Propositions get all the attention

Anyone who wants to brush up on the candidates and propositions for the Nov. 6 election can pick up a sample ballot in the county clerk’s office at the courthouse.

 Frankly, I don’t think I’ll be in the voting booth for long on Nov. 6. The only contested races are for state offices and the Congressional District 1.

 The two propositions on the ballot, along with the governor’s race, are attracting the most attention right  now. They are fairly high-profile measures. 

 Proposition 1 is the horse racing initiative. Both opponents and proponents are spending sizeable amounts of money to influence voters on this one.

 Really, I don’t see the big deal here.  It strikes me as a narrow issue of limited scope and impact. Only the people who go to horse races or race horses are interested in the outcome. 

 Betting on horse racing, both live and simulcast, has been going on for a long time at tracks at Les Bois in Garden City.  

 I think I visited the track once. I really don’t know much about horse racing or betting odds. They have publications at the track with small print like box scores that provides stats on horses.

 You can bet that a horse will win or place. You can toss a couple of bucks at a trifecta, a longshot gamble that a number of horses will place in a certain order. I put down $2 on some horse that had an interesting name. I think the horse had a cold that day and leisurely galloped its way to last place. 

 The issue of contention is the language in Proposition 1 that would allow the historical horse race betting terminals at the race tracks. 

 Opponents of Prop 1 would have you believe that the betting terminals, which have some flash and noise, will open the doors to gambling. The next thing you know there will be slot machines at every 7-11 convenience store in the state.

 Of course, I’m a bit cynical about the opposition to the historical horse racing machines. Certainly, they can’t take the moral high ground on this one, considering some funding going to oppose the machines is from Idaho tribal entities  that have casino interests. 

 Proposition 2 is the Medicaid expansion to cover the “gap” population of 70,000 or so with health insurance.

 Somebody like Wayne Hoffman, president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, spends his waking hours frothing over this issue, decrying it as a big government expansion of Obamacare.

 The economics of medical care would suggest that providing health insurance can curb the tremendous costs we all pay when sick individuals use the emergency room as a doctor’s visit.

 We run Hoffman’s columns on a regular basis. I don’t usually agree with him, but he makes his points. He’s consistent at least, opposed to every social program for poor people in the state. 

 There are some people running for state offices in the election that I have never heard of.  Others, like constitutionalist Walt Bayes and Pro Life, are perennial candidates that I am familiar with.  

 At least the state is a little richer from the filing fees they paid to once again unsuccessfully run for office. 

 Steve Lyon is the editor of the Weiser Signal American. Contact him at scoop@signalamerican.org