Dan Foreman

Response at forum from Moscow senator reportedly came after Democratic House candidate and Nez Perce Tribe member answered question about discrimination in Idaho

KENDRICK, Idaho (AP) — Tensions rose during a bipartisan forum this week after an audience question about discrimination reportedly led an Idaho state senator to angrily tell a Native American candidate to “go back where you came from.”

Idaho Senator, Dan Foreman (R), introduced a proposed Idaho law Wednesday, Jan. 16, which aims to remove rape and incest as exemptions in the state's abortion laws. Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates communication manager Mack Smith told KTVB Idaho lawmakers are attempting to strip people of basic reproductive rights.

Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Viola, said he wanted to make clear that he didn’t want his vote in favor of the resolution “is in no way an apology on my own behalf, or on behalf of the great state of Idaho.”

“We live in the greatest state in this nation, in my humble opinion. And we have the finest people on the face of the earth. The people who should be apologizing are the people who committed the act,” Foreman said.

POLITICS
GOP state senator in Idaho faces ethics complaint over tweet on abortion
February 20, 2018 / 11:35 AM EST / AP

A Republican state senator who shouted at University of Idaho students in the Capitol to lobby for a birth control bill on Monday now faces an ethics complaint after a tweet from an account presenting as the lawmaker's directed students to discuss "killing babies" with a Democratic colleague.

State Sen. Maryanne Jordan filed the complaint against Republican state Sen. Dan Foreman.

"It's one thing to disagree with policy, it's another thing to position something like that against another lawmaker," Jordan said in response to the tweet Monday. "This type of behavior is beneath the Idaho Senate."

daho Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, at a candidate forum last night in Fernwood, referred to the county he represents in the Legislature as a “cesspool of liberalism,” the Moscow-Pullman Daily News reports. “Latah County, particularly the university, greater Moscow area, is a cesspool of liberalism,” Foreman told a crowd of roughly 50 at UpRiver Bible Church in Fernwood; some of the attendees applauded Foreman’s remarks.

Foreman is an outspoken conservative who represents a mixed district; two years ago, he narrowly defeated Democratic Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow. Foreman’s been in the news for shouting down constituents who try to talk to him about issues, including a profanity-laced confrontation at the local county fair last September that drew police attention, and yelling “abortion is murder” at a group of University of Idaho students who came to the Capitol to lobby for a birth control bill.

The Republican supermajority in the Idaho Senate passed a bill Monday that repeals a state law banning groups of people from parading in public with firearms in any Idaho city or town.

Passing the bill would also remove Idaho’s prohibition on private militias, one Democratic senator who voted against the bill said.

But Sen. Dan Foreman, R-Moscow, said Senate Bill 1056 is necessary to support the freedoms expressed in the First Amendment and Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.