Idaho's most important elections are won in the primaries. If you want to have a say in how Jerome County is run, you have to vote in the primary.
Jerome County has filled the county prosecutor chair three times in recent years. Commissioners sign off on those appointments. The quality of that sign-off matters — as a 2023 arrest painfully illustrated.
Every time a county elected official leaves mid-term, the commissioners end up approving whoever fills the chair. That vote is not a formality. It is the most consequential personnel decision the commission makes.
This is the public record, not a campaign claim:
The commissioners did not arrest Mr. Calbo. The commissioners did not commit the underlying conduct. But the commissioners did vote to hand him the single most powerful prosecutorial office in Jerome County — the office that decides who gets charged, who doesn’t, and what the plea deal looks like. That is a vote that deserves real due diligence, real public visibility, and real accountability when it goes wrong.
Under Idaho Code § 59-906, when a county elected office goes empty mid-term:
That is a compressed, largely invisible process. The county’s residents rarely see the candidate interviews, rarely know who the three nominees are until the commission vote, and rarely hear the commissioners’ reasoning for their pick.
A reasonable reading of the Open Meetings Law (Title 74, Chapter 2) and the AG’s interpretive guidance argues that when a central committee is exercising this statutory governmental function, the meeting is a public meeting and should be open.[6][7] That argument hasn’t been tested in court in Idaho. But the spirit of § 74-201 — “the formation of public policy is public business and shall not be conducted in secret” — points in one direction.[6]
The Calbo situation was not the product of one bad name on a list. It was the product of a process that produces appointments with minimal public scrutiny and minimal commissioner accountability after the fact. Fix the process and the odds of a repeat drop considerably.
The 2026 Idaho Republican Primary is Tuesday, May 19, 2026. Appointments aren’t paperwork. They are the most consequential decisions a commission makes. Treat them that way.
Candidate names and resumes on the county website at least 72 hours before any appointment vote.
Criminal, bar, civil, and employment history on every nominee — done by the county, not the candidate.
Every commissioner publishes their written reason for their appointment vote.
A documented pathway for responding to post-appointment misconduct — including AG referral when warranted.
Every claim on this page is grounded in public law, public records, or directly observable public conduct.
"You don’t hire a prosecutor by rubber-stamping three names you’ve never met. You do the work."— Jerry Holton