Man shares what it’s like to hold two public offices simultaneously and why it’s not ‘unprecedented’

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IDAHO FALLS – For Rick Cheatum, state and local politics are a balancing act.

The 73-year-old Pocatello Republican serves simultaneously as a city councilman and state representative. He’s in his second term on the Pocatello city council, and was elected to the state legislature in Nov. 2022.

Cheatum tells EastIdahoNews.com running for House seat 28A — which includes all of Franklin and Power Counties and a “doughnut” in Bannock County — is something he decided to pursue after his predecessor, Randy Armstrong, decided not to seek re-election.

“I really didn’t want to run against an incumbent conservative,” Cheatum says. “After redistricting, Randy decided not to run and it left a vacant seat. I looked at that and what’s happening in the legislature — what I consider radical movements that are happening on both the left and the right. I’m a moderate conservative … and I felt like I could be a moderating influence.”

Cheatum was part of the largest group of freshman legislators since 1890 when Idaho became a state. Fifty one new lawmakers took office in December. The idea of bringing moderate views to the Statehouse was something they all had in common, he says.

His position on the city council is something he says put him in a unique position to also be an advocate for people in local government.

“There seems to be an attitude by a lot of the folks in Boise … that they know how to run local cities and counties better than the local people do. I disagree with that,” he says. “We address different issues (in the city than on the state level), but the experience across both seats has been very instructive, and in many of the things we address at the state level, it’s given me an advantage.”

Though his attempts to seek a second political office were not really an issue during the election, Cheatum says he’s gotten some backlash over it since then.

“I’ve had some people who feel I’m taking advantage of the system, I’m double dipping — I’ve heard all those things,” he says. “Frankly, I don’t think they understand how the system works.”

In August, an EastIdahoNews.com user in Pocatello brought this to our attention and claimed there was a state statute that prohibited candidates from serving in two political positions at the same time.

But that is not the case. Jared Johnson, the attorney for the city of Pocatello, says “there is no city ordinance or state code that prohibits a city council member from also serving in the legislature.”

Earlier this week, EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the attorney general’s office for additional confirmation. We did not get a response, but John Iasonides, a deputy director for the State Controller’s Office — which oversees Idaho’s financial affairs — says there are other state legislators who also serve in city government.

Colin Nash, a Boise Democrat, serves concurrently as a city councilman and as a representative for District 16 seat B. Republican Chris Allgood of Caldwell is also a joint member of a local city council and the House.

Maryanne Jordan, another Boise Democrat, served on her city council from 2003 to 2017. She was appointed a senator in March 2015, which means she served in both roles at the same time for about two years.

Cheatum says former Pocatello Mayor Roger Chase served jointly in the state legislature as well.

“In those days, we had a direct flight to Boise out of Pocatello. The city was flying him back and forth for meetings,” says Cheatum. “It is not unprecedented and I’m sure it’s happened in other communities across the state before that.”

Details about who started this trend in Idaho are unclear, but it’s definitely not unheard of in the Gem State.

“If it was something that was illegal or against statute, it would’ve been addressed,” Iasonides says.

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