Idaho

Idaho has a plural executive of seven statewide elected officials: the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the State Controller, the State Treasurer, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Each is elected independently, including the Governor and Lieutenant Governor, who run separately rather than as a ticket, so the two can come from different parties.

The Lieutenant Governor presides over the State Senate and becomes acting governor whenever the Governor leaves the state. With so many officers elected on their own, the Governor leads the executive branch but shares authority with colleagues who answer to voters. The Governor appoints the heads of the executive agencies that aren’t separately elected.

The Idaho Legislature is bicameral, built on 35 legislative districts that each elect one senator and two representatives, so there are 35 senators and 70 representatives, all serving two-year terms with no term limits. It is a part-time, citizen legislature, with pay of $25,000 a year plus a per diem during the session, and members typically hold other careers.

Unusually, Idaho’s constitution sets no fixed limit on the length of the session and no mandatory adjournment date. In practice the Legislature takes pride in finishing its business quickly, usually convening in early January and adjourning by late March or sometime in spring, but it can stay longer when needed, the discipline is political and budgetary rather than constitutional.

A bill is introduced, sent to committee, and, if it advances, voted on the floor of each chamber, with differences reconciled before final passage. The Governor can sign a bill, veto it, or let it become law, and holds a line-item veto over appropriations; a veto override takes two-thirds of each chamber.

Idaho’s most distinctive recent story is the battle over the citizen initiative. Idahoans have the constitutional right to enact statutes and repeal laws at the ballot, and have used it on high-profile issues like Medicaid expansion. After that, the Legislature passed a law requiring signatures from all 35 legislative districts to qualify a measure, a threshold so demanding that critics said it would make initiatives practically impossible. In 2021 the Idaho Supreme Court struck the law down, ruling that the Legislature cannot impose requirements that effectively nullify a right the constitution guarantees to the people. The fight over how accessible direct democracy should be remains a live issue.

The Governor appoints the heads of the non-elected agencies, proposes the budget, can call special sessions, holds emergency powers, wields a line-item veto, and holds the clemency power (with most pardons and commutations handled by an independent Commission of Pardons and Parole). With no term limits, an Idaho governor can serve at length.

A recurring wrinkle is the office of Lieutenant Governor: because it is elected separately and becomes acting governor whenever the Governor is out of state, an acting lieutenant governor of a different faction has occasionally issued orders while the Governor was away. The main internal checks are the six other independently elected statewide officers, the two-thirds override, and the voters’ initiative power.

Idaho elects its judges in nonpartisan elections at every level. The Idaho Supreme Court sits at the top, above the Court of Appeals and the trial-level District and Magistrate courts. The Governor fills mid-term judicial vacancies by appointment from a Judicial Council’s list, after which the appointee must stand in the next nonpartisan election. Despite the elected bench, it was this court that enforced the people’s initiative right against the Legislature, underscoring its independence.