Op-Ed: Regarding the Returned Donation From Boise Mayor Candidate Mike Masterson
By Ryan Spoon • September 16, 2023I don’t think that Boise Pride is an appropriate event to hold in public where it can be seen by children, and I do think that photos posted on social media bear out my belief that there was a great deal of inappropriate behavior at this event. However, Mike Masterson has already said that he disagrees with my view on Boise Pride, and that’s his free choice to disagree with me on this issue. As Mike Masterson rallies together a “coalition of the willing” to keep Boise from becoming the next troubled clone of Portland or Seattle, what’s more important is not where Chief Masterson and I DISAGREE but where we AGREE.
I support Mike Masterson, because he values what has made Boise great. When I moved here, I was amazed at how clean Boise was and how there was no homeless problem on the streets. Boise had none of the homeless camps that covered the SF Bay Area that I fled. The Boise Police Department, which Chief Masterson led from 2005 to 2015, enforced Boise’s ordinance against overnight camping on public property, and they worked with local shelters to get the homeless people food, shelter, and help with their substance abuse and mental health issues. Under Mayor McLean, the homeless problem in Boise has exploded! Why is that? It’s because she has promoted shelters that don’t require their residents to dry out, and she has handcuffed the Boise Police in cleaning up homeless camps. I support Mike Masterson, because I don’t want Boise to become like the sewer that I fled. Mike Masterson also has a long track record supporting veterans, and as a veteran myself, this is important to me. Boise needs a true public servant who has spent a lifetime earning public trust. Boise needs Mike Masterson.
This Op-Ed was submitted by Ryan Spoon. Op-Eds do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of those at the Idaho Dispatch.
Tags: Boise, Boise Police Department, Boise Pride, City of Boise, Homelessness, Lauren McLean, Mike Masterson, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle
Masterson is the Mitt Romney of Idaho Republicans.
Right, Romney is a fake Mormon. Any candidate that supports Gay Pride is not conservative. Boise is going to get evil, or some other shade of evil with these two bad choices. When Boise finds a candidate that is against Pride then real change could begin. Maybe the LGBTQ people will repent and stop committing eternal suicide. If you insist on being LGBTQ, you might get stuck that way, for eternity. I want you to go straight, have a clean conscience, be happy with a family that has children the natural way.
Do you live in Boise.
I have to agree, but given the 2, it’s Mike Masterson’s. I follow the world economic forum, ICLEI, agenda 21 for the 21st century and these 3 and many other groups are trying to make us into one world gvt. There is evil and there is evil. Just because he chose to send it back doesn’t mean he supports Pride garbage. It could mean he can’t not put up with it at this time.
Mitt Romney is not a good person. Hands down. He’s got a bad sense of anything. He’s not conservative. Given the 2 however, Masterson is my choice. I can’t stand McLean. I’m following the World Economic Forum, the Agenda 21, ICLEI, and these 3 are trying to put us in one world gvt. I don’t believe Mike is trying that. McLean certainly is. I’m not good with Pride either. It’s not right. But that’s God ‘s judgement to make. I’m boldly stating that is my stand on it, but it’s not my place to judge them. Only God but I don’t want it around kids either.
The number of homeless under McLean has not exploded. And if it has, what specific McLean policy is to blame. McLean is working to expand housing options, which Masterson is against.
I am from Boise and it has exploded! Just look with your own two eyes. I have never seen people sleeping on the street on Capital Blvd or even on the greenbelt from Orchard to the Veteran Memorial by Anne Morrison. That NEVER existed! Let alone the fowl smell in those areas.
You don’t remember Cooper Court in Boise? And what specific policy under McLean has caused this so called explosion in homelessness?
I refuse to live in a city ever again – Mark, maybe it is a lack of policy by the mayor?
You mean Interfaith Sanctuary? That never existed either. I remember it forming. It got cleaned up and then when the new Mayor McLean got elected they tried to erect it again. The next day the new camp they tried to impliment again was gone. It’s not a single policy, it’s how bold citizens/IFS feels they can push the city before they can call those that push back horrible names and shaming them. The fact the encampents have most recently been put on State land rather than infront of the Boise City Hall is called playing games. This “specific policy” you are asking for is you playing games.
Agreed
Lol you even admit you don’t know if your statement is true. Homelessness could be up 1000% but “muh opinion”.
Is homelessness up? Link?
Seriously? Is it up, yes it is. McLean has tied the police’s hands when it comes to homeless just like Oregon!
Much of that was due to the City’s unwillingness to fight the Federal Court case where the homeless people sued to be able to camp out on public property – and won. When did the city give up? After McLean became mayor.
Crime is definitely up. If you need links, just visit the local police dept social media
In my 65 years on this earth, housing options have never needed to be expanded. Yo build houses and apartments, and people will move in. If you want to call them options, fine then do so.
What is needed, is an economy that allows couples to pay the rent and mortgage on one income. Sadly we now have an overwhelming abundance of tax and spend politicians that prevent the one income family from existing. And don’t get me started on the term Affordable Housing. There’s no such thing. It’s a made up, feel good term that was created by the Tax and Spend’s.
Bottom line, the current Mayor of Boise has been a disaster and is hellbent on duplicating Portland, here in Idaho with her socialist policies. It is time for her to find a real job.
Exactly, Phil, 1000% correct. I’ve only been here five years, but in that time, I’ve seen Boise go from a clean and enjoyable city to a mismanaged liberal hell hole. McLean and her minions are not here to improve anything. They are here to destroy this city and make it a Portland/ San Fran clone. What a shame.
Can these demons be stopped?
Bingo!
CHA-CHING!
What socialist policies? Please be specific.
Agree
So, you see no increase in homeless numbers?
That fact that McLean has been Governor…, clearly illustrates the fact, that Boise is just one more blue shthole. Portland Seattle Denver…. I was born in California lived there for 65 years. Fought the left in every way possible. Boise is dead. Kaput. Titsup.
And Masterson is simply one more spineless double talking for-sale career politician pos.
As a bad or worse than McLean…., because he claims conservatism as he assists the left.
We need fckg spine. While the cowboy hat wearing fed $ loving mandate loving sacks o crap get mega wealthy and remain in office indefinitely….
So tell me, why the F is Simpson still around?
Very succinctly put.
Several quibbles. First, McLean is the _mayor_ of Boise, not the Governor. (That being said, our governor is almost as lefty as the Mayor, being in the pockets of the hospital system cabal.)
Second, _Lauren_ McClean is a woman – not a man.
Third, McClean has never claimed to be a conservative. She’s a leftist and proud of it – at least until her import for Police Chief went and broke a fellow officer’s spine and had to be fired. McClean openly shills for Joe Biden and wants to turn Boise into another Portland/Seattle-like hellhole.
I’d take Bieter over McLean in a heartbeat. At least he had the sense enough not to kill downtown with parking taxes or waste money on scooters.
“our governor is almost as lefty as the Mayor”
That’s rich!
“waste money on scooters”
All of the scooters are provided by private companies, friend.
It’s a simple choice- 4 more years of the current disaster under McLean or we give Mike Masterson the helm and see what changes. There are no perfect candidates, but certainly the current Mayor must go. All conservatives MUST vote in the upcoming election. Even if Masterson represents 50% of your values he is a far better choice than someone that represents 0%’of your values.
FACT:
The fallacy with you view is that historically… once you elect a RINO, they are 100% harder to remove from office than a flaming Communist. Mike Simpson is a stellar example. We have been suffering ever since under his watch since he took office.
Precisely. Rinos are worse than Dems. They’re lying sacks. And the Lincoln Project/Reclaim/Take Back Idaho fools enable it all. All because, they hate Trump.
Absolutely correct
Where in the Op-Ed does he talk about a returned donation?? The title is confusing.
This article is missing the subject, what donation and what does this have to do with gay pride events?
Because the cleanliness of a city is based on the morality of that city.
We’re glad we moved from “Little Portland” 12 years ago. We’ve seen Boise work its way down the tubes of late and while we feel for the majority of residents that I’m sure do not like what they are seeing, get off your butts and VOTE “Comrade Lauren” out come November!!! There are more of you than them.
Boise was clean not because of any one man, it was clean because of the people that lived there. To suppose all credit should be given to one man is short–sighted. In my activism years ago, Masterson came out in support of PRIDE and got heck for it, today, freedom people support him creating reasons why without looking at the inconsistent worldview of the people that are supported. It is important to remember, the mayor chooses the Chief, never forget that. The mayor also controls the chief, never forget that either. Also, the people in office I believe fully represent those he represents. In this case, a man apparently may disagree with PRIDE or the simple fact that it is public or includes children. To me, this imbecilic thought contributes to why we are where we are because an inconsistent tolerant choice that few seem to realize is the very part of soiling a clean state. The reason why we have people like this in office is because we have people willing to marginalize liberty in the name of tolerance. If the constitution was written for a moral and religious people what happens when we have tolerant backers that don’t understand the depth of such a belief? We have a soiled city so is the article inconsistent with liberty and is it ironic that on one hand one supports a clean city on one hand but apparently support its soiling on the other? Additionally, when we look for a candidate is the fact that it supports protected classes of people worth supporting or can that support for that one thing be enough to vote for a candidate that wouldn’t have won without it? I am not a vet so now what? I don’t support PRIDE, so now what? Who supports me and others like me? Shouldn’t we have candidates that support nothing else but the one thing I support? I call such support rather divisive. Also, and as hard as it is to read, People should be very careful who they support when they are funded by tax dollars because truth is, “when people find out how to vote money, it will herald the end of the republic and that means everyone not just democrats or republicans.
Absolutely correct
If you think a genuine conservative can win in Boise, you are mistaken. It’s clear that there are enough left leaning and/or moderates to get McLean elected… along with the fact that OUR conservative base refuses to vote for a better (but not perfect) conservative because they are waiting for the perfect candidate. If you wait on the sidelines (again) and don’t vote for Masterson, prepare for more McLean. As a Boise resident, I’m voting for Masterson as I have seen what McLean is doing. Don’t let her have 4 more years.
I moved to the Boise Valley in 1996, because it felt very clean and friendly. A breath of fresh air after living in Reno. The city streets were clean and city property was well maintained, no weeds in the sidewalks, no homeless begging from their street tents, etc. People were friendly to each other, smiled and said hi to strangers. There was no instant judgment from anyone downtown. You had gays, hipsters, corporate bigwigs and conservatives all rubbing shoulders with each other at the downtown outdoor restaurant seating areas. It was a wonderful experience on a daily basis. Now downtown Boise is a place you go only when you have no other options. It was a slow transition, but it happened because the native population won’t fight back. My in-laws are wonderful, Christian, family oriented Idahoans. You can’t even speak of what the influence of California and the other leftist states immigrants are doing to their state. They just bury their heads in the sand and say they won’t change their views of life, but they won’t vote either. Boise has become a dirty, unfriendly city, because the native population would rather compromise their principles than stop the evil that has taken over their city
I don’t think you have been to Boise lately, at least downtown Boise. There are more restaurants (locally owned), entertainment venues, arts, employers, etc than ever. Downtown Boise is a gem.
Doesn’t anyone else find it odd that in the capital city of what has to be one of the reddest states in the union, we can’t get an actual, patriotic Conservative on the mayoral ballot?
Or for that matter, how was virtually every state office ‘won’ by RINO’s in the last statewide elections?
Something doesn’t add up. How does a state that is around %65 red keep getting blue and purple candidates elected?
Because “The Best Liar Wins”.
Democrats and liberal, officially unaffiliated voters, are allowed to register as Republican before primaries. Then they vote for the most liberal Republican on the ballot (aka, RINOs). Once these votes are counted along with the low-info Republican voters (“If s/he has an ‘R’ next to their names, I vote for them, no questions asked or efforts made to really know who I’m voting for”), the RINO wins and we get Democrat-lite. Those who switched party affiliations to Republican then switch back to Democrat for the general elections.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
No matter what, Democrats will support a Democrat. People think the Boise Pride event is safe for children, just not their own. They support McClean homeless housing. If you look in every state they do this, crime goes up and good people are forced to move away. Always funny how people support bad ideas until they are the victim. I stand behind Mike Masterson. He was a public servant as police chief and understands that even the Boise Pride has rights. But I do believe Mike Masterson needs to inforce the law at these events. Just like they would at any event.
Would you like to be beat with a stick or a pipe?
Vote Stick. Vote Masterson