By Idaho Representative Steve Berch
I didn’t plan on sending this, but … the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) attacked me on the day after Christmas. They gave me a very low score on their index and accused me of being in “opposition to conservative education policy, limited government, and fiscal restraint.” To be clear: I welcome being ranked on the opposite end of a scale that exalts ultra-extremists as the paragons of legislative virtue.
Unlike the 31 legislators who vote 90-percent or more of the time in alignment with the IFF, I refuse to be a boot-licking lackey to an organization that:
• Reduces the value of a public servant to a single numerical score based on a made-up index.
• Refuses to disclose the sources from which their funding originates and without whom they couldn’t exist.
• Has vigorously worked for years to destroy Idaho’s public school system, which serves over 90% of our children.
• Hires a communications director who has been accused of posting anti-Semitic remarks on social media and was allegedly involved with the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.
My one regret is that I didn’t get the lowest IFF score. The lower the IFF score, the higher one scores on the Critical Thinking Index. I almost won this year’s Freedom award, which goes to the legislator who receives the lowest IFF score, which I did win in 2021.
Publisher’s note: The Institute for Legislative Analysis ranked Berch 96th out of 105 Idaho legislators, his having voted with the ILA but 24.76-percent of the time. Steve Berch has lived and worked in West Boise’s District 15 for 41 years. He was elected to the Idaho state legislature in 2018, representing District 15 (House Seat A). Steve is the first Democratic candidate ever elected – and re-elected – by his district. He serves on the House education, business and local government committees.