What’s shaping Idaho politics
Episode 1 Representative Chenele Dixon—Main Street Idaho Podcast Season 3
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We're back for episode 1 of our third season for the Idaho Main Street Podcast. Joining us in the studio is Representative Chenele Dixon, our new Executive Director. Representative Dixon sits down with our host, Brennan Summers, to discuss her recent primary election, how out-of-state dark money is negatively shaping Idaho politics, and the current and future issues facing the Idaho Legislature.
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Brennan Summers, Host (00:00):
Welcome to the Idaho Main Street Podcast where we talk about the issues that matter to you. Welcome back to the Idaho Main Street podcast. We are here starting episode one of season three, which we are super excited about. We've been gone for a little bit though.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (00:20):
Yeah, it's been a bit.
Brennan Summers, Host (00:21):
It's been a bit. And we're back. We're back with a new studio, all decorated up, remodel. And we're here with a friend of the podcast, representative Chenele Dixon. Thanks for being here today.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (00:30):
Yeah, thanks for having
Brennan Summers, Host (00:31):
Me. So lot's happened. We were off during the primary election here in Idaho. The presidential election has gotten crazy since we went off. Everything's changed. And you're coming to us still as a member of the legislature, an elected leader, but you are also coming in with the title of the incoming Main Street Idaho's Executive Director, which we're thrilled about. Thanks. Excited. You're going to have to talk to us a little bit about how that happened and why it happened.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (00:56):
Okay. Well, the primary, I lost my primary and we'll talk more about that later, but I've been involved in Main Street, like you said, and I was asked if I'd consider being the executive director, and I'm really excited about that. I'm excited to carry on the good work that we've done. We're kind of rebranding a little bit, and I'm excited to be able to talk to business leaders throughout Idaho. And one of the things that we focused on was making sure that we had policy that was good for businesses, for entrepreneurs in Idaho, strong education, strong tax policy, all of those things. And so I'm excited to continue that work and be able to really dig into what makes Idaho such a great state. I mean, we're number one in so many areas, and we just heard that we are going to get another 76 and a half million dollars in tax refunds out to people in their property taxes, and lots of good things are happening. And so as the executive director, I have the opportunity to really bring that to the forefront for people across the state of Idaho. So I'm really, really excited about
Brennan Summers, Host (02:10):
That. And most importantly, as the executive director, you're going to whip this podcast into shape,
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (02:14):
Right? Yep. We're going to have a great time on the podcast.
Brennan Summers, Host (02:17):
I love the fact that you've been on the podcast so many times, and so you see how important it is for us to be able to communicate to the public issues that we say are issues that matter to the public. So we try not to get into the mud slinging and the dirty stuff and the sensational sound bites. We like to get into the policy issues, the stuff you talk about, about education, about business and these types of things. Yeah,
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (02:39):
And I think it's important. I think people, especially after this primary, I think people are pretty, there's this exhausted majority and people don't want to hear all the negative politicking. They want solutions. And the first time I was on the podcast, we talked about that people want good roads, they want good infrastructure, they want good schools for their kids. They want lower taxes, but they still want the things that happen because of our taxes. And I don't know, I think that's just a good opportunity to get that message out there and really engage with the people of Idaho.
Brennan Summers, Host (03:18):
And as you mentioned, you lost your primary, which is okay, your loss, our win. We were really happy in some sense to be able to pull you in and your time to free up a little bit. But you lost not just yourself, but many others lost their primary under somewhat unusual circumstances. It feels like this primary was a heavy one.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (03:38):
Yeah, it was a lot different. Idaho hasn't really seen anything like this before. A lot of out-of-state money, and probably the biggest out-of-state player was a group called Make Liberty Win. It's out of Fairfax, Virginia. It's largely funded by a group called Young Americans for Liberty out of Austin, Texas. So you might wonder, well, gee, what do these two groups, why do they care about Idaho politics? And they invested. So young. Americans for Liberty is a pro drug libertarian organization, and they've put about $8 million into make liberty win. If you go look up young Americans for Liberty, they use the hashtag Make Liberty win. So they're very connected and make Liberty Win decided to play in the Idaho primaries, and they put about $2 million into this primary election. And they have targeted several states, Idaho being one, Wyoming being another one. South Dakota, Michigan and Texas are kind of their main ones that they're playing in right now.
(04:51):
And I think there's a few reasons for that. Being pro with young Americans for Liberty, being pro-drug, you have only a few states that haven't legalized marijuana. Idaho and Wyoming are two of those. And so I think that's part of the reason they're playing in our elections. The other reason is that those are states where elections have typically not cost a lot. And I was talking recently to a representative in another state who said that state representative elections are nearing a million dollars to run those races. And here, I mean, you spend $50,000, that's quite a bit of money. And so the bang for the buck for Young Americans for Liberty or make Liberty win, is really, they get a lot out of their investment in Idaho or in Wyoming. I talked to somebody in Wyoming and they said that their elections have typically been six to $10,000. And so you put, I think last I heard, they had put about 375,000 into the primary election in Wyoming. But that's going to go pretty far when candidates are only spending maybe 10 grand on their election. And so it's really changing the way elections are happening. They also brought a negative campaign style that we haven't seen in Idaho, and you see it here and there, but it's not so pervasive. They were, I mean, it was constant. And I actually, I brought a little stack.
Brennan Summers, Host (06:35):
Yeah, let's unpack this a little bit because we talk about how much does the a legislator in Idaho make? What's the
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (06:42):
Oh, 19,000,
Brennan Summers, Host (06:43):
19,000 a year, and you're talking a million dollars for somebody to get elected to that position, and it's not a million dollars that the candidate is putting in. These are groups from out of state that have decided we care so much about this person losing or this person winning that we're coming in and we're going to spend a million dollars outrageous. So what are they spending that money on? Well,
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (07:04):
So that was throughout the state, right? So for, there's 105 elections up every two years in the legislature. They're spending it, at least from what I saw, mostly on the mailers. They also do TV and radio ads. And I don't know for sure if they put stuff on social media, but I would guess I'm not a huge fan of social media, so I don't spend a lot of time on there, but this is the stack that I received at
Brennan Summers, Host (07:40):
My house. This came to your house,
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (07:41):
Okay. This came to my house. These are all from make liberty win all against me. So there's 17 mailers here. I don't know if I received all of them that were sent out, but it was interesting because on some of them, there was no bill number listed. It would make an accusation about me saying I wanted to do this or I didn't want to do this and I should be voted out, but no bill number for someone to go and reference. And then some of the other ones, there was a bill number, and I'll tell you about a couple of them. Please do. Because this was pretty interesting. And these were very similar all over the state. The people they were targeting. I talked to Speaker Mole and he had some of these exact same flyers. The only difference was the headshot and the name was
Brennan Summers, Host (08:30):
Changed. Speaker Moyle is a very, very conservative
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (08:33):
Leader. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they spent a huge amount of money on him against him, but why? I don't know. I actually wrote down how much they spent against his race to oppose him. They spent almost $113,000, which is incredible. And then the pro tem Chuck Winder, they spent 107,000
Brennan Summers, Host (09:02):
And
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (09:02):
He lost against him. And he lost. Yeah. And these are two people who have been very instrumental in some great policy that has helped Idaho and this out-of-State Group came in and targeted those two. So I certainly wasn't alone.
Brennan Summers, Host (09:20):
Is it primarily ideology or is it policy issues?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (09:26):
It's probably ideology, but then they use different policy, but they weren't accurate in their description of the policy. So like this one, for example, it said that I voted to ban shed antler hunting. And if you're not a sportsman, maybe you get this in the mail and you go, okay, whatever. Well, I had sportsmen start calling me as soon as this hit their mailboxes. And they were like, what have you done? I said, no, no, no. Let me explain what the bill actually did. So the bill actually said, if you're an out-of-State Hunter, you have to get a license to pick up shed antlers in the state of Idaho. Sportsmen are all in favor of that. So what the bill actually did, they were supportive of what this mailer said we had done was the exact opposite that we've just banned. Shed antler hunting. And I had a really interesting experience because as I was getting calls from sportsmen and people that rely on the shed antlers for their business in my district, as I explained, and they talked to other people and verified what I had said, all of a sudden they were fully on board with me and supported me and were sharing it with their friends to let people know that the mailer they had gotten was just a straight up lie.
(10:48):
I mean, it was the exact opposite of what we had done with that policy. So it was interesting to kind of start to see these come in and just see people's responses, but having the opportunity to talk about what the bill actually did is always, always
Brennan Summers, Host (11:08):
Good. It's so hard to be scalable in this day and age when you have so many constituents I think of, I mean, how many got the mailer and didn't call you and never got the facts?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (11:18):
Yeah, never questioned it. I had somebody say, well, if somebody's going to spend the money to put it in writing, it must be true. And that's a scary thought to me. Regardless of what the election is, you have to do some homework and really look into that. So another one that came that was pretty interesting, said, I was anti-gun. I wanted to put all gun owners on a public list to be harassed by anti-guns. I wanted to confiscate your weapons. I wanted to turn Idaho into California, and that I was just totally anti-gun. Well, what the bill actually did, it allowed, and it was a bill that was supported by the NRA. Really? Yes. And I was endorsed by the NRAI have a great track record for supporting gun rights, people's gun rights. So what this bill actually did, it said that if you had a gun that you could show it, you could put your hand on it, you could announce that you had a gun in an effort to deescalate a situation anyway.
(12:27):
And it wasn't unique to me. It was all over the state. The people that they had targeted, they used many of these same ads and same bills. And I've talked to a couple people in Wyoming and they're doing the exact same thing there. I saw some of the flyers that they're using there, twisting what the legislation was. And again, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we don't have legalized marijuana. I was a huge proponent of mandatory minimums, and especially to add fentanyl. We worked really hard over the last two years to add fentanyl to our mandatory minimums, which if you want to legalize drugs, you're not going to be in favor of mandatory minimums. And Wyoming doesn't have legalized marijuana either. And so I think that, and also going back just to the cost, they get a lot more bang for their buck to come into states where elections haven't cost as much money.
(13:31):
So it's been interesting, and I think we really have to address this. I met with Speaker Moyle and we talked briefly about election reform. There has to be something, we have to approach this in the next session and really look at what we can do and make sure that people can still run a race and they can still get donations, but there needs to be some sideboards there so that we don't have this out-of-state dark money that's just flipping things on its head in Idaho and completely changing the way that things happen in Idaho. Sure.
Brennan Summers, Host (14:12):
There's just so much to impact here. First, the idea that somebody would get 17 mailers on one issue. If I was going to run my lawnmower and company and I sent 17 mailers of the same house begging them to let me mow their lawn, you'd think people would get turned off by it. But they're so salacious at times that I think it hooks people in. But also the fact that as it gets more expensive on one side, it gets more expensive on the other. And as the price for politics in Idaho gets driven up and up and up, we start becoming this unrecognizable state. We're no longer, I love the legislators and our elected leaders that when we go to a Lincoln Day, you can put your arm around and you know them by first name know that's how it is in
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (14:53):
Idaho. They're your neighbor.
Brennan Summers, Host (14:54):
When it starts getting more expensive, suddenly it looks exactly like the dirty politics that everybody despises. Yeah,
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (15:01):
Yeah. We don't want DC here. We're not looking for DC style politics in Idaho. And it's never been that way. Like you said, it's your neighbor down the street that runs and it's the farmer, the teacher.
Brennan Summers, Host (15:16):
But it feels like in these campaigns that if you've ever been in an argument where just the loudest person wins, not the smartest, not the most accurate, that's what these mailers throughout the state, and first of all, I love the name of Make Liberty Win and Young Americans for those are good things. You hear it and you kind of, yeah, young Americans should be for liberty, and liberty should win. And these are things we hold true. But the loudest voices just sending the most mailers, spending the most money saying the craziest thing. If that's what's going to have an impact in Idaho politics, then where do we go?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (15:49):
Right. Well, and I think it discourages people. At the end of the day, it's going to discourage people from participating from running, and not only the people that might be thinking about running for office, but I think it discourages voter participation too. I mean, I talked to some people who are like, oh, this is so gross. I'm getting so much negative mail in my mailbox. I don't really want anything to do with it. Which isn't what we want people to participate. We don't want people to back off because they're disgusted and it's gross, which it is gross, but we don't want people to disengage. And again, I think it goes back to that exhausted majority. They don't like that. They just want good policy. They want a place where their family can grow and they can provide for their family, and they know they can drive on the roads and have good schools. I mean it's, I dunno, it's not Idaho.
Brennan Summers, Host (16:48):
Well, and it seems like, correct me if you think I'm wrong, but it seems like the opportunity cost for engagement gets higher in these situations. So before it was, I support the second Amendment, or I don't support guns. And then it's pretty simple for somebody to work through that policy and work through that ideology and come down to it. But now you're having people say, look, I support the Second Amendment. I'm being told one thing about this candidate. I'm being told another thing about her as well. And now you're exactly right. When they don't know what truth is, it takes quite a bit. They got to get on the phone with you. If they can't get on the phone with you, they got to go read a bill, which who's out reading bills. And then you're right, they disengage and voter turnout decreases. And it's not great right now.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (17:32):
It's not great right now. Yeah. When you have 28% of the voters Republican voters show up in the Republican primary, that's not a great representation of the state of Idaho. And when someone gets elected, they don't just represent those 28%, they represent all of their constituents. And so you find yourself in this interesting situation when you have low voter turnout, but yet you represent everyone whether they showed up to vote or not. And sometimes that's not what happens.
Brennan Summers, Host (18:10):
Yeah. I've had a lot of conversations with friends recently who approached me and with their hands up in the air said, how do we get stuck with these people referring to some elected leaders? I take 'em right back to primary election turnout. It's like, well, when this number of people votes, this number of people likes that person, then those two are getting on great. But when that's all the votes, you weed out a lot of good people in the process. And that's just systematic. There's nothing we can do about that.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (18:39):
And just somehow we have to get back to people carrying a little bit more, not just being the couch complainers or the keyboard warriors, but actually engaging enough that they one, turn out to vote and two, that they can in a civil way, have a conversation about what matters to them. And I think that's some of what we're seeing too, is just that loss of civility. And when we look at these mailers, I mean, that's one instance of it, but just in our society right now, that idea of good governance is almost, it's struggling. It's kind of going by the wayside where people are, many people happy to just engage in this angry dialogue. And if you don't agree with me a hundred percent, then you're wrong. Or I don't want to talk to you, and it's not going to bode well for our country.
Brennan Summers, Host (19:34):
It's as if we're quickly slipping towards this Machi Valley and the ends justify the means. And as long as we can get the person that we think should be elected, elected or the people that the person that we don't think should be in office, out of office. And it doesn't matter how we get there, but why is that such a problematic approach?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (19:53):
Well, I think at the end of the day, it's just not long lasting. Right? Because it's so inflammatory. And can we disagree? We can absolutely disagree. I'm sure you and I wouldn't agree a hundred percent on everything, but we have to be able to disagree better. And Governor Cox in Utah was the recent president of the National Governor's Association, and he talked about that a lot. That was his initiative during his year. And the idea wasn't that we don't disagree. The idea was that you have to be able to have those conversations because that's how you work through problems. That's how you actually solve problems. Is everybody coming to the table and sharing their ideas and their perspectives things. And I've learned a lot from people that have had different life experiences from me and just being able to listen to them and see where they're coming from. And do I always change my mind? No, but you at least grow that understanding and increase your understanding of something. And that's important. And that's what has built America. And so if we abandon that, I think we're in trouble. But I think we have a good opportunity. There's always an opportunity to change and to grow and to learn from things that have happened, and we've seen this toxic environment and we need to get rid of the toxicity
Brennan Summers, Host (21:32):
We're seeing. Yeah, I couldn't agree more, but in hindsight, you're telling me we get to go back and you start your primary election over, if you got to deploy every deplorable tactic, you could think of half truths in as many mailers and radio ads as possible and anything salacious that it's pretty off the mark. You wouldn't go do it. Just knowing that you would be able to in office accomplish good things, everything you stand for through the process, would you be willing to deploy the same tactics they deployed against you? No.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (22:07):
Why? Well, I think good governance and solving problems is important. And I think integrity is important, and I think honesty is important. And all of those together work. And when you start abandoning, for me, that would be my principle, right? I'm not going to tell half truths to get something. And if I'm going to abandon that, then I've lost my integrity and I'm not with willing to do that. I tried to, and maybe I should have or could have done more to counter these, but they were coming so fast and furious, but I tried to get my message out there to the voters, this is what matters. This is what I think we can accomplish. This is what we can do, and keep that message positive. And I would do that again.
Brennan Summers, Host (23:06):
Well, it's probably hard to separate. If you run a not so honest campaign or if you get elected on means that way, then it's probably hard when you're in office to then govern in a way of honesty. Yeah.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (23:22):
And I think at the end of the day, all you have is your integrity, and I want that intact.
Brennan Summers, Host (23:27):
It also kind of feels like your whole identity and life and values is not tied up in the fact that you were elected as representative in the legislature, right? It was important to you. I think you very much valued the contributions you were able to make and you held the public's trust sacred. But it's not everything is it?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (23:46):
No. No, it's not. But for
Brennan Summers, Host (23:47):
Some it
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (23:47):
Is. For some it is. And I've always been somebody that tried to solve problems, tried to be somebody that left wherever I was better than I found it. I learned that from my mom. And whether it was when I was in high school and I was our student body president, I tried to do that. In fact, recently I went back to my high school for a little visit. I was awarded the Hall of Fame. I was their nominee for the Hall of Fame. So I went to go see the presentation, I guess. Anyway, when I was in high school, we were the Panthers, and we had, as a student council, we'd come up with an idea to put Panther paws going out to the football stadium. And they're still doing that really? And so it was kind of fun. You see that you had this lasting impact on something. And that's little, but I've always tried to do that and just leave something better than how I found it. And so that was my goal with the legislature too. Do I wish I'd been there more than one term? Absolutely. But I'm going to continue to work for my community and do things that I think help to build the people around me.
Brennan Summers, Host (25:04):
So I start getting concerned when I see legislators like yourself, as you talk about who come in with a problem solving mentality, growth mindset, and are here to make a change, not to fill a seat. And it feels like politicians or elected leaders are punished for progress or punished for doing things. I mean, if you stayed quiet and voted no on everything, and you could probably justify voting no on most things, it probably would've made for an easier campaign season. Does that worry you as well, or am I the only one that's got this irrational thought that those who are actually doing the job we send 'em to do are making themselves very vulnerable to political attacks?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (25:44):
Yeah, that's absolutely true. And being a problem solver isn't always popular because it's not bumper sticker politics. Yes, right. Solving a problem. Good legislation doesn't fit onto a bumper sticker. And when someone can just put something out there on a bumper sticker, that makes it a lot easier. They're just out there. I voted no, whatever, without the nuances. And I think we have, I don't know, we're in an odd spot right now where people need to be able to understand somehow we have to educate people as to what the bills actually are and the nuances of them and help them see that these short little bursts or the bumper sticker
Brennan Summers, Host (26:37):
Politics, soundbites.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (26:39):
Soundbites, yeah, that that's not what works. That's not what makes Idaho the great state that it is. There's a lot of time and effort and thought and negotiation put into good
Brennan Summers, Host (26:53):
Policy. And we have to circle back to this idea that it is easier now to become informed in theory than ever in the history of politics. And you have more access to resources than you ever have, but engagement is not following the trend of information. And it's because to this point, there's so much out there and so much noise and such inaccuracy that I think people are just instead of saying, oh, now I'm curious because I heard this half truth. Instead, they're saying, I know Chenele, and then this doesn't make sense, so I'm just going to walk away and not engage.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (27:26):
Yeah. And I think we have a lot of noise, like you said, but I was an English teacher, and one of the things you always teach students is to go to the primary source. So whether that's the actual legislator or the actual piece of legislation, it's much better to go to the primary source than to just take that snippet that you hear or the snippet that comes into your mail. The primary source is going to be the best source.
Brennan Summers, Host (28:01):
That's great advice. Congressman Simpson would often say that the thing that he recognizes as a challenge in this day and age is people don't know whether or not they can trust their news and gone is the Walter Cronkite. That is the steady shirt. What he says is probably true and we'll run with it. And now it's wild that I haven't looked at the statistics lately, but most people are not getting their news from the same sources and they're finding confirmation bias and echo chambers, and they're saying, I'm going to go to the place that what I read is going to make me feel the most comfortable. That scares me. I don't know
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (28:35):
Solutions. Well, then you have the algorithm,
Brennan Summers, Host (28:38):
Oh, you're making this worse.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (28:39):
You have the algorithms that say, oh, you go to this. Okay, we'll feed you more of that. So it does feed into that idea that, or whatever you see is going to make you feel better about the idea you already have rather than maybe challenging the idea. So
Brennan Summers, Host (28:55):
How do we fix this? What can we do? Especially when we look at where do we go for truth? How's that for philosophical, waxing philosophical over here? But what would you recommend when you point out primary sources? But to those out there who feel like there's a lot of noise and they don't know where to go and make sense of it, what can we do?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (29:17):
Well, it is good to learn how to read a bill. It is
Brennan Summers, Host (29:22):
Good coming from the English teacher.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (29:23):
Yeah, it's good to know how to read that bill and take a little time. Do you need to read all 600 bills? If you're not a legislator? Probably not. If you are, you for sure should be reading all of the bills and not just thinking, how's this going to look? If I take this, what's it going to look like on a bumper sticker? You need to read the legislation. But if you are a voter and you really want to know, go look up a bill. And with a little practice, they're actually not that hard to read. When I first became a legislator, they took me a lot longer to read, and then after doing it for a while, I can get thrown pretty fast. So I think that is one way. I think talking to legislators, and I think somehow if people can turn off the noise, it's so loud and it's so constant, but we have to learn to do that. And it is hard to know what you're hearing if it's true or not true or partly true.
Brennan Summers, Host (30:29):
So I like the advice, learn to read a bill could practice with it. I think that's something we can all take. I have found it's helpful when seeking objectivity of who are people that I know and trust that have not let me down in the past. And that can look at something and say, well, this is the facts of it. This is where I'm at on it. This is where somebody else is on it. And sometimes endorsements in campaigns, when you get 17 mailers and you get all this stuff from message, sometimes it really matters who your local mayor comes out and says, this is somebody who I'm supporting because I know they've been here for the city. Or people on the school board can come out and say, Hey, this person has the back of education. Forget what that other stuff says. Sometimes endorsements are helpful.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (31:11):
Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think those are helpful. And they actually should carry weight, right? Because those individuals or those groups understand what that legislator has done, what they've worked on, and the questions they've asked or haven't asked. So yeah, I think that's really important. I also think that as we are looking at different people and their campaigns that you can, it does go a long way to see who is supporting them. Like you said, not even just the endorsements, but just as you have those conversations with friends, why do you support this person or why do you support this bill? Or why do you support this policy? And just understanding the background and the conversations that were had to get there. Because any good policy should come after a lot of conversation. And those votes that legislators take should come after a lot of good conversation. And I found that when I met with people about legislation that they were, the people that I trusted most were able to tell me not just why they thought their position was the position to take, but they knew the other arguments like, well, the opponent to this might say this, and they could validate some of that as well. So just being able to see both sides of it I think is important.
Brennan Summers, Host (32:48):
That sounds simplistic, but it's not. Right. And it doesn't happen right now because I often, and I'm sure you do too, hear the phrase, I can't imagine why somebody would support this. If you can't imagine why somebody could support it, you've got an issue there because somebody supports that. And you need to imagine why they could. They could. You don't need to agree with it, but you probably should understand. And that's hard. That's hard. When it comes to issues like charges, issues like abortion, like gun control, a lot of these issues, we're not asking for anybody to accept our views blindly. We probably should have a little bit more of, I can imagine why you think that way. I also think you're completely wrong, and I hope your policy position never moves, but we got to understand people a bit
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (33:32):
Better. I was at a legislative conference about a year ago, and there were legislators from I think 48 of the 50 states. And on every political spectrum, it was fascinating because it wasn't based on policy. But right towards the end, a few policy ideas came out and people were very, very passionate about it. But as they explained why, it wasn't that all of a sudden I agreed with their position. But it gave me an understanding, like you said, of how they got to where they are. Their origin story played into how they arrived at how they felt about a given policy. And we have to have those conversations. We have to.
Brennan Summers, Host (34:18):
And one of the goals, one of my goals on this podcast is to create a platform for that. So I think back to there were the days in Washington DC where we look at Reagan and Tip O'Neill who were going out to dinner together. And when everyone was talking more, and now to still align, we're bowling alone and where we're not having conversations. The scariest statistic for me was that you said one in five people stopped talking to a close family member as a result of the 2016 presidential election. That's people that we know, trust and love, that we should feel comfortable having those conversations with. We aren't having those conversations in a way that is productive. So we walk away from 'em. This here is going to be a platform for us to be able to have those conversations where we can talk about things like tough legislative defeats at the hands of tactics that we may not support. We can talk about lots of issues and interview people. That's those type of conversations. Difficult conversations. Crucial conversations are ones that I hope happen here. Yeah,
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (35:14):
I hope so. I hope so. And that's one of the things I am looking forward to as the executive director of Main Street, is just being able to really help that dialogue come back and help people see how things work in different areas that they may not be involved in, and just increase that communication all the way around. So hopefully we can do that.
Brennan Summers, Host (35:38):
Hopefully we can. I'm going to be on my best behavior and try. So we spent a lot of time today talking to the public, to voters about all this. As you near kind of wrapping up in the next few months or so of your time as elected leader, you've got a unique position where you go from educator part-time legislator, back to being quasi involved in the public service, but also private team. What goes through your mind as should be of a priority to elected leaders right now as they gear up and they start doing their homework for an upcoming legislative session? If you were going back and returning, what would be the homework you'd be doing right now?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (36:21):
Well, I'd probably be looking some more at our tax policy, especially as we see inflation. I mean, things are difficult right now for people. And so anything that we can do, I think we need to continue supporting our public education that's important and our infrastructure. And then keeping Idaho. It's a great place for small businesses and we need to keep it that way because people move here because it's such a family friendly, business friendly state, and we need to make sure that our policies continue to reflect that and encourage that.
Brennan Summers, Host (37:03):
We talk a little bit about budgets, about revenue, things like that. What would the legislature look like if all the elected leaders just didn't do the homework and vote for things that actually spend tax dollars? If they said, we'll return it all to the citizens, and this seems like a lot of works, we're not going to do any budgets. Some of these groups kind of have that mentality where if you've supported any kind of public funding, they want you gone. Yeah.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (37:30):
And it just doesn't work that way. And we have a pretty good tax structure here in Idaho, and we rank pretty well as far as our low taxes. We have a flat rate for income tax, 5.8%. That's pretty good. We've seen a lot of reduction in property tax, but we still need some spending at the government level. And the one mandate that the legislature has is to pass a budget. And it does need to be a balance budget, which we do, but we have to spend those things. I'm pretty sure we don't want to go back to having dirt roads. We want roads that work that we can drive on. We want bridges to be able to get across the canyon. And in the Magic Valley, we have a bridge that's aging, we're going to need a third crossing there. But that takes some money. And I think the wise use of those taxpayer dollars is critical, but we still do need to spend some money.
Brennan Summers, Host (38:40):
So you mentioned the issues that you think the legislature should prioritize in the upcoming session. Looking into your crystal ball, what do you predict are the issues that most definitely will come forward, whether or not they should be prioritized, they're coming?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (38:55):
Well, there's a few that I think are coming. You can kind of see trends across the country. And so I think we'll probably see something with school vouchers
Brennan Summers, Host (39:11):
Back to the school choice type. Yeah.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (39:12):
Alright. And we do have great school choice here. We're ranked number three in the country for school choice. But right now we don't spend taxpayer dollars to go to private schools. But we'll see that this legislative session. I think we'll also see, oh, I dunno. There's a number of things I think we'll
Brennan Summers, Host (39:38):
See. I can tell there are things you don't want to see that you're worried that if you say it'll speak it into existence, and then we're going to be dealing with those issues that make national headlines of new law passed in Idaho related to insert wacky policy. Oh boy. Okay. So we've got the session coming up. What do you do before they replace you? What do you got left?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (40:00):
Well, I've tried to still attend meetings and listen to constituents. To me, transportation and our infrastructure there is really important. I go to a monthly meeting where we talk about that in the Magic Valley, the law and order, the rule of law. It's important to me. I sat on judiciary and rules. It's something that's really important to me. So I continue to reach out to law enforcement and just hopefully I can still have some impact on some of what happens. And even though I won't be sitting on the floor taking a vote, just those conversations, I'll continue those conversations for sure.
Brennan Summers, Host (40:45):
Yeah. And from now until then, you're right, you're not taking votes, but you still have extensive experience and expertise in some of these issues, particularly ones that you helped usher across. So how, maybe excited is not the right word, but how much do you look forward to seeing the impact of things you're involved in, much like the mandatory minimums on Fentanyl?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (41:05):
Well, I'm very hopeful that it has a positive impact on Idaho. And it will be exciting to watch and see if it does. I think it will be a deterrent to the drug traffickers. It has been for other drugs. I'm excited to see how that plays out. It'll take a couple years on gathering some data to see how it really goes. But yeah, I think we're in for good times ahead with that and seeing a reduction in the fentanyl in Idaho. And then we've done a lot to help our public schools and really give them, we raised teacher salaries. We've put some good investments into the facilities, which are so needed to improve our school facilities. And again, that's going to take some time to see that play out. But I think it's going to be good.
Brennan Summers, Host (42:03):
And this really is the time of year where we have to pause and think of two of the issues that tend to jeopardize. I think most of Idaho policy policymakers, time. This is the time of year where we all recognize and care about the most. Number one, being back to school. We think about our teachers, think about these kids going back, trusting our little kids in the hands of these administrators and these teachers, and trusting that they're going to do the right thing and helping shape them the way we need to go. Our heart's gone to the teachers that are going back and then obviously our farmers and ranchers. This is the time of year where they start harvesting and feeding the world. And those are two things that are obviously, we talk about it a lot because we think it matters here in Idaho.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (42:42):
It does matter. AG really drives our economy throughout the state, and they work hard. Our farmers work hard for us, and they contribute a lot. Not just the food we eat, but they contribute a lot to our economy. And then education. Education is so important to me, and we've done a lot of things. We have launched where we've provided this way for people to go on. And really, it's a workforce development issue in the state of Idaho. And so I'm excited to see that work and that function in Idaho and see it continue. So
Brennan Summers, Host (43:20):
We've got some big guests coming up on the podcast. We won't reveal any names, we won't say anything yet, but we've got some exciting people that, policymakers and leaders throughout the state who have seen what we've done in the past in creating hopefully an open environment to share views and to speak about the issues that matter to Idahoans. What would you say to our listeners who may or may not want to keep listening as season three rolls out?
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (43:45):
Oh, I think season three will be the most exciting yet, so I think they're going to want to tune in. Yeah, we have a good lineup like you said.
Brennan Summers, Host (43:52):
Well, I recommend, we'll leave it that cliffhanger right there. Representative Chenele Dixon, thank you for your time. We welcome you to our team and look forward to all the good that's going to be happening.
Chenele Dixon, Main Street ID Executive Director (44:01):
Thank you. I look
Brennan Summers, Host (44:02):
Forward to it. Thanks so much.
