Mike Moyle

The single most powerful legislator in the Statehouse, Moyle showed this session that he’s willing to pull any arrow from the quiver...With 26 years’ experience in the Statehouse, including 18 years in House leadership, Moyle carries a considerable edge in name ID. Moyle can also tap into fundraising streams unavailable to newbies: as of the end of March, he has more than $108,000 in his campaign.

House Speaker Mike Moyle is proposing his own changes to address concerns over the complex, multi-pronged school facilities bill that the Legislature approved this session.

House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star, told reporters Wednesday that he felt the biggest accomplishment was the school facilities legislation, House Bill 521, which will inject $1.5 billion of new funding into schools and was Little’s top priority. “That for me is the centerpiece of this legislative session,” Moyle said.

“I think that we just want to make it clear — male and female — and make it clear that pronouns, if you want to have them — fine,” Moyle said. “But you don’t have to force people to use them.” In response to concerns over lawsuits related to those bills, Moyle said he does not think the laws are discriminatory, and he hopes they’ll be upheld in court.

Despite the criticism, Scott and several members of the Freedom Caucus were ready to come to his defense this spring. They were preparing to send a letter to the Young Americans for Liberty, declaring their support for Moyle and objecting to YAL’s attempts to defeat him. They credited Moyle with the “largest income tax relief in 10 years” and with”pushing back on the woke agendas creeping into Idaho.”

But others on the right viewed such a letter as a betrayal that undermined their efforts to oust Moyle. The Idaho Freedom Foundation, which has long been considered the most influential right-wing think tank in the state, had given Moyle an F for his “freedom score” and an F — a 22 out of a possible 100 — in the “spending” category.

Yet at least half of the Freedom Foundation’s top-six-scoring legislators had endorsed him, suggesting that the foundation’s power may have waned.

“Even their own guys have said ‘IFF has gone crazy,’” Moyle told InvestigateWest. “Their own guys are saying they’re nuts.”

Nate warned Scott repeatedly that there could be consequences to sending the letter supporting Moyle.

“If you do this thing with Moyle … the ramifications you could have outside of this building, to your allied partners could be very, very devastating,” Nate warned on the recording.

“Do you think I’m stupid and don’t know that?” Scott said. “Don’t you think I would take that into consideration?”