Why not vote for Mike Simpson?
He's a nice enough guy, after all.
But Idaho voters need to be aware that Mike Simpson's negatives outweigh his positives, in terms of his representation in Congress.
Not only is he a career politician (he's been in politics nonstop since 1980), he's also quite old, turning 75 in September, 2025.
Worst of all, however, is his voting record. He's voted for many bloated spending bills, and the national debt has skyrocketed during his tenure. Because he chairs an Appropriations subcommittee and sits on two others, outside lobbying firms love him. In the 2023-2024 campaign season, only 38% of the funds he raised came from Idaho sources; 62% were from out-of-state donors. By contrast, Russ Fulcher (Idaho's other congressman) received 87% of his funding from Idahoans, with only 13% coming from out of state.
Conservative groups typically give Mike Simpson very moderate ratings, and over the years, he's voted for, and said, some highly questionable things.
Mike Simpson entered politics at the tender age of 29, as a newly-elected councilman on the Blackfoot City Council. From that time until this, he's never been out of politics, moving from the Blackfoot City Council to the Idaho state legislature in Boise, where he served first as a representative and then as Speaker of the Idaho House.
After 14 years in the Idaho legislature, he ran against Richard Stallings for the congressional seat which had been vacated by Mike Crapo, who had just won in the Senate. From that election in 1998 until today, Mike Simpson has continually represented Idaho's Second Congressional District in the US House of Representatives.
Altogether, Mike Simpson has been in active politics for more than 45 years. That's not a bit of service to one's country; that's a career. One in which Mike has grown old; in September, 2025, he'll celebrate his 75th birthday.
If Congressman Simpson had believed in term limits, he would've ended his congressional stint 15 years ago. As it is, if he wins this upcoming election, he'll be 78 years old at the end of his next term.
Considered a moderate Republican by many conservative groups and individuals, Mike Simpson has voted many times for bills which have contributed to our ballooning national debt, including debt ceiling increases, multi-trillion-dollar budgets, and omnibus bills which call for spending taxpayer dollars in many diverse ways and on many fronts.
Among the most bewildering of proposals from Congressman Simpson is his announcement, in 2021, of a plan to breach four dams on the lower Snake river in order to boost the native salmon population count. Many people have weighed in on the relative merits and drawbacks of this proposition, debating its potential ineffectiveness and its needlessness and likely harm to the local economy.
Notwithstanding all of the criticism, the most stunning aspect of the proposal is, perhaps, its price tag - $33.5 billion.
While this quantity might seem like a mere drop in the bucket to a big-spending politician like Mike Simpson, it is, in fact, a devastatingly large amount of money - orders-of-magnitude larger, for example, than the annual budget for the entire state of Idaho.
Congressman Simpson's willingness to spend so much money, seemingly at the drop of a hat, speaks volumes to his priorities, underscoring his insensitivity to deficit spending and the national debt.
If for no other reason than this, voters in Idaho should not re-elect this long-time incumbent member of the House. It's time for Mike Simpson to ride off into the sunset with his loved ones, leaving our business in Washington to someone else who's committed to not adding to our already unwieldy public debt.