Tag: Boise, Idaho

With that wave of urbanization and economic development has come a new political chemistry in this conservative rural state. He described himself as an enthusiastic but uncommitted Democrat who planned to vote on Tuesday in a primary where the open seat for governor is the headline attraction. Image “People keep thinking, ‘Oh, you’ve got all these people moving in, it’s going to kind of moderate and you’re going to get a two-party system,’” said Gary Moncrief, a retired professor at Boise State University who has studied the state for 40 years. “People have been talking about that now for 30 years and it just hasn’t happened, and part of that is because of the nature of the people that are moving here.” In the primary, almost all the candidates for governor are reaching out in various ways to the altered electorate, either to suggest that greater change is possible now in a boom economy, or that the line against further change will be defended. Tommy Ahlquist, a physician and businessman who has had a hand in the boom as a developer, is pledging more economic growth. The Boise Co-op, for example, a beloved 45-year-old symbol of the North End — generally considered the city’s most liberal neighborhood — spent $3.5 million to open a grocery store in Meridian, 10 miles to the west, where conservative politics run deep and California license plates are common. Whether voters in the midst of a boom move left or right, many residents say the strains of change are deep, as farms and ranches on the city’s edge get chewed up into housing, and high-wage tech workers outcompete the locals. Gentle is a Democrat who said she has found herself moving to the left and will vote for Ms. Jordan. Ms. Oliver, 29, the tech recruiter, said it feels like a bubble. Her employer, Paylocity, an Illinois-based company that expanded in Idaho in 2015, will continue its growth curve outside Boise.