There are different ways that different American states select their lieutenant governor. Not every state even has a lieutenant governor. Selection processes include gubernatorial candidates picking their own potential lieutenant governor. Another version is where lieutenant gubernatorial candidates run in party primaries. Then they basically wait to see who wins the general election. In some states, the two offices are elected altogether separately.
It's in that last category that friction tends to most likely form between the two officeholders.
Such as the case in Idaho, even though they both come from the same party. The two individuals in question are Governor Brad Little and Lieutenant Governor Janice McGeachin. Whose relationship has been described as 'tense', notes the Idaho Statesman and MSN. And tensions may have just been dramatically escalated.
McGeachin looking to top Little in the Republican primary
Janice McGeachin is challenging Little in the primary for the next gubernatorial election, currently slated for 2022 and marking what could be the culmination of a showdown that had been building for some time.
Brad Little and McGeachin are associated with two different wings of the Republican Party. Little is often thought of as more of a moderate.
Meanwhile, McGeachin is affiliated with the far-right. Including previously appearing clad with a firearm pushing unfounded conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. It's that subject that seems to have been the catalyst for the lieutenant governor launching her insurgent campaign.
The open friction has understandably drawn questions.
But Tom Luna, chair of the Idaho Republican Party, has downplayed this. Calling the party's approach a 'big tent' platform and saying Republicans were united against the left. However true Luna's claims might be, Republicans in Idaho seem to be relatively comfortable at present. Whoever the gubernatorial nominee is, Little, McGeachin, or somebody else entirely, is strongly favored to win 2022.
A similar situation apparently emerged in Idaho in 1938. That time, among Democrats and the result, was disastrous for the party. Then-Lieutenant Governor Charles C. Gossett challenged then-Governor Barzilla W. Clark for the Democratic nomination for Governor. Neither would receive it. It instead went to former Governor C. Ben Ross. Who lost the general election to Idaho Republican Party Chair and former state house Speaker C.A. Bottolfsen. The Republicans also took the lieutenant governorship that year when Donald S. Whitehead won it. Gossett would go on to make a career comeback.
Little and McGeachin were both elected in 2018
Brad Little was elected Governor in 2018 by a wide margin. He also spent a decade serving as lieutenant governor.
Then-Governor Butch Otter initially appointed him to the post. It came after Little's predecessor, Jim Risch, was elected to the U.S. Senate. Little won in landslide elections in his own right in 2010 and 2014.
Little had previously also been initially appointed to the Idaho Senate. At that time, it was by Governor, a future U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Dirk Kempthorne. The appointment was followed by Little winning the seat four times. His father, David, was a member of the Idaho Senate and the Idaho House of Representatives.
McGeachin also easily won her race in 2018. Her first attempt at elected office in 1998 was unsuccessful. In that case, it was for the commissioner of Bonneville County in southeastern Idaho. Afterward, she won five terms in the Idaho House of Representatives.
