Idaho 2012 Election Results

Idaho held its general election on November 6, 2012, deciding 105 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Voters overwhelmingly rejected the education overhaul the Legislature had passed in 2011 with the backing of Gov. Butch Otter and schools Superintendent Tom Luna. Republicans kept their two-thirds majorities unchanged, 28-7 in the Senate and 57-13 in the House.
• Supporters called the laws Students Come First; opponents called them the Luna Laws. Each went to voters as a referendum, and a no vote repealed it. Proposition 1 would have phased out teacher tenure and limited collective bargaining, Proposition 2 set up performance-based teacher pay, and Proposition 3, which promised laptops for every high school student, failed by the widest margin. The state teachers' union led the repeal petition drive, and the two sides spent more than $6 million combined.
• Only 2 seats changed party, both in Boise's District 18, where Democrats won rematches against Republicans who had narrowly beaten them in 2010:
  • Branden Durst (D) unseated Sen. Mitch Toryanski (R) by about 7 points.
  • Janie Ward-Engelking (D) unseated Rep. Julie Ellsworth (R) by about 11 points.
  In District 5, Cindy Agidius (R) won a House seat by about 120 votes over Paulette Jordan (D). Sen. Dan Schmidt (D), who had represented the old District 6, held the redrawn District 5 Senate seat by about 400 votes over Gresham Bouma (R).
• Voters approved both constitutional amendments by wide margins: HJR 2 added a right to hunt and fish to the state constitution, and SJR 102 gave the State Board of Correction control of felony probation and parole.

Legislature

• House (70 seats): 13 D, 57 R before the election, 13 D, 57 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (35 seats): 7 D, 28 R before the election, 7 D, 28 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Legislative races

Ballot measures