It's hard to believe that we're halfway through Week 4!
I'm having the time of my life!
On the evening of November 5, 2024, Sylvia and I were at the home of our very good friends Randy and Colleen Crawford for an “Election Watch” party. My good friend, Lucas Cayler and his girlfriend Naomi were there, too, along with dozens of our close friends and family watching anxiously as precinct-by-precinct, we were headed for victories in our races. In the end, I was honored to receive 10,995 votes (65.9%) and Lucas received 10,906 votes (65.4%) from the voters of Idaho’s District 11 to serve as their State Representatives for two years. For the first time in many years, the people in our Legislative district would have a unified team to go to work for them in the Idaho House.
Camille Blaylock was the biggest winner that night in District 11 in her race for State Senate, earning 11,148 votes (65.9%).
It was a “flurry” of activity from that point on for all of us as we began to prepare for our nearly three months at the Idaho Capitol that would begin with our official swearing in on December 5, 2024. During that first week of December, we had several long days of intensive training — trying to cram as much information in as they could to prepare us for what was to come when we would officially begin the first session of the 68th Legislature on January 6th.
As we took our Oaths of Office, and I looked around the room at all the men and women who were each selected to represent between 55,000 and 60,000 people… I realized what a huge and awesome responsibility has been entrusted to us. I can assure you that we don’t take it lightly and that both of us are resolute in carrying out the tasks that are set before us and in keeping all of our campaign promises to the people who elected us, and with the help and guidance of our God in Heaven, we will accomplish it all.
My nearly 96-year-old mother, Shirley, along with my best friend (wife) Sylvia, were there for the “big event” that day as my lifelong dream of serving in the Legislature finally became reality. After we were sworn in and we officially elected our House Speaker, we selected our floor seats through the drawing of names by election year class.
There are twenty-four of us in the 2025 class, and Lucas was the third name drawn. You can see him at his seat in the lower left corner of the picture above. I received my name plate from Sergeant-at-Arms Jeff Wall and took the seat next to Lucas on the front row.
After we got settled, we went to get our official Legislative portraits taken upstairs, after which we just spent time “at ease,” mingling with all of the other Representatives as we waited for a couple hours for the Speaker to come out and announce the Committees. After the committees were announced, we went through a process very similar to the one we had gone through for our floor seats to select our offices. After we got those secured, we got our parking assignments, and we were ready to get to work after the new year.
I was assigned to serve on the House Education and House Committees. Lucas was assigned to the Commerce and Human Resources, Health and Welfare and Local Government committees. Across the rotunda in the Senate, Camille was assigned to serve on the Senate Agricultural Affairs and Health and Welfare Committees.
I believe that we are the only “team” from the same Legislative district sitting next to each other on the floor of the House. Through the campaign, we became very close friends who share the same Christian and conservative values. During the couple of months prior to the beginning of Session, we were making the daily one-and-a-half (or more) trips one-way to Boise from Caldwell and decided that that wasn’t something either of us wanted to “endure” through the Session. Sylvia found a house for us to rent for the Session near the BSU administration building off of University Blvd., that leaves us with a “commute” of less than ten minutes to the parking garage across from the Capitol. We got moved in and settled the day before we convened for our first official day of the first session of the 68th Legislature.
On January 6th, we had our first vote on Resolutions to invite the Governor and other Constitutional officers, the Senate and members of the Idaho Supreme Court to come to the House Chambers for the Governor’s State-of-the-State message. So far, that has been the only time that Lucas and I have done anything “official” with our Senate counterpart, Camille Blaylock. She got a seat right next to Lucas and took a candid shot of the three of us.
The first twenty-one days of the Session have been both amazing and a blur. Lucas and I arrive at the statehouse each morning between 6:45 and 7:30 and are on the run from the time we get here in committee meetings, floor sessions, meeting with other Legislators and people who are lucky enough to get a personal meeting time set up with us — We’ve had a lot of opportunities to meet with groups and organizations, too.
The first three-plus weeks, we have been reading and approving hundreds of pages of “Temporary Rules” enacted by state agencies. Each committee has their own sets of Rules to adopt, and some committees have a lot more reviewing to do than others.
Many have been working on Legislation that they want to introduce during the session and getting co-sponsors to help them get their Legislation heard in committees and advanced to a bill number.
We are receiving hundreds of emails and dozens of phone calls that we work very hard to answer. If you’ve written or called, don’t give up! We hope to eventually get back to you. I generally don’t leave my office until after 11 at night. As I am finally getting around to my first Substack of the Session (21 days into the Session!) — it’s after midnight. Morning will come too soon.
As of today, we have voted on several bills that have made it out of committees to the floor, and those are heading over to the Senate to be assigned to a committee so the process can be repeated there. The Governor signed our first bill into law yesterday.
As of today, there are sixty pieces of House Legislation in the process. We read and study each bill that comes before our committees, carefully consider testimony, then vote to advance or not advance each piece to the floor. While that is going on, we read and study all the bills coming out of committees that will be heading to the floor so that when they arrive for the “third reading,” we are ready to vote on them.
It is a very busy life, but I thrive on it. I’m going to have to go through all my notes and my calendar to figure out what we have been doing each day, because they’ve all seemed to run together. But you know what? I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’ve dreamed of having this opportunity all my life — and I know that God has been preparing me for a time such as this. I only wish it had come sooner.
We have surrounded ourselves with a wonderful group of men and women who are working together as a team to get the work done for the people of Idaho — our friends and neighbors.
Our team is fighting for you and your family! (Left-to-right, back row): Senator Glenneda Zuiderveld, Senator Josh Kohl, Representative Faye Thompson, Representative David Leavitt, Representative Clint Hostetler and Representative Lucas Cayler. (Left-to-right, front row): Representative Kent Marmon and Senator Christy Zito. Together, we are “lovingly” referred to as the “Gang of 8.”
I love them like family. We have a unified voice, and we’ve got each other’s backs. Together, with our firm reliance on God, we are and will continue to do the people’s work. We’re all here for the same reason — you.
The District 11 Team is holding two Townhall Meetings per month during the Legislative Session. We’ve already held two (in January) and will have four more. We’ve made it easy to remember: second and fourth Saturdays of February and March from 1 to 3 at the Caldwell Library. Our first two meetings were great! We love having people from our community come to hear from each of us about the “happenings” at the Capitol — but more importantly, we get to hear the suggestions, comments, concerns and even complaints from the people we serve, and to have the opportunity of answering their questions. So, we hope that you will join us once or as many times as you’d like to!
Contact us by mail: [Name of Legislator] — P.O. Box 83720 — Boise, Idaho 83720-0038 (House) or Boise, Idaho 83720-0081 (Senate)
Representative Kent Marmon — KMarmon@House.Idaho.gov — Office Phone (Session Only): 208-332-1052
Representative Lucas Cayler — LCayler@House.Idaho.gov — Office Phone (Session Only): 208-332-1044
Senator Camille Blaylock — CBlaylock@Senate.Idaho.gov — Office Phone (Session Only): 208-332-1320
In my next Substack, I’ll share information about some of the Legislation we’ve been working on along with Legislation that is coming and more about how it has gone for us during the first weeks of the Legislature.
Until then, I send you all my best,
