the Main Street Caucus has been endorsed by the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry.
This is just the beginning. It appears that the Main Street Caucus is actively working to defeat conservative legislators and elect more of its own, despite not reporting anything to the Secretary of State. Stay tuned!