Is Part of Oregon Becoming Idaho?
Hey, Dave Edwards, Treasure Valley Dave here in Eagle, Idaho. There’s been a lot of talk in the news about the Greater Idaho movement proposal where you’re bringing in part of Oregon to become part of Idaho. Is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? Why would they want to do such a thing? Well, let’s check it out.
Greater Idaho Update
Here’s a news story that came out recently about how we will continue talking and exploring what it looks like to become a part of this Greater Idaho thing. I’ve listened to this interview here with Matt McCaw. He’s in Oregon and is the spokesperson for this project. And just a few of the things they’re talking about here is this approval by the Idaho House representatives signals that Idaho will continue talking with Oregon about this “Greater Idaho” movement.
Essentially, “the Greater Idaho movement proposes that nearly everything east of the Cascades — except for Bend — becomes part of Idaho. Currently, 11 Oregon counties are supporting the move.” That sounds pretty wild.
Who Welcomes This Movement?
So, Matt McCaw is the spokesman for the Greater Idaho proposal. I agree with him when he said, “The people of eastern Oregon are much more similar to the people of Idaho than they are to the people of West Oregon in almost every way: socially, culturally, economically, politically.”
He added, “They would prefer state government from the state of Idaho to this government they’ve got from the state of Oregon.” So if you’ve done any research and kept up with the news, you can see a vast difference between the state governments of Oregon and Idaho.
Another representative from Oregon said, “I didn’t use to support it, but I have to tell you, after some of the ballot measures I’ve seen and some of the activities in Salem [that’s the capital of Oregon], I can sure see why people would be drawn to support this.” So I think he’s probably right there.
And this guy also continued, “But I must say it’s really sad that we would be looking at such a dramatic change. We could attribute it to the overreach by the urban areas, particularly Portland, in trying to impose whatever their standards are on the rest of the state.” So that’s a very fair statement.
Map Proposals
Here’s one diagram of what the Greater Idaho movement map could look like. It shows over two-thirds of Oregon becoming a part of Idaho.
Meanwhile, the Greater Idaho map on the movement’s official website shows that the Oregon counties in red have already voted to join Idaho. The green ones are counties that will be voting next on joining Idaho. And the few gray ones are counties that still need to vote on it.
The difference between both maps is the coastal area. It’d be cool if Idaho suddenly became a coastal state. That’d be pretty wild.
How Many People Could Become Idahoans?
Well, Matt McCoy said that there are about 400,000 people that would be leaving Oregon and added to the Greater Idaho population. Of course, these are the more conservative people in the agricultural areas. They are very much akin to what we have here in Idaho.
House Resolution No. 21
A legislature in Idaho said that the “House representatives [pledged] to continue actively engaging in discussions with the Greater Idaho movement to determine the best possible course for Idaho.”
Well, that’s reassuring. We want to ensure that whatever happens with this program is also a benefit for Idaho. We have this wanting to help anybody else that wants to escape liberalism, but we got to be sensible about it too. And I’m glad that last November, we had a conservative group of people that now make up our legislature, particularly the Senate. So the House of Representatives has always been conventional too. And when you compare the level of the conservativeness of our legislature to that of Oregon, it’s just a night and day difference.
How Legislation Protects Idahoans
One thing that goes through our legislature right now is that “the Idaho Senate passed legislation banning immigration sanctuary cities or similar moves by government entities […]”. That means that the mayor of Boise, for example, cannot just say, “Well, we’re going to be a sanctuary city. And if you’re illegal, you could come to the city, and we’ll never arrest. You can do whatever you want.” No, we pretty much are law-abiding up here. And as law-abiding people, we also like to see others abide by the law. So that’s one thing the conservative Senate is doing to protect Idaho.
New York Post on People Leaving California
So here’s another story from the New York Post: “Over 500,000 people left California in two years.”
“Over 500,000 Californians left the state in the two years after the pandemic began due to rising housing costs and crowded, crime-filled cities.” And they also said that some of the big reasons are “unaffordable housing, long commute times, crowds, crime and pollution in urban areas, and homelessness.”
They also said, “It could take up to two years to recover from all these people leaving.” When they say “recover,” they mean to get those numbers back. And those numbers will open the border to the south. A lot of the population comes in from there. And bless their hearts; they want a better life too. But it’s not people moving back from Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Idaho to California. So it’s just not going to happen.
Greater Idaho - California Relation
But anyway, the point about this is that because of similar issues happening in Portland, I cannot blame these people for wanting to become part of Idaho. We need to make sure Idaho does it right. There will be a lot of space for other people from California who want to move to a part of Idaho and become part of a good place that’s better governed and managed. So many people who have come to Idaho already from California are Idahoans at heart. They have that mentality that they want to be good neighbors, be left alone, follow the law, and hopefully, our judges will imprison law-breakers.
This change could be an excellent thing for us. We’re going to have many more conservative people joining Idaho, and we have a lot more room for more people who come from, say, California. I know people are escaping Arizona because many non-conservative Californians moved there.
Wrapping Up
Is this something that you would support? I’d like to know.
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Anyway, this is Dave Edwards of Treasure Valley Dave. I look forward to hoping you get home.
