Posted on Oct 30, 2022
Greater Idaho organizers face a new foe: Growing apathy
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In the same place where thousands of voters once affirmed one of Greater Idaho’s first electoral victories, Mike McCarter wondered why more people weren’t continuing to show up to voice their support.
Two years ago, Union County voters approved a ballot measure that mandated the Union County Board of Commissioners meet the second Wednesday of every February, June and October to discuss only one topic: moving Union County from Oregon to Idaho.
More than 7,000 Union County voters approved the measure in the Nov. 3, 2020, election. By the time the commissioners convened on Oct. 12, it was their sixth meeting since the measure passed. McCarter, the president of Citizens of Greater Idaho, spoke to an in-person audience of about a half-dozen people.
“We’ve got a meeting going on this morning,” he said. “And you would think that if this is an important issue that the room would be packed. So there’s some resistance out there.”
McCarter and his group have spent the past several years backing ballot measures meant to build public support for an expanded, “greater” Idaho that would extend its western border to the Cascade Mountains. A divorce between rural Oregon and the Willamette Valley, the thinking goes, would allow Eastern Oregon and parts of central and Southern Oregon to align themselves with a state that shares much of rural Oregon’s conservative politics and culture.
Two years ago, Union County voters approved a ballot measure that mandated the Union County Board of Commissioners meet the second Wednesday of every February, June and October to discuss only one topic: moving Union County from Oregon to Idaho.
More than 7,000 Union County voters approved the measure in the Nov. 3, 2020, election. By the time the commissioners convened on Oct. 12, it was their sixth meeting since the measure passed. McCarter, the president of Citizens of Greater Idaho, spoke to an in-person audience of about a half-dozen people.
“We’ve got a meeting going on this morning,” he said. “And you would think that if this is an important issue that the room would be packed. So there’s some resistance out there.”
McCarter and his group have spent the past several years backing ballot measures meant to build public support for an expanded, “greater” Idaho that would extend its western border to the Cascade Mountains. A divorce between rural Oregon and the Willamette Valley, the thinking goes, would allow Eastern Oregon and parts of central and Southern Oregon to align themselves with a state that shares much of rural Oregon’s conservative politics and culture.
Greater Idaho organizers face a new foe: Growing apathy
Posted from opb.org
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Greater Idaho has gotten further with the Idaho Legislature. In 2021, an Idaho Senate committee hosted a hearing on the proposal. But the reaction from Idaho legislators was mixed, with some senators having the same questions Oregon officials did about the differences in policies.
Union County isn’t receiving much guidance from Idaho either. Commissioner Paul Anderes said he sent a letter to Idaho Gov. Brad Little four times to get his thoughts on the matter and has yet to hear back.
Greater Idaho also isn’t finding much solace in a potential Christine Drazan governorship. At an Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association forum in August, the Republican candidate for Oregon governor echoed many of Greater Idaho’s talking points before pivoting to the need to create a “unified Oregon.”
“There is a lack of understanding from Salem about what it really means to live in the rural parts of the state,” she said. “And a lot of the proposals that are rammed down their throats are not workable, not welcome, and nobody in Salem has been accommodating enough to recognize that we need to be a unified Oregon.”
McCarter was skeptical of this approach.
“There’s a desire to bring both sides back together,” he said. “I don’t know how that’s going to work. It hasn’t happened in the past with it.”
Back in La Grande, Union County commissioners occasionally chimed in with their own logistical questions for McCarter. Commissioner Matt Scarfo asked how long before Greater Idaho achieved its goal.
McCarter said he couldn’t provide a timeline, but he did promise that Greater Idaho would continue its mission of adjoining rural Oregon to Idaho beyond ballot measures.
“I don’t know what’s going to come up in front of us,” he said. “But I can tell you that the greater Idaho movement is not going to stop. We’re not giving up. Even when we run out of counties, and we’ve got all the county votes and everything else.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how a Greater Idaho question made it to the ballot in 2022. It was referred to voters by collecting and submitting signatures through the initiative process."
..."Greater Idaho has gotten further with the Idaho Legislature. In 2021, an Idaho Senate committee hosted a hearing on the proposal. But the reaction from Idaho legislators was mixed, with some senators having the same questions Oregon officials did about the differences in policies.
Union County isn’t receiving much guidance from Idaho either. Commissioner Paul Anderes said he sent a letter to Idaho Gov. Brad Little four times to get his thoughts on the matter and has yet to hear back.
Greater Idaho also isn’t finding much solace in a potential Christine Drazan governorship. At an Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association forum in August, the Republican candidate for Oregon governor echoed many of Greater Idaho’s talking points before pivoting to the need to create a “unified Oregon.”
“There is a lack of understanding from Salem about what it really means to live in the rural parts of the state,” she said. “And a lot of the proposals that are rammed down their throats are not workable, not welcome, and nobody in Salem has been accommodating enough to recognize that we need to be a unified Oregon.”
McCarter was skeptical of this approach.
“There’s a desire to bring both sides back together,” he said. “I don’t know how that’s going to work. It hasn’t happened in the past with it.”
Back in La Grande, Union County commissioners occasionally chimed in with their own logistical questions for McCarter. Commissioner Matt Scarfo asked how long before Greater Idaho achieved its goal.
McCarter said he couldn’t provide a timeline, but he did promise that Greater Idaho would continue its mission of adjoining rural Oregon to Idaho beyond ballot measures.
“I don’t know what’s going to come up in front of us,” he said. “But I can tell you that the greater Idaho movement is not going to stop. We’re not giving up. Even when we run out of counties, and we’ve got all the county votes and everything else.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated how a Greater Idaho question made it to the ballot in 2022. It was referred to voters by collecting and submitting signatures through the initiative process."
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