 | |
| Established | 2009 [1] |
|---|---|
| President | Ron Nate |
| Budget | Revenue: $763,312 Expenses: $697,821 (FYE December 2017) [2] |
| Subsidiaries | Idaho Reporter [3] [4] |
| Location | |
| Website | idahofreedom |
The Idaho Freedom Foundation(IFF) is a conservative and libertarian think tank located in Boise, Idaho. [3] [5] [6] [7] In January 2024 Ron Nate replaced Wayne Hoffman as President of IFF. [8]
IFF was begun in 2009 by Wayne Hoffman, who had been the Canyon County Republican Party vice chairman and spokesman for U.S. Rep. Bill Sali. Formerly, Hoffman was a newspaper reporter for the Idaho Statesman , leaving in 2005, and before that had worked for the South Idaho Press in Burley, the Idaho Press Tribune in Nampa, and a southern Idaho radio station. [1]
The IFF is influential within the Idaho Legislature and the state's broader politics. [9] [10] [11] Politico described the IFF as "an arch-conservative group that has driven challenges to so-called RINO politicians in the state." [12] The IFF's website says it works to defeat "the state’s socialist public policies." Its Freedom Index rates Idaho legislators on their votes. [13]
In 2012, the IFF was one of the chief opponents of an Idaho state legislative bill that would have placed restrictions on tanning bed usage. [14] In 2013 and 2014, IFF put up billboards criticizing Idaho legislators for their votes to implement a state health insurance exchange. [15] [16]
In October 2020, the IFF published a video questioning the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic and decrying governmental measures to combat the spread of the pandemic. Several Idaho Republican elected officials, including Janice McGeachin and a number of state legislators, appeared in the video. [17]
In 2021, the organization criticized Boise State University for holding a "Black Graduation" meant to celebrate Black students in addition to the traditional graduation ceremony. IFF called the event "segregationist." It has urged Idaho lawmakers to cut funding to Boise State. [18]
In a December 2021 opinion editorial published in the Post Register , former Idaho attorney general and former chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court Jim Jones criticized the IFF, writing "It's time to clean Idaho's House of disruptive lawmakers who worship at the Freedom Foundation altar and ignore their duty to act responsibly in the interests of their voters." [19]
The IFF has mounted various legal challenges to state and city laws and regulations.
The organization has received funding from Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, two donor-advised funds which are not required to disclose their donors. IFF is a member of the State Policy Network, a consortium of conservative and libertarian think tanks that focus on state-level policy. [21]
The Idaho Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Idaho.
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the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a libertarian think-tank