2020 General Election Coverage

Your complete source for election news and information.

Election Results

Ada County Highway District 4

Candidate Votes Percentage
Gary N. Schaeffer 4,133
17%
Christopher A. Campbell 4,392
18%
Dave Case 6,514
27%
Kent Goldthorpe 9,235
38%

Helpful Resources

Ada County Highway District 4 Survey Responses

Party
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		Nonpartisan race
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		Nonpartisan Election
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Republican
Education
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		Bachelor’s degree in Fire Services Administration 2014 from Eastern Oregon University and a Associates degree in Emergency Services from Portland Community College 1992.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		Some College
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Bachelor Degree with 40 graduate hrs toward Masters
Occupation and relevant work experience
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		Fire Captain with the Boise Fire Department. I have been a fire and emergency services professional for 30-years, starting in Oregon and working the last 25-years with the city of Boise.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		None of my formal education has had to do with the position of ACHD Commissioner, however being the Commissioner from my district for the past 4 years has been an invaluable qualifier going forward. Other qualifications include my experience working with people, customer and community service, as well as working on different projects and for various causes.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Former: Mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, human resources and community relations manager for oil company and refinery, state and federal lobbyist, veteran, school teacher, business owner, retired. Best of all; father, grandfather and great-grandfather.
Past political experience and campaigns
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		Aside from being an Executive Board member for the International Association of Firefighters Local 149, this will be my first dive into politics. So this has been a learning curve for me.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		4 years as the current ACHD Commissioner form district 4. I have either managed my own or other campaigns as well as been a campaign worker on a number of campaigns. I have served as a precinct committeeman and District Chairman of districts 21 and 22 for the Idaho Republican Party.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Mayor of Cheyenne, Wyoming, helped and managed several successful and a few unsuccessful political campaigns in Wyoming and Idaho.
Have you ever filed for bankruptcy for yourself or for your business? If yes, please tell us when and the circumstances.
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		No, but I did get caught in the housing crisis.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		1990, Chapter 13 reorganization filing. Under Idaho law, I, as Managing General Partner of 4 Limited Partnerships that dissolved that same year post-1986 tax law changes, was personally responsible for remaining liabilities of those partnerships and needed more time to pay those debts. 2007, Chapter 7 after a serious illness left me unable to work full time for 4 years.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Yes. Medical bills from five back and neck surgeries
Have you been convicted of any misdemeanor or felony charges? (Traffic citations not included). If yes, what were the convictions and the circumstances?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		No, other than a few traffic tickets I think I am clean.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		In 2002 I had an Idaho Fish & Game violation
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		No
Why are you running for this office?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		To be honest and frank I was sitting in traffic complaining about the congestion and how I felt that no one at ACHD has any idea what they are doing; when my spouse said stopping (complaining) about it and do something. So, I decided to run for office. Honestly, over the last few years I have become increasing frustrated by what I feel is a disconnect with the needs of the driving public and direction of both ACHD and IDT. The roads are becoming increasingly congested with explosive growth that is overwhelming the current infrastructure. It appears that current planning and building of roads is rapidly falling behind, with no end in sight and no real future plans for moving the estimated over one million people that are predicted to live in the valley by Compass. I understand the need to let everyone have a stake in how they want their community but the fact is we need good roads that will meet future capacity requirements.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		While there has been much improvement at ACHD there is more to do. I have enabled much more transparency in the budgeting process with 4 public budget meetings now instead of 2 and the budget document itself covering more detail. The Commission is less "passive" in terms of acquiescing to staff reports and just going along with recommendations. We question more and policies such as access management and medians have been changed. The LOS policy section is about to undergo major changes, this after my leading the rejection/deferral of the first iteration brought before the commission. The public and neighborhood groups are all much better informed as to the ACHD authority regarding plat denials and LOS issues. That should include the land use planning authority of City Councils and County Commissions as well so that ACHD will no longer be the reason those planning entities make their decisions the way they do.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Frustration with the lack of leadership, common sense and follow through of current elected officials. Too much conflict of interest by current officials taking contributions of developers for variances and waivers. Developers are out of control with eyes on money only.
What are your top three priorities if elected?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		1. Reducing congestion by eliminate traffic bottlenecks that slow and increase the time you spend sitting traffic. 2. Pushing for alternatives for the driving public. Getting Idaho’s legislature to allow for local option taxes and increase funding of Valley Regional Transit. 3. Fully evaluate the all the current projects and re-prioritize them based on growth and the needs of the commuting public. I don’t believe it is a good idea to be resurfacing a bunch of streets that may not be perfect but very sound, while main travel routes like Cole or Five Mile Roads, as an example, are in desperate need to be widen to reduce congestion.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		1. To continue informing the public on matters of ACHD authority and how changes can be made to those levels of authority, this to help the public in their efforts to first understand and then better combat traffic congestion. The new iteration of the ACHD LOS policy will come before the Board in November if not sooner. 2. To expand the sources of revenue to ACHD. The Idaho legislature has refused any further revenue assistance until such time as ACHD has exhausted the other revenue tools available to us. 3. To concentrate on road renovation in my district to alleviate congestion as well as the expansion of the State Street corridor for future successful transit operations.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Common sense approach, make developers accountable and have a realistic and necessary future plan.
Why should voters select you over your opponent(s)?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		Honestly, I don’t know a whole lot about my opponent’s. Commissioner Goldthorpe seems to be a decent person who is very involved and has given a lot to the community. My only issues with him is that I attempted to get a few questions answered from his perspective and he had a spokesman with ACHD respond to me. The main thing I can offer is a fresh outlook for our community. I have never held a public office, I am not tied to a political party (I think I am registered as a Republican but I would claim to be Independent or Moderate). If I am elected this will be a large learning curve for me and hopefully I will serve my community to the best of my abilities.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		Two of my opponents have zero experience at this and are running on a single issue, one being that he hates chip sealing and the other has stated a general feeling that ACHD fails at everything, both crazy reasons to be elected. My other opponent, Dave Case is never going to get along with the City of Boise, won't even try as far as I have seen. He has allocated limited expenditures in Kuna, just over $100K per year while he was in office. In my tenure, Kuna has been allocated over $1M per year for their infrastructure needs. Mr. Case is currently still at odds with the City of Meridian as well having sued them for the past several years while in office as a County Commissioner. I will never condone an illegal employee termination as my opponent has at Ada County and cost the county a fortune in taxpayer dollars. Neighborhood groups enjoy my open, helpful and courteous style as opposed to just the opposite from Mr Case.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		I am not part of the existing problem.
Do you think ACHD?s five year plan does enough to support the growth that is projected for the region? What areas would you improve?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		I think the five year plan is a good start but I would like to see it focus more on getting our arterials to a point that they don’t have bottle necks and are truly reducing congestion. Roads like 10-Mile, Cole or Five Mile, as an example, should be rapidly developed and widened to full capacity for the entire length of it, not just small one mile chunks that take years to finish the entire length. If you look into the long range plan there seems to be a disconnect in areas in SW Ada County that the planners have not identified a need to have north south streets widened a head of the growth, yet they continue to get a stamp of approval to new subdivisions that are impacting every segment of our infrastructure. I think that Ustick is a good example where they widened a longer segment and it has made a great impact on transportation but I also believe the construction should have continued all the way past Black Cat. In reality, I know there is only so much money to go around and if you do one project, something else has to give but that goes back to my belief that we to take a really hard look at what its really needed immediately versus what can wait or is a pet project for someone.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		I would advocate for assisting our municipal partners in making decisions to re-prioritize some projects in order to get ahead of the congestion curve in areas such as south 10 Mile Rd expansion, Linder and Cloverdale expansion, just to name a few. I have worked closely with the Kuna Economic Development director and there exists a great opportunity to bring industry to Kuna without first having to build an overpass at Swan Falls Rd. ACHD needs to prioritize budget to bring road infrastructure to this area before light industry comes. This will allow the approximately half of the population of Kuna to have career options closer to home and the need to drive into Boise would greatly diminish along with the accompanying congestion.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		It is hard to say. The plan has been adopted from what I can see. Final comments were due in September of 2017. I think the plan does a lot but is geared toward certain developers and not the best interests of ADA County residents.They should have addressed how to mitigate water usage or shortage, landfill permitting, sewage treatment and requiring greater participation from developers in all stages and long term maintenance.
What role, if any, should the highway district play in public transportation discussions?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		I think public transportation is key to moving mass amounts of people, cities like Portland, Salt Lake City and even Missoula have done a great job of developing bus and train systems to reduce congestion and making a convenient system that riders will use. I believe that in the future the Treasure Valley is going to need a reliable and strong public transportation system and that ACHD should be a voice a pushing for, if not leading the effort to increase the system we have now.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		First and foremost, ACHD should not stand in the way of the buildout of transit infrastructure development. Secondly, ACHD should do everything in its power to advocate and enable a permanent funding source for public transit. The District should apply more pressure on VRT to show the true ROI picture offered by utilizing transit, as the District does so well with Commuterride.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Discussions are great and necessary. But ACHD should not put any money into public transportation. I am totally against any rail service.
Do you support the commission?s effort to raise vehicle registration fees? Do you feel it?s the right way for the district to gain additional revenue?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		I know there is a need for more revenue but I also feel like the longtime residents are being financially burdened by the new growth and urban sprawl that has resulted. Rather than doing an across the board raise on everyone’s registration, I’d like to see a system that is tapered, I.E. for a family that has living in Idaho for generations/years, perhaps they don’t have an increase in their registration fees or even receive a discount. For newly arrived residents they would be required pay higher fees.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		I support the ballot initiative to raise revenues through increased vehicle registration fees. The public must decide. After utilizing scientific polling and a public survey this method was the overwhelming choice of the public if we are to go to raise revenues. There are other methods of raising revenues, all of which were rejected by the public in going out to them for their input. We will support a legislative change to bring additional, heavier vehicles into the registration fee pool. I have, on my own, waged a campaign to bring in the illegally registered personal vehicles that do not currently pay the ACHD registration fee, some $400,000 - $600,000 per year. It is nearing success.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Absolutely not! I think the district needs to spend the monies they currently have and will get properly. They have enough money. No new taxes or fees.
Do you think the county needs more bike and pedestrian infrastructure? What areas of the county would you prioritize?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		I do believe that alternative transportation is required; it reduces automobiles on the road, improves air quality and provides a healthy alternative for the community. I believe that there should be dedicated bike and walking routes that a separated from the roadways. This provides the safest alternative for those who choose to ride. But I am also a realist and realize that there is only so much money to go around and that funding these projects can be a challenge. There needs to a strong look at where are you going to get the most bang for your buck and who is going to benefit the most. Areas like downtown, Meridian city center and around school transportation routes should be on a higher list because they appear to have potential for the most use.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		This is already a priority for ACHD. There are several major bikeway projects throughout the County but particularly in Boise that are well received. The Emerald corridor that goes out to 10 Mile Rd in Meridian needs to be completed ASAP. One of my pet long-range projects in the "Rail with Trail" corridor along the railroad right-of-way. I would gladly support the building of many "Park N Rides" to support the large volume of vehicles that would be taken off the road in order for bike traffic to bring potentially thousands of workers into Meridian and Boise with a huge reduction in congestion as well as infrastructure maintenance costs.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		More pedestrian infrastructure, absolutely. Bike infrastructure would be down the list. Often bike rights interfere with vehicle rights. Vehicles are what roads are made for and they pay for the roads. I am not in favor of bike paths outside of the "cities" boundary. They are dangerous for bikers and vehicles alike. Plus very expensive to add for the amount of people actually using them. Downtown areas are different. Are there bike fees for road improvements and maintenance?
What do you feel the commission should be doing differently than it currently is?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		Honestly, I would like to say there are all kinds of things they could be doing differently but it would be remiss of me to throw something out there without having some firsthand knowledge of what is behind the motor and challenges that run the commission. I think the commission needs to take a close look at all the small projects and decide if they are truly necessary and focus on building and widening the current arterial routes that are rapidly becoming overwhelmed. Get this infrastructure up to where it needs to be even if it isn’t required currently. One of the best projects completed was the widening of Federal Way, at the time I doubt the traffic counts would have supported it being widened but it has turned out to have been a very smart proactive decision.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		The Commission needs to get along better. We have common goals and some different ideas about how to get there. Making our differences personal and going after each other in the public eye is absolutely the worst way to conduct business known to man.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Play less favorites to developers and elected officials. Take the concerns of current residents into account before any new developments. Find solutions to increased water and, sanitation usage. Address and solve traffic and congestion problems before new developments are allowed.
Do you feel the commission has a healthy relationship with other area governmental bodies, such as the city of Boise?
Christopher Campbell
Nonpartisan race 		That is tough question, I know there has been some friction but also some give and take between the commission and cities. The cities have their goals and priorities which may or may not be most beneficial for ACHD and transportation. A few years ago the city of Boise was not in favor of Ustick being widen but the Commission knew that it was in the best interest of transportation needs and went ahead and did it. In this case, the sacrificing of the cities wants were more important and beneficial to the community/valley as a whole. The commission needs to keep an open mind to the wants and needs of our city leaders, but also it has to keep the community moving, that is the job of the highway district. One area I would like to see, includes better planning and working with IDT to fix and modernize our highways, including the nightmare that is Chinden Blvd. The commission should be working to make the leaders of IDT, Compass and our state legislature realize that there needs to be an additional exit off I-84 between Eagle and the Connector, and in the future more exits further west including the Highway 16 connection to route traffic north.
Kent F Goldthorpe
Nonpartisan Election 		On occasion. Our staffs get along well. That ends when things come before the Commission. If the city wants projects that are safe, meet the highest standards of construction quality and the bid process is open and honest then the City of Boise (and all other municipalities) should have a greater say in what happens on the roads within their jurisdictions. The relationship with the city of Meridian is the "Gold Standard" in my estimation. I have assisted in keeping it that way by encouraging frequent meetings with the Mayor. The very best example of this in my mind occurred during the "Snowmageddon" event 2 years ago. Mayor Tammy called me, we got the Director on the line and within a very short time had three graders with blades contracted to remove snow along with the ACHD equipment. There was no name calling, no quibbling and no going to the press except to thank each other and our respective constituents for thier patience and efforts.
Gary Schaeffer
Republican 		Not really. There is no trust. Jealousy prevails and self-importance is paramount. Term limits. NO MORE than two terms for anyone. 2