Voters go to polls Tuesday

Voters will go to the polls next Tuesday to cast ballots in either Democratic or Republican races in the May 20 Idaho Primary Election.

In addition, voters in the Glenns Ferry School District will decide the fate of a $500,000 per year supplemental levy and voters in the Bruneau-Grand View School District will be given a second chance to approve a $600,000 per year supplemental levy. All supplemental levies are for a maximum of two years. The Bruneau-Grand View levy attempt failed earlier this year.

Idaho's GOP primary is closed -- meaning only registered Republicans can participate -- while the Democratic primary is open to all. Under Idaho's new closed primary law, however anyone who is unaffiliated -- not already registered as a Democrat, Constitution Party member or Libertarian -- can make a declaration of affiliation at the polls and vote. Fifty-nine percent of Idaho voters are unaffiliated. The deadline to change party affiliations, for those who have already declarled, has passed.

Voters also may register at the polls if they have not done so in advance.

On election day, all voters must provide a photo identification before they will be allowed to vote. Each voter will receive only one party-affiliated ballot for either Democratic or Republican candidates.

In addition, each voter (from either party) will be able to vote for unaffiliated races, such as the various judgeships up for election.

Locally, there are primary challenges only on the Republican ballot for two county commissioner seats, and one legislative seat, plus nine of the 18 Republican Central Committee positions are seeing challenges.

The central committee races are a microcosm of the battle going on for control of the state party through the central committees. On one side are Republicans who tend to favor the more ideologically pure Tea Party positions and on the other side are more moderate Republicans. The local races have generated the most intense campaigning by central committee candidates in anyone's memory.

In the local contested races, all on the Republican ballot:

* For the District 23B legislative house seat, seven-term incumbent Pete Nielsen is being challenged by Steven Millington in the primary.

* In the race for county commissioner from District 1, first-term incumbent Bud Corbus is being challenged by Courtney Ireland.

* The District 2 county commissioner seat is a three-way race between incumbent Wes Wootan, Doug King and Robbin Ellis.

For GOP central committeeman, the Atlanta precinct sees a battle between Judith Lords and Ronald Sherer, the Glenns Ferry precinct has a fight between Dewey Crane and Monty White, the Hammett precinct sees Megan Blanksma and Christy Zito challenging each other, there is a race between John Barrutia and Mark Bryant for Mountain Home #2 precinct committeeman, between Jace Prow and Geoff Schroeder in the Mountain Home #4 precinct, Larry Heinen and Rich Sykes are squaring off against each other in Mountain Home #6, Larry Jewett and Arlie Shaw are facing each other in Mountain Home #7, former state senator Tim Corder is challenging state party chairman Barry Peterson in Mountain Home #8, and Bud Corbus is pitted against Christopher Pentico in Mountain Home #9.

None of the other GOP races see any challenges and all of the incumbents, except that of county treasurer, are seeking re-election. Treasurer Rose Plympton has retired and in her place is running her hand-picked successor, Amber Sloan.

For state and national races, both parties have challenged positions.

On the Republican ballot:

* Incumbent Jim Risch is being challenged by Jeremy Anderson.

* For Second District Congressmen, incumbent Mike Simpson is being challenged by Bryan Smith. That race has drawn national attention as a key battle between Tea Party advocates supporting Smith and more moderate "mainstream" Republicans, including the National Chamber of Commerce, supporting Simpson.

* For governor, incumbent Butch Otter is being challenged by three candidates, Russel Fulcher, Harly Brown and Walt Bayes.

* For lieutenant governor, incumbent Brad Little is being challenged by Jim Chmelik.

* With Secretary of State Ben Ysursa retiring, the race is wide open with four candidates seeking the office -- legislators Lawerence Denney and Mitch Toryanski, high school government teacher Evan Frasure and a member of Ysursa's staff, Phil McGrane.

* For state controller, incumbent Brandon Woolf, who was appointed to the position by Gov. Otter after former controller Donna Jones was severely injured in an automobile accident two years ago, is being challenged by Todd Hatfield, a vice chairman of the state Republican party. Woolf is a long-time staff member of the controller's office.

* For attorney general, incumbent Lawrence Wasden is facing a challenge from C.T. "Chris" Troupis.

* With Tom Luna deciding not to run, there's a four-way race for superintendent of public instruction between John Eynon, Andrew Grover, Randy Jensen and Sherri Ybarra, who currently is an administrator in the Mountain Home School District.

On the Democratic ballot at the state and national level, contested races are being held for:

* United States senator, where Nels Mitchell is running against William Bryk (who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., and also is running for senate positions in Oregon and Alaska).

* State treasurer, where free-lance writer/publisher W. Lane Startin is competing against accountant Deborah Silver.

There are no other challenges on the Democratic ballot and many positions have no candidates at all.

In the non-partisan ballots for various judge positions, most are unopposed. The exception is for state supreme court justice, where incument Joel Horton is being challenged by William "Breck" Seiniger, and the race for district court judge, where the position of retiring judge Mike Wetherell is being sought by four challengers, Rebecca Arnold, Samuel Hoagland, Jeanne Howe and Jonathan Medema.