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Ahlquist makes good showing to small crowd |
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October 15, 2017 |
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By Mike Weland
As a three-way Idaho Republican gubernatorial
primary election May 15, 2018, heats up, the only
candidate who has never before run for political
office became the first candidate to pay a visit
to Bonners Ferry earlier this month, and while
the crowd at the Bonners Ferry Visitors Center
was small, Dr. Tommy Ahlquist was able to
present his blueprint "for an even better Idaho"
as he adroitly adroitly fielded a wide-ranging barrage of
questions.
Dr. Ahlquist, Boise, an emergency room physician
for 18 years and entrepreneur since high school,
told the eight or nine in attendance on
Saturday. October 7, the
three-prong outline of his "Conservative
Blueprint for an even Better Idaho," which forms
the foundation of his platform in his
campaign against U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador
and Idaho Attorney General Brad Little in the
Republican battle to take Butch Otter's seat.
"We started this campaign eight months ago
taking on career politicians," Ahlquist said. "We're
off to a great start!"
What has given seasoned politicians and the
voting public alike cause to sit
up and take notice of his campaign, he said, is his
clear vision, a solid plan and relentless
action.
"We're focused on getting things done," he told
those in attendance.
His visit to Boundary
County is part of a tour that will take him to
all 44 of Idaho's counties, where, he said. He
plans to meet with people in the community, with
community leaders and public servants, the
owners of business large and small, to hear what
is happening in every corner of the state, not
just Boise and the Magic Valley.
"The more we can do at the state level to
provide what you need at the local level, then
get out of the way," he said, "the better. State
regulations are getting harder to follow every
year. We need to overhaul our tax structure so
we can compete with surrounding states. Idaho is
44th in the nation in median wage, we lead the
nation in families living paycheck to paycheck.
We're 43rd in the nation in the percentage of
high school students graduating. We need to do
better and we can do better."
Dr. Ahlquist spoke of his years in the emergency
room, but it's his experience in business, he
said, that drives his ideas on the state's role.
As a developer, he said, he's built over a
million square feet, mostly business space, in
and around Boise, investing over $375-million
into the state of Idaho.
Tax reform and government spending, he said, is
one leg of his platform.
If he's elected, he said, his administration
will begin tax reform on day one and identify
$100-million in wasteful tax spending in the
state in his first 100 days. He will, he said,
reform Idaho's tax code to make it more fair,
flat and simple for Idaho's families and
businesses.
Another leg, he said, is education, and he
pointed out that addressing issues in education
will, by itself, resolve many issues affecting
Idaho business.
"I'm tired of the status quo," he said. "Idaho
is 49th in the nation in per-pupil spending, yet
63-percent of every Idaho tax dollar goes to
education! We need to do more with what we have,
we need to define our education goals; reading
proficiency by the third grade, math by the
eighth grade, career readiness by graduation,
whether that's continued education or job and
technical training. Local school districts are
overwhelmed by the flood of state and federal
mandates, and you know what?
"If they'd cut that
red tape, step back, set goals and step out of
the way of local school boards, you'd see local
solutions to local business problems springing
up throughout the state. We'd be plugging Idaho
kids into Idaho jobs and not making them look
elsewhere to earn a decent living. If we fix
education, we fix most of our problems."
If elected, he promises to cut state mandates on
local school boards by at least 25-percent, to
set achievable, sustainable common sense goals
and to increase school choice options state
wide.
The third leg of his three-legged platform, he
said, is, no surprise, healthcare, an area he
said he has watched deteriorate steadily since he
earned his medical degree some 30 years ago.
"When I started as a doctor, the system was
built on doctor-patient relations," he said. "A
physician had a one-on-one relation with the
patient and costs were more fair. In the decades
since, government regulation has increased and
then along comes Obamacare. Before, Idaho was
one of the most affordable states for health
care. Now there are 55 separate mandates per
insurance policy, prices have skyrocketed and
the quality of care has declined."
As governor, he said, one of his first acts
would be to demand a state waiver from Obamacare
and institute policies that, he said, would make
Idaho the model for conservative health care
reform nation wide.
"I will fight to bring back the doctor-patient
relationship, to reform Medicaid so it's the
safety net it was intended to be, not the
catch-all it has become to cover every one.
Medicare is supposed to be there to help
high-risk patients, and that's what it should be
used for. You want to cut costs? Provide care to
those at high medical risk to keep them as
healthy as possible! It's that simple!"
During his visit, with him sitting comfortably
as more like part of the audience than a
candidate hat in hand, the discussion ranged
from government ethics, he believes in term
limits for state office holders, to financial
disclosure, Idaho is a rare state in not
requiring it, but voters have the right and the
need to know where candidates stand and who they
support (even though he has come under fire for
contributing to Democrats), to access to public
lands, Idaho is a better steward of its lands
than a bureaucrat in Washington D.C., and more.
It was a wide ranging, and while the crowd was
small, there were stalwart Democrat,
Libertarians and Republicans, and going out,
most seemed impressed. They might not all vote
for him next November if he wins the Republican
primary in May, but each will surely take him
more seriously as a candidate. |
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