Scott Herndon

Scott Herndon, 54

Custom Homebuilder

● Educational background: BS Finance, Arizona State University

● How many years as a Bonner County resident: 18

● Marital status: Married

● Family: 8 children, 7 still living at home

● Hobbies: Running for state senate, chairman of Bonner County Republicans, working on cars, and boating.

● Website: herndonforidaho.com

1. Form alliances with likeminded legislators and strategize how to move forward a conservative agenda. Also, strategize how to get the state senate to more functionally represent the people of Idaho by solving the problem of committee chairmen holding bills in the drawer without public hearing.

Begin to move forward on bills related to a conservative agenda including strengthening Idaho laws that protect the rights of gun owners and bills that strengthen parental rights and respect constitutional rights of citizens. Look at comprehensive tax reform and budgets.

1. Inflation. Large families are facing higher expenses on groceries of over $2400 a year. Automobile fuel for a typical family will now cost $2,000 more per year. These are the result of the actions taken by the federal and state governments in response to Covid 19.

Unaffordable housing and labor shortages. Also a result of COVID-19 governmental policies that caused a relocation shift to North Idaho and disruption of both the labor markets and supply chain.

A lack of representation in the Idaho Legislature when powerful committee chairmen refuse to hear bills that would benefit rural Idahoans.

1. Idaho should curb its acceptance of national debt financed federal dollars to Idaho’s budgets. Idaho’s revenues include $6 billion a year of federal subsidies. $2 billion is financed by national debt, a significant cause of inflation.

Housing shortages and high prices could be helped by Idaho moving forward with a plan to gain management of the 64% of Idaho lands claimed by the federal government.

Senate rules should be modified so all bills by senators receive an introductory hearing so that the power to kill bills is not concentrated in one legislator but rests with the whole of a committee.

1. That’s a better question for candidates for county offices.
2. Are you better off than you were two or four years ago? We have just experienced two years where our state and local governments have made it a crime to go to church and to have granny and grandpa over for Christmas dinner. Business shutdowns were enforced by the Idaho state police.

Labor markets were disrupted by unemployment stimulus. Now, gas is over 100% more expensive than two years ago, and food costs are thousands of dollars more per year for the average family than they were two years ago. Our children cannot afford nor find housing in our district.

1. The conservative agenda. Republicans are for limited government and fiscal and social conservativism. Republicans dominate the Idaho legislature. Yet, Idaho continues in the middle of the pack of states in per capita government spending. 10 states rank better than Idaho on total tax burden per resident.

Idaho didn’t rank as the least regulated state in the government’s response to COVID-19. Idaho is not leading the other states in regards to protecting the rights of citizens to keep and bear arms and in eliminating abortion in the state.

CRT and the liberal socio-economics are as active in Idaho as other states.

1. The severe economic challenges being faced by Idaho and the United States due to the Congress and the Federal Reserve’s unwillingness to practice a responsible fiscal policy and sound money policy. Joe Biden has caused further economic damage to Idaho by shutting down domestic energy production. These policies are severely harming the pockets of everyday Idahoans with no relief in sight. The Idaho legislature should evaluate its ties to federal debt and excessive federal control over Idaho’s economic independence.
2. Some may accuse me of being too conservative, but limiting the reach of state government into the lives of Idahoans will never harm the prosperity and freedom of Idahoans. Ronald Reagan said the scariest words are “I am from the government, and I’m here to help”. We need to return to the principles of individuals being free from dependence upon government spending and programs. Due to a lack of competition, government can never do anything as efficiently as the free markets and individual ambition and imagination.
3. How will you adhere to the Republican principles of limited government when asked how government can solve such and such problem? Government often doesn’t solve problems – it creates bureaucracies out of problems. As Republicans, we should remember that our party is not in the business of creating solutions to the problems of the citizens, but instead we get government out of the way so that with innovation and the least regulation, people can solve their own problems.
4. The recent actions of our government have disrupted our economic and social prospects for the next several years. It is time to make a change in favor of limited government and conservative principles. The Idaho Capital Sun describes my opponent as representing the establishment and me challenging from the right. With the establishment not fighting for conservative principles, Idaho is at a crossroads of going the way of Colorado and West coast states in liberal policies. We can elect a conservative, liberty loving, fiscal and social conservative like me to resist the overreach of government from Boise and Washington, D.C.