The Thrill of Victory: Brian Lenney

Ian MacDonald at True Idaho News has an exclusive interview with one of Idaho's victorious State Senate candidates: Brian Lenney. Did his opponent, Joel Agenbroad, even know there was an election on?

Idahoans have been clamoring for change, but the people, the voters if you will, aren’t just mindless drones. They want to see candidates out there interacting with real people, “kissing babies,” talking with local business owners, and listening to their needs. They also need to be knocking on doors, putting out signs, and posting live streams to social media – assuming the candidate isn’t already banned by big tech for exercising too much free speech.

Lenney did all of the above, plus made a habit of being available on Facebook quite readily for good-faith questions and citizen engagement.

.......

Lenney said that his opponent had two opportunities to debate him. Agenbroad didn’t outright “refuse” officially, but was apparently “busy” with other things on both occasions during the primary campaign. In our opinion, it would not be much of a stretch to speculatively wonder if Agenbroad thought he had it in the bag and didn’t “need” to debate anyone to defend his seat. If so, he made a major error drawing such an assumption.

Many people attacked Lenney for his run and questioned where his donations came from, despite the fact that he was far outraised by his opponent – a sitting state senator. Some of the out-of-state donations, Lenney tells us, were simply friends and family from back in California. None of it was shady, all of it was easily identifiable. Lenney also received many individual donations from local residents and small businesses as well.

Lenney had two things--1) he wanted to win his race and 2) he had a workable strategy to accomplish it that involved some media, an airtight message, and a strong ground game. These races are not million dollar events. Candidates need enough money if they are ambitious, prudent and disciplined enough to achieve it. Lenney's smarts and his heart were enough in Canyon County.