The Common Interest is a group of everyday Idahoans--Republicans, Democrats,
and independents--who've come together to think about tough problems and offer
practical solutions. We do this by approaching government in the way our
founding fathers intended. Our founders cautioned us against splitting
ourselves into “factions”—what we, today, would call political parties or
special interests. Our founders knew that in order to find the best
solutions to our problems, we needed to work together across the lines that
tend to divide us. That's what we've done at The Common Interest.
And we’ve succeeded. We’ve lowered property taxes on Idaho homeowners and
we’ve protected your private property rights. We beat back Otter’s
proposal to build a private prison and his proposal to raise car and pickup
truck registration fees by 138 percent in the middle of a recession.
When I’m elected governor, I promise to follow The Common Interest
model. This means that for every decision I make, I’ll be asking myself:
“What is in the interest of everyday Idahoans?” instead of worrying about
special interests or the interests of a particular political party. This
also means that for a few top priorities I’ll actually involve everyday Idahoans
in the decision making process through a series of four straightforward steps.
First, having identified the problem for which we need a solution, I’ll lead
the effort to gather the best information available. We’ll meet with those
who come at the problem from various perspectives and capture their ideas in a
brief. I’ll make sure that this brief gives full and fair expression to
the competing perspectives.
Second, I’ll invite thousands of everyday Idahoans, randomly selected from
the registered voter list, to read the brief online and offer their good
judgment.
Third, I’ll introduce legislation that proposes the solutions for which a
strong majority of those thousands of everyday Idahoans expressed support.
Fourth, I’ll partner with the thousands of everyday Idahoans whose good
judgment formed the basis of the bill and with every other concerned Idahoan to
make sure that the bill makes it through the legislative process.
A governor in partnership with thousands of informed and activated Idahoans
can prevail over special interests and partisan politics.