A couple of quick (and inconclusive) election items for a Wednesday:
AJ Balukoff. Is the 16-year Boise School Board veteran planning to run against Gov. Butch Otter?
Balukoff hasn’t decided. And before he does make an announcement, probably sometime in mid-November, he’s going goose hunting in Canada.
“It’ll be peaceful and (my wife) Susie and I will have had plenty of discussion by then,” Balukoff told the Idaho Statesman’s Dan Popkey. “I’ll come back and be ready to make a decision one way or another.”
Balukoff tells Popkey that his wife has “yellow-lighted” the idea of a run.
Balukoff’s name has been in the rumor mill for months as a prospective Democratic challenger to Otter, who is expected to seek a third term in November.
Ben Ysursa. On Tuesday, the three-term secretary of state said he has missed his own self-imposed deadline for deciding whether to run for re-election.
But that doesn’t mean he has an announcement, at least not yet. If Ysursa runs, he could face a GOP primary challenge from state Rep. Lawerence Denney of Midvale, a former Idaho House speaker.
According to the Associated Press: “Among Ysursa’s potential considerations for running is whether his traditional faction of the GOP can field a strong candidate to face the more-conservative Denney in the May 2014 Republican primary.”
The secretary of state is Idaho’s chief elections official, among other duties. But the office also carries a seat on the state Land Board, which manages state lands on behalf of several endowment beneficiaries, including public schools.
