Scott stripped of committee assignments

State Representative Heather Scott (R-Blanchard) was stripped of all of her committee assignments during a legislative session in Boise on Jan. 12 after making a comment to a fellow lawmaker during the Legislature’s organizational session back in December — a comment that she re-stated in a radio interview on Jan. 13: “Legislators shouldn’t have to sleep around or spread their legs to advance.”

House Speaker Scott Bedke (R-Oakley), who enforced this punitive measure as a rebuke to Scott’s statement in December, told reporters, “I don’t do these things lightly or in a knee-jerk way. This is as hard a decision...as I‘ve faced as a speaker.”

Bedke received a letter from Rep. Christy Perry (R-Nampa) the day before he made the decision to strip Scott of her seats on the Commerce, Environment and State Affairs committees. Perry’s letter brought up “grave concerns regarding the behavior patterns of Representative Heather Scott,” and asserted that “the escalating pattern of behavior exhibited by Representative Scott has had a negative effect on many members of the caucus, particularly the female members.” Perry’s claims in the letter include “one such example of her damaging the historical capitol building. Convinced she and others were being ‘spied’ upon by leadership, she has previously damaged the capitol building looking for the ‘bugs’ she believed were installed in the ceiling.” Perry also claims that, in addition to her displaying “aggressive and anti-social behavior”, Scott has “gone to various legislative districts outside of her own to castigate members of the caucus publicly without due cause or provocation.”

At the end of the letter, Perry asks Bedke “to address this issue in the manner you feel is best to protect House members from the detrimental behavior exhibited by Representative Scott.” While it remains unclear what effect Scott’s punishment will have on her colleagues in the House, it has resounding effects for Scott’s constituents, who have lost a representative in the capitol building, at least for the time being.

While Scott will still be able to vote on legislation once it reaches the House floor, losing her committee seats means she will be unable to participate in the day-to-day work of the committees, which includes drafting bills, working to defeat bills and speaking up for the people in her district.

That hasn’t kept her from speaking out publicly, however. Scott posted on Facebook soon after news of Bedke’s decision was made public, saying, “I call it like I see it. Too much has been hidden from the citizens and they deserve to know what is going on in their government.” She claimed that “inaccurate and false accusations by some in the House establishment are being hyped to the members and the media in an attempt to split conservative and liberty minded legislators,” implying that Bedke’s decision was made soon after the Growing Freedom for Idaho website was launched and therefore was meant to distract Idahoans from the freedom agenda that she and other like-minded legislators are pushing.

Scott expounded on what she refers to as a diversionary tactic by establishment Republicans during a KBOI interview with radio personality Nate Shelman on Jan 13.

In that interview, Shelman brought up the statement that Scott made back in December, which Scott said was made in direct reference to Rep. Perry — the same Perry who sent a letter to Bedke on Jan. 11 — being assigned a chairmanship position after she was caught having an affair with Idaho Senator Jim Guthrie.

“My issue, ultimately, is that Rep. Perry broke the law...and they’re going to promote her,” Scott told Shelman.

To clarify, Perry was recently made chair of the House Local Government Committee, but she previously served as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is the leadership’s committee that deals with introducing and/or stopping legislation. The House Local Government Committee deals with county governance and taxing districts. And the law(s) Scott is referring to are: Idaho statute 18-6601, which still classifies adultery as a felony, and Article III Section 24 of the Idaho Constitution, which states: “The first concern of all good government is the virtue and sobriety of the people, and the purity of the home. The legislature should further all wise and well directed efforts for the promotion of temperance and morality.”

Scott also said that Perry would be hearing from her attorney regarding the accusations made by Perry in the letter, which Scott maintains were “completely false and slanderous and a typical diversion tactic.”

At one point during the interview, Scott told Shelman, “I truly believe this system is broke. I made a promise to my constituents from day one: that I was going to come to the capitol and expose what I saw, expose corruption, crony capitalism and shenanigans.”

When Shelman asked Scott what other shenanigans are going on in the capitol, besides the Perry-Guthrie scandal, Scott responded, “Well there are other...umm...let’s just say this ‘look over here, we’re gonna strip her of her committees, we don’t like the messenger, all the attention on me’...there’s other stuff being hidden.”

When Shelman asked for examples of what exactly was being hidden, Scott replied, “I’m not gonna go into it at this second...you’ll never ask me back if I tell you everything the first time,” to which Shelman responded, “I don’t know if I’m gonna ask you back if you’re not gonna answer the question.”

Scott then brought up the assertion made on Facebook the day before, which was that the timing of Bedke’s punitive action implies that it was meant to distract constituents from the Freedom Agenda.

Scott also pointed to the ethical shortcomings of some of her fellow lawmakers: “We’ve had public officials...we’ve had Governor Otter’s DUI...Senator Crapo, I think he was one that had a DUI...we’ve had a legislator this past year get caught stealing signs. We’ve had two documented affairs and one other marriage.”

“We have all these documented lawbreakers,” Scott continued. “Why was I chosen? Why were my committees stripped without any judge or jury? There’s something more going on here, that’s my point.”

Bedke has already experienced a significant amount of backlash for his decision on Jan. 12. In the time since, a host of Scott’s supporters have reached out to the Speaker and other lawmakers to express their grievances, and many have taken to social media platforms to publicly support Scott’s actions.

Other reactions have hit closer to home. On Monday, Jan. 16, five Idaho lawmakers chose to stand with Representative Scott and asked Speaker Bedke to remove them from their committee assignments. Rep. Ron Nate (R-Idaho Falls) who is now in his second term, was the first to make the request. He was followed by Rep. Priscilla Giddings (R-White Bird), Rep. Dorothy Moon (R-Stanley), Rep. Christy Zito (R-Hammett) and Rep. Karey Hanks (R-St. Anthony), all of whom were elected to their first term in November.

“I’m deeply concerned about the integrity of this body and the mixed messages being sent to the citizens of Idaho,” Nate told reporters.

Bedke did not respond to the legislators’ act of defiance during Monday’s session, but he told reporters afterwards that he would not be removing the group from their committee assignments: “It’s their prerogative to show up to committee or not show up to committee, that’s on them.”

Representatives Nate and Moon reportedly showed up to the House Energy and Technology Committee meeting on Monday afternoon.

The Herald reached out to Heather Scott for comment but Scott was unable to respond to the request by press time.