State Dem. Chair Cornforth speaks at Weiser Little Theater

Editor’s Note:
 State Democratic Party Chairman Fred Cornforth spoke at the Weiser Little Theater in Weiser on May 25.
 Cornforth (Garden City) was selected by the state central committee in March to replace former Democratic Party Chairman Bert Marley, who stepped down a year ago after serving two terms.
 About 19 people attended the Tuesday evening meeting, hosted by the Washington County Democrats.
 Highlighting his rural Christian background, Cornforth called on Idaho’s Democratic party to take back control of a state run by the Republican majority.
 He said the Idaho Republican Party has fallen short in its approach to education and tax relief, and addressed the loss of Democrats in rural areas, offering a solution that involves greater attention and cohesion among party members and understanding across party lines.
 The following is a compilation of notes taken from Cornforth’s talk during Tuesday’s meeting. Washington County Democrat Chair Linda Strain provided the notes and accompanying comments and insights to the Weiser Signal American.
by Linda Strain
 The Washington County Democrats met the evening of May 25 in Weiser.
 Our speaker was newly elected Idaho State Democratic Chair Fred Cornforth, from Garden City. He attended high school in Belgrade, Mont., but is a long-time Idahoan from a logging family and homesteaders born in Blackfoot.
 “People with calluses on their hands are [my] type of people,” he said. “It is an incredible honor to be elected State party chair. We are the minority party, and it is not even close. Things need to be different in our state. We have dropped the rope in our competition with the Republican Party.  We need to stand up and take back our power. We are in the middle of a U-turn in our party.  The present legislature even wants us to ask permission to name our streets.”
 Something has happened in rural Idaho that we have lost so many Democrats. Blame it on not listening. What has happened, is we have not pulled together. To change that, it will take 44 counties worth of strategy to get our state back. The Party wants to listen and must listen. We have exceptional Democratic leaders out of Boise’s north end, but we need to expand on that. We see areas where we have a chance, like district 10.
 Our Legislators have attacked education at all levels this year – from denying funding for teachers to refusing to accept federal grants for kindergarten and universities. Education is what raised him up and made a different life possible. He was a  member of FFA, moved pipe, and worked on a family farm. Critical knowledge and skills to survive are taught in schools, from welding, cooking, sewing on a button in home economics class. Is that even available in our schools anymore? It troubles him when he sees our neighbors that are Republicans, not see it.
 He shared a story of himself as a former minister, where his father asked him to read Romans 1 in the Bible. He said he was not sure of the lesson he was supposed to learn until his father told him, “now to read Romans 2.”  The message is that we should not judge. That should also be applied here. If we are going to win, we cannot judge our Republican friends. Once we start to judge, we lose our ability to communicate. We do not like being told what to do, that is common among all of us.
 He, in his adult life, became an apartment developer for affordable housing. Cornforth has taken his education, life with dedicated parents, and took it to develop affordable housing in Idaho communities. An apartment complex in Payette, behind the high school, was one of his first projects.
 Right now, we have 17 out of 105 seats in the Idaho Legislature and we have several that we feel we have a chance of turning. We see a lot of hope in our eyes, every day we show up. Our party was too focused on our leader Cecil Andrus. His gift was not building our party, but to get many people with different views to walk in the same direction together.  
 The hard hearts can be changed through service. Come alongside them. We must listen more than we talk. How can we advance and come together? Challis is seeing 50 percent home price increases, mostly due to people buying second homes. Idaho is the second worst for property taxes, behind Nebraska. The Legislature did not pass one education bill, legitimate property tax relief, but took the ability to name our community streets away. Then they had to take a two-week break because they refused to wear masks and COVID started spreading among them.  Scott Bedke called it a vacation.
 “My feelings, as the chair of the Washington County Democrats is that Chairman Cornforth speaks wisely and practices what he preaches,” Strain said. “We are Idahoans. We need to listen to one another and stop casting blame and ugliness when we do not always have our way. We need to come alongside, listen to each other, and solve the issues that impact us as Idahoans. It won’t be easy, but nothing worthwhile is.”
 

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