Shaping the Future Through Education, Agriculture, and Conservation
Main Street Town Hall Episode 11—Representative Jack Nelsen
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Our first time guest, Representative Jack Nelsen from District 26, joins us from the Boise Capitol to share his current role in the Idaho Legislature. Executive Director and host, Brennan Summers, learns how Nelsen is actively impacting Idaho law in education, agriculture, and conservation. Nelsen also gives his insight into center-aligned politics in a polarized political bubble.
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Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (00:00):
Welcome to Main Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. Welcome to the Main Street Idaho podcast. I'm your host, Brennan Summers. We're here with a first time guest out of District 26, representative Jack Nelsen live from the Boise Capitol. Jack, give us some adjectives today to describe the legislature.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (00:28):
Absolutely never a dull moment and every time you think you might be a little bit bored, you need to think twice because you're missing something quite the privilege to get to do it and it's, my gosh, the mental drain on you through the day is just trying to stay up with everything. It's quite the challenge
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (00:52):
And you've got not one, not two, but three committees you sit on and three pretty important committees in education, agriculture, affairs and conservation and resources. So maybe briefly just tell us some of the big stuff happening in those committees.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (01:08):
Well, issues really dear to my heart that came through education and the whole, it's not just through education, it's come through lots of people in the capitol, but that's simply the launch program launch to my constituency I think is probably one of the more important things that we've done. This is the first time that to me, the trades have gotten any respect at all and being able to put up a scholarship program for kids that come out of high school and they want A-C-D-D-L, this is the perfect avenue to get for them and I really like the launch. I think it pays 80% of the cost. There's a little skin in the game, 20%, so I am expecting huge things. I think the first round of launch 300 and some kids from Mike legislative district applied for it, so it's super important to the people in the trenches in my community, healthcare, all the trades, truck driving, things like that. This is kind of the first time legislation with scholarships has really addressed those people. I was, for six years, I was a board member of the College of Southern Idaho. A really neat portion of the college is their career technical education from welding to you name it, all the things that they do and to me that's a really important part of a community like the Magic Valley that we've done to actually support them.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (02:46):
Yeah, we talked with Representative Wheeler last week and his favorite three letters are CTE. Right. And as you mentioned, career technical education. Help us understand why career technical education is getting so much attention right now and why it's so important to representatives Wheeler, you other people
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (03:07):
In a general view. I think the respect and everything has gone to bachelor's and master's and doctorates and maybe those are all really important, but maybe they got a little bit overhyped here and they've certainly become overcharged. You look at in just a manner of speaking, you look at all the people that have huge debt, college debt that they can't pay. To me, that's a little bit of what you paid for. Yeah, you got took because you can't make cashflow payments on your debt and it's, I think now maybe taking a little bit of focus off of degrees and putting it on skills. For me that makes really good sense. When you're operating system and a food plant gets the flu, you don't really care what credentials the person that fixes it has. You just want the thing fixed, and same with when you want your personal computer fixed.
(04:05):
I've never gone in and just, well, what are your credentials? Either they can fix it or they can't. So launch is really important and it's certainly not an issue of money. Some of these trades now are out paying degree jobs and if you click on really for user, for ease of use if you're a student or a parent, if you click on the launch site, it's the Workforce Training Council is the supervising agency, but on the first click it shows what are in demand jobs, but click on the second one and it shows you what the average wages in Idaho for those jobs and everybody should do what they love, but if you love something that simply doesn't pay, maybe you could look at a profession that's beside it that would be just as good for you.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (05:03):
Yeah, I should probably get on there, Jack, my modeling career is not paying what I thought it would, so we may need to start over and I'll end up in a food processing plant making a lot more than I would be as a model.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (05:14):
Somebody might've led you astray there. Kids
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (05:16):
I got took, as you would say, right? I got took. So we love hearing about launch. We're excited. I think what can bring down the temperatures of a lot of people is the idea that we're going to look at how this plays out and it's got an opportunity for some changes based on what we need to change. This is a first time thing, so we're all excited. We know you've been a big advocate of that, so that's eaten up a lot of space in the legislature. You're also, as I mentioned, sit on agriculture affairs and you've got an interesting background in ag, you know your way around the farm and a pitchfork in hay. Talk us through some of the issues you're wrestling with in that committee.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (05:55):
From a real general sense, I've always thought of Idaho as a really ag centered state. You look at Southern Idaho Magic Valley, Eastern Idaho ag is quite a driver in our communities. You come up to the legislature and there really aren't very many people that have spent their life in production agriculture. It's crazy how important it is to our communities and everybody means really well in the legislature and they try really hard, but there's a little bit of a difference I think if you grew up around ag or you actually didn't, and it's just a little bit different perspective up here than I would consider down in the Magic Valley.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (06:40):
Well, and you're kind of a die breed in the legislature. There was the day where it was a lot of cowboy boots in committee and now we have the Senator Harris's and we have the Burton Shaws and we have the Raymonds and the Nelsens, and there's a few of you still left. Why is it so important that there are people who have had firsthand experience in agriculture helping draft the policy that affects our farmers and ranchers?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (07:11):
Not to degrade anybody, but just the way the general public looks at all the ag issues is kind of what's been fed to you on your social media account. And we all know social media is wonderful, but sometimes social media really doesn't have its roots in the truth or what makes things happen, and it's hard to just keep pulling things back to a really ground level view of how that affects us and stuff.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (07:41):
Yeah, we get that. It's an issue where Idaho, so much of Idaho's economy is dependent on agriculture, which means that so much of the issues you wrestle with in the State House is dependent on agriculture. Do you think that our policies headed in the right direction when it comes with protecting family farms and ensuring that Idaho can still feed the world?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (08:04):
That is so hard. I spent 20 years on a Jer County planning and zoning commission, and I guess the good way to describe growth in Idaho has been pretty much urban sprawl. We've splattered people out all over the place and real production agriculture, it always loses every time somebody lives next to an ag operation, whether it's time of day, smells, chemicals, all the things that are tools that production ag has to have. Nobody really likes living around them. They were all sure when they moved out there, man, I got to get out there in the countryside. Well, when they get there, they're not so sure. They like some of those uses and it's really hard to get the two sides and they both need respect, but how you get those together without doing a lot of damage to ag.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (09:03):
Well, you talk about urban sprawl and how things have changed. I think now is a good time to pause and go back to the beginning. You grew up in the Wood River Valley. Now people have heard of the Magic Valley, the Treasure Valley, the Snake River Valley. Probably the average Idahoan may not have heard of the Wood River Valley. Walk us through where it was that you grew up and what it was like.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (09:26):
Well, I'm a third generation northeast of Jerome Farmer dairy farmer, but I was lucky enough when I was a kid, I had a grandmother that lived up by Easley. It's about 10, 15 miles north of Ketchum. She lived up there in a cabin all summer and we were lucky enough to get to go and visit my grandma. That's kind of where I picked up my fishing sickness on the big wood up there, learning to fish and just appreciation of love for everything up there. But since I was just a little kid, I've been on the farm and working, grew up doing that.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (10:07):
I'm sure the farm's changed in the last few years since you started on it in terms of technology, in terms of workforce and how they've managed all that. As your community evolves, as it grows, as it changes, what are the things that concern you in how you represent them in the capital?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (10:28):
It's hard because everybody has a little bit different view of what should happen depending on their background and what they do. It's interesting the community of drone having an ag base all my life now, one of the main drivers economically are the food processing plants. Drones lucky enough that Trus beef has built a plant there. We've got large dairy processors and it's a whole different steady stream of jobs for people and input to the community that there really wasn't there for a long time. I think I'd also add I think the world of my community and I'm a huge advocate of local control and it's always been hard for bedroom communities that house the workers, if you will, and everybody drives somewhere else. Jerome, for most of my life, my opinion has been a bedroom community. If you weren't working on the farm, you drove to Twin or someplace to work and that dynamic has changed a bunch now and you can see it in the ability of the local organizations to fund the things that they want to do.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (11:40):
And your deep love of your community has been seen since really you hit the campaign trail. I know when elected, you said it was your priority to build meaningful connections with your constituency and once in the Capitol you made a comment about how you were going to leave ideology at the door and that your number one job was to represent your community. But we hear about ag and we hear about production and everything going on in district 26, but you have a very interesting constituency that you represent. You won in what might've been the closest election by less than a hundred votes. You beat your democratic opponent by what did such a close election tell you about how your community wants to be represented?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (12:28):
Well, if it ever wasn't there, I think it was, but humility I'd say wears well on everybody and our Jerome Lincoln Blaine or Blaine Lincoln Jerome, our communities by their voting record, it's just about did he between R's and D's, the only guy who lost on less votes than me was my Democratic Ned Burns who sits in the other seat from District 26. I think I won by a little over 80 and Ned won by a little over 30. So it tells you that our community, they see things a lot differently and what's really on the people's mind in Kechum and Sun Valley might not be what's on people's minds in Valley and Dietrich.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (13:18):
So a lot of your constituents aren't going in blindfolded and just checking donkeys and elephants. They're looking at the issues and they're looking for somebody that they know who's going to represent them. How do you gather enough information to know that your constituency is not just incredibly homogenous and that they say, this is exactly what we want and every time we want it now you go do it and we'll be okay? You've got a little bit more complicated of a job.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (13:47):
Personally, I think everybody ends up being you're balancing your constituency with what your basic beliefs are. I always have loved that saying that we're spending someone else's money. It needs to be done transparently, reasonably and very carefully, and I've taken a few pretty lonely votes. I have a hard time voting for a law that's a cookie cutter from across the nation. It's in core everywhere. And to jump in there and say, man, we got to pass this in Idaho and spend a bunch of hard earned tax dollars. From my view in court, if you will, coupled with that as a really strong belief in local control that it's been a little bit of an issue for me personally of where you come down on it in the community. Up in Blaine County, the Blaine County School Board has not had public testimony coming through Covid.
(14:48):
They went to a written policy and the school board is really, they like it on the other side. I've had a bunch of people in the community talking to me, they think that's bad news that a public board simply doesn't allow public testimony. A bill started in the Senate. I asked if I could be a sponsor on it and simply to help get to be in the kitchen, if you will, and help from the idea to get with the bill. That doesn't really do harm and I think it's headed for the house now or excuse me, it's headed for the for the house floor. It came through the House committee and the hard part, I'm torn both ways. You have to respect your local community. If an issue is, it can be decided just as well in a county commissioner or a school board meeting as it can be decided on the floor of the house. I think we should stay out of that. This one, the bill, it's hard for me as local control guy to vote for this, but I like it. It doesn't say how you have to do it. It just simply gives the local board a little bit of a nudge that you need to have some testimony by your community.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (16:10):
Yeah, so we've seen on a national level, a lot of politicians who find themselves somewhat in the center, their center left or center right, they're kind of bowing out of politics because the primary system makes it really difficult for somebody who leans to the center to be able to win in a primary race because the primary intrinsically favors more base core voters. Do you ever fear that you're becoming more and more extinct because you're not a deep red ideolog or you're certainly not a blue Democrat As you lend to independent thinking in the legislature and take what you describe as lonely votes, does it weigh on you that you may not have a path forward?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (16:56):
Of course, it weighs on everybody, but frankly, I'm going to run, I'm running for reelection. I filed the other day, but I didn't come up here to be a career politician or to do what? One side or one group that rates people on. Oh my gosh, we're going to give you a bad rating. I'm kind of a knock yourself out kind of guy. I vote with my community and my beliefs and the voters will have to sort that out. But you're right, a closed primary, it tilts the vote one direction, and then in my district you open it up to a general election and it absolutely tilts it the other way. So unless it's tomorrow, I probably won't die in office. But it's quite the privilege to get to do this
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (17:43):
And at the end of the day, it will be your community that decides whether or not you get rehired. And that's the beauty of democracy is you get to represent them and you get to represent the votes. Now, I had to make sure I got through the three Ls in this interview. So you'll notice number one was launch. Number two was local control, and number three is Lava Ridge. So speaking of issues that are important to your community, so many in your constituency has been very vocal in opposition of the Lava Ridge Wind Project, but there are some in Idaho that probably aren't familiar with it at all. Can you briefly tell us what is the Lava Ridge Wind Project and where are you at on the issue?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (18:22):
I'm adamantly opposed. I co-wrote and co-presented through the house committee, house floor and Senate committee. The resolution that we passed last year of how anti lava ridge we were, and in my perspective, the community should be really upset about this. From my view, it's being rammed down their throat with absolutely no consideration for the impacts on the local community. If you own a business and these small rural communities and they're going to bring in 2000 temp workers for a couple of years and then pack up and leave, we don't have places to live now or can afford the places that we have, what in the world is going to happen then little school districts that graduate maybe 30, 40 kids, what do you do when here's 40 kids shows up, show up at the door and in a year or two they're all going to be gone.
(19:22):
It's just all these issues and maybe the I'd like to circle back with you and do one, possibly get one of Representative Simpson's reps here on your program. But Representative Simpson put a writer on a budget bill and it passed the house and the Senate, and I believe President Biden signed it. So it says that the BBL M has to come back, talk to the local community and then report back to Congress. And the thing that would help my community the most is the guidelines of what's fair to comment on and whatnot. If you haven't been around the desert very much, most people look at desert and just say, ah, it's that old ugly sagebrush desert. Frankly, a lot of us down there, we really like our desert looking Sagebrush Desert Lava Ridge project. If there weren't federal incentives behind it, my opinion is it would never have shown up to be a project.
(20:24):
But the original proposal was 400 windmills that are the largest, I think about the largest they have to put on land 400 and or 570 feet. We have a restaurant in twin elevation 4 86. It's 486 feet I believe, above the canyon floor. So if you dropped one of these windmills in the canyon beside the Prine Bridge, there would still be over a hundred feet of windmills sticking up above the Prine Bridge to go in and put 400 of these in four to 500 miles, excuse me, four to 500 miles of roads that they're going to put in. They have to blast holes about 45 feet deep for concrete to anchor the things. If you've been down there, I guess the easiest example would be if you drive north out of Shoshone, there's a bowling alley on the north end, and right beside the bowling alley is this huge air bubble back in the day that popped, if you will, when this country was setting up the yellow tone.
(21:31):
Blowtorch geologically we're a pretty young substrate or land down there north of Jerome. If you drill wells, it's almost a flip of the coin. Are you going to hit a layer of senders and have to case the well down or are you going to just be able to get away without doing that? Canal companies blasting canals and altering, they've had to go in and replace a bunch of domestic wells. If you've ever served on planning and zoning for my opinion, when the approved stamp goes on something you don't walk in later and say, oh, by the way, here's a problem that you caused. We'd like you to fix it. Well, of course local citizens can go to court, but unless it's actually in the permit that if the aquifer has issues that the company would've to be responsible for it. So those are kind of some highlights and I think the grumpiest part is just walking right over the top of the locals and assuming this is going to happen, the Japanese internment camp minidoka out there, all the people that relatives, there's still a few survivors that were interned there, and the disrespect of slapping those right up next to 'em just could really, the challenge would be in my community to find anybody that is for Lava Ridge.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (23:01):
Yeah, I was going to say there may be somebody in the state is for it, but I haven't heard from him. And Congressman Simpson has certainly on the DC level, been doing everything he can to pull funding and to kind of halt the brakes on that one. But again, it goes back to your point of local control of what's going up in your backyard and how the local have a say. Now we know you're pretty busy representative, but we have a tradition here we got to end with. Everyone that comes on the podcast gets asked two of the toughest questions. The first question is, if there was one book that you've read in your lifetime that you would recommend to our listeners, what is a book that you could recommend?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (23:38):
Boy, that's tough. I
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (23:40):
Told you they were tough questions.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (23:41):
I have a sickness of fishing I some fly time books and some websites would be really great, but maybe the one that made the biggest impact on me was probably Fever in the Heartland. It goes back to the age of the Ku Klux Klan in the upper Midwest and what led to the fall of the clan, if you will, why it went sideways and how many people bought into something that later they were pretty ashamed of.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (24:13):
Yeah, that's a Timothy Egan. Great. We love his books have been recommended a lot by your colleagues over there. I thought you were going to say River runs through it, but we'll take fever in the heartland. That's a good one. Now the second question might be a little easier in your district, beautiful district 26, I'm driving through there, what's one place you'd recommend I need to stop and grab something to eat?
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (24:36):
I'd say without picking one out in particular, I'd get in tons of trouble on that, but we have some of the neatest Mexican restaurants that have wonderful food anywhere. It's always sad when I travel and somebody says, Hey, we got this great Mexican restaurant. So we go in there and it just simply doesn't compare with the neat choices we have in Jerome. So absolutely all of our restaurants, we don't have a lot of tourists coming through Jerome, if you will, and for a place to be in business, they have to have great food. The flip side is quite the opportunity to go up to Kechum, sun Valley and all the vast array of restaurants that are up there. So I'll step around that as a politician. That
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (25:25):
Was a really clever step around,
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (25:28):
I'm a certified seafood guy. If I see it, I pretty much eat it.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (25:34):
I love it. So you got Mexican food a little bit better than Taco Bell and some other great classics representative. We really do appreciate your time. We've talked about everything from Launch Local Control, lava Ridge, and everything in between. So we appreciate what you're doing there. We're going to have you back once this session winds down and ends, and we can talk about everything that was accomplished and what you're looking forward to in an upcoming session. But until then, we wish you well.
Representative Jack Nelsen, District 26 Idaho (25:59):
Thanks for all that you do. It's quite the pleasure to be here.
Brennan Summers, Executive Director Main Street ID (26:03):
Thanks, representative.
