I spent ten years living in Idaho Falls. My kids grew up there. I worked for Melaleuca, watched the city expand, and saw how quickly growth changes a community. I eventually moved to the west side of the state to build my own successful consulting business, but I still pay attention to Idaho Falls because I still care about the place and the people. I have many friends who live there, and they are experiencing this mayoral race in a way that deserves honest coverage.
I am not voting in this election. I have endorsed no one. I am not working for Lisa Burtenshaw or Jeff Alldridge, and I am not a surrogate for either campaign. I am simply watching a race that reflects something larger happening across Idaho: experience on one side, a political machine on the other, and voters caught between growth pressures and ideological agendas. As someone who’s been covering Idaho politics in detail over the past seven years, I am sharing my insight and experience on this race.
With that in mind, I invited both candidates onto the Political Potatoes podcast. Only one was able to join before the runoff ended. Idaho Falls City Councilwoman Lisa Burtenshaw sat down with me for a detailed conversation about growth, housing, impact fees, public finance, and what it takes to run a city that has become the economic hub of Eastern Idaho. The interview revealed how she thinks, what she understands about the city’s structure, and how she approaches the responsibilities that come with the mayor’s office.
Her comments deserve to be heard in full, and they set the foundation for understanding the differences between these two candidates. The rest of this article expands on that conversation and outlines the broader context surrounding this race so Idaho Falls voters can make an informed decision based on facts and substance rather than manufactured noise.
Growth, pressure, and what voters should know
Lisa approached the growth discussion the same way she approaches council work: directly. She explained occupancy rates, infrastructure limits, and the strict constraints Idaho law places on cities. Housing policy often gets reduced to slogans, but the numbers matter. Ninety-five percent apartment occupancy is a hard indicator that demand is real. People are arriving faster than the housing stock can adjust. Higher mortgage rates push more families into rentals or attached homes. The debate is emotional, but the underlying problem is arithmetic.
Her view on placing large multi-family projects in the urban core comes from experience with traffic flow. Housing near commercial corridors, schools, and arterial roads reduces congestion and keeps daily trips shorter. Housing built farther out produces the opposite. Idaho Falls already serves as the regional hub for jobs, health care, air travel, and commerce. That role will not shrink. Planning has to reflect reality.
Impact fees remain the most misunderstood part of this race. Lisa explained that Idaho legislation limits cities to very few tools for funding growth. Property taxes and impact fees are the primary options. Remove impact fees, and new development still requires roads, police response, utilities, and parks. Without those fees, the cost shifts to homeowners, or the level of service drops. There is no alternative where development stays cheap while the city keeps up.
These details may not be exciting, but they determine whether Idaho Falls thrives over the next decade or falls behind.
Two very different coalitions
A mayor answers to voters, but every candidate also carries the expectations of the people who help them win. In this race, the two coalitions do not resemble each other.
Lisa’s supporters include long-established business owners, civic leaders, and elected officials who have shaped Idaho Falls for decades. Their reputations rise or fall with the health of the community they helped build. Here are a few of Lisa’s notable backers:
Governor Brad Little
Congressman Mike Simpson
Lt. Governor Scott Bedke
State Senator Kevin Cook
State Representative Ben Fuhriman
Frank VanderSloot - Melaleuca
Mario Hernandez - Teton Toyota
Courtney Liddiard - Ball Ventures
Jeff Alldridge’s core support comes from a different universe. Idaho Freedom Foundation board members Doyle Beck and Bryan Smith are in his corner, along with former state representative Chad Christensen, whose conduct in office and subsequent behavior drew widespread criticism across Idaho. Idaho GOP Chair Dorothy Moon, whose rise in party leadership was heavily supported by this same network, is also backing him. Local developer Brett Skidmore, an IFF-aligned legislative candidate who lost his race after voters questioned those ties and who is now litigating against the city’s impact fees, is part of the same coalition. All of these figures maintain direct political and organizational connections to Beck and the IFF network, and their involvement in this mayoral race reflects that alignment.
These are not organic endorsements. They represent a political machine that uses pressure, coordinated messaging, and factional loyalty as its model for influence. Idahoans have watched this group operate in legislative primaries, school board races, and county party takeovers. Idaho Falls is now one more target.
Experience is not optional
Lisa spent ten years on the Idaho Falls School Board and five years on the city council. She understands enterprise funds, public finance, regional planning, asset management, and the legal limits placed on cities. She has dealt with the real-world consequences of growth on streets, utilities, police, fire, and parks. This experience is not theoretical. It is lived.
Idaho Falls does not have time for a long learning curve.
Jeff Alldridge has never served in public office. He claims to work remotely for an out-of-state company, though the details are unclear. He has not stated whether he would leave that job if elected mayor. Managing a four-hundred-million-dollar city budget while potentially maintaining a second full-time job raises serious concerns about capacity and priorities. Scrubbed online social media history and paid removal from online public record databases do not disqualify him, but they create reasonable questions that deserve direct answers. In elections, transparency of one’s past matters, especially if you have something to hide.
A mayor works for the residents of Idaho Falls. The job demands full attention.
Why contention keeps showing up
Anyone watching this race online has seen what happens when IFF-aligned activists get involved. The tone sharpens. Threads fill with identical talking points. Personal attacks replace policy arguments. People who correct misinformation become targets. Moderate voices step back because they do not want to be dragged into the hostility.
It is almost always the same ten people driving it. The same names in every Facebook thread, repeating the same claims, disparaging anyone who offers facts, and treating disagreement as a threat. They flood local comment sections, declare themselves the voice of the community, and then accuse everyone else of being the contentious ones. It is not a misunderstanding. It is the strategy.
This pattern has appeared in legislative races, school board fights, and county party takeovers across Idaho. The goal is to dominate public discourse through noise and pressure, not to encourage good governance or civil disagreement.
Idaho Falls needs a mayor who can navigate conflict without amplifying manufactured outrage.
The Alldridge invitation
To keep this process fair, I politely reached out to Jeff Alldridge and invited him to appear on the podcast and provide three different days this week I would be available to record. His full reply is below:
“Hi Greg,
Thanks so much for reaching out and for the invitation to Political Potatoes.
Unfortunately, the times you mentioned don’t work with my schedule this week. This is a marathon week. Between work, other media commitments, family in town, canvassing events, and Thanksgiving, it’s turning into quite the packed final stretch.
I wish we could have connected on this earlier in the runoff when my calendar had more flexibility.
Are you local to the Idaho Falls area? If so, I’d be happy to have you join me for one of our scheduled canvassing events this week. That way you could see the campaign in action, meet some voters, and we could chat while we walk. Let me know if that works for your schedule.
Thanks again for the invitation.
Jeff Alldridge”
The invitation remains open. Any candidate willing to explain their plans in detail will always have a seat on Political Potatoes, provided they do not use the platform to spread messaging aimed at dehumanizing people.
What this choice ultimately asks
Idaho Falls has become the economic center for an entire region. That reality brings responsibility, pressure, and consequences for every decision the next mayor makes. The city needs leadership that understands public finance, growth management, and the limits and powers granted to local government under Idaho law. It also needs independence from ideological networks that treat local offices as leverage points.
Voters have the interview. They have the information. They can study the coalitions, weigh the clarity, and measure the silence. The direction of the city rests with them.
Learn more about each candidate on their campaign website:
Lisa Burtenshaw
Jeff Alldridge
About the Author
Gregory Graf is the creator of Political Potatoes and a lifelong conservative Republican who lives in Star, Idaho.
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Disclaimer
The following is intended to convey an opinion on newsworthy events of public concern regarding public figures and/or public officials in exercising their official duties. No implications or inferences—beyond those explicitly stated in the preceding— are intended to be conveyed or endorsed by the Author. Wherever available, hyperlinks have been provided to allow readers to directly access any underlying assertions of fact upon which this opinion is based.
