Campaign sign complaints part of Ada County Commissioner race

Two candidates are facing off for Ada County Commissioner — and facing off over campaign signs.

Incumbent Ryan Davidson and challenger Clyde Dornier are running as Republicans in District 1. But recently, Dornier’s campaign filed two complaints against Davidson for reusing 2020 campaign signs paid for by a political action committee that didn’t endorse Davidson this time around. An Idaho Secretary of State’s Office spokesperson said the complaints were regarding state statute 67-6614A , which discusses campaign contributions and expenditures.

The Ada County Elections Office asked the PAC and Davidson to find a “mutually agreeable solution.” Davidson ultimately agreed to take the signs down. The issue is now closed, a spokesperson said.

“I guess it was a miscommunication between me and the political action committee,” Davidson said. “They had never told me that I couldn’t reuse the signs … just in the spirit of moving past this and then getting on with the campaign, we’re just asking supporters if they put up one of the signs to take it down and let us know.”

Dornier declined to comment further on the campaign signs.

RYAN DAVIDSON

Davidson, 47, grew up in Winnipeg. He’s lived in Boise since 1995, when his whole family was looking for a change. They moved, “looking for new adventures.”

Now, he lives in Garden City and has served on Ada County’s Board of Commissioners since 2020.

Davidson pointed to projects like the redevelopment of the park at Expo Idaho, a juvenile jail diversion program called the Bridge Youth and Family Resource Center, and a tax cut that was achieved while he’s been in office.

“We’ve got some big projects that we’ve started that I want to continue to work on, like the park at Expo Idaho,” he said. “That’s such a special piece of land.”

Ada County Commissioners have been involved with designing and building a new park at Expo Idaho, which is expected to be built in multiple phases and completed in 2026.

The biggest issue facing the area is growth, Davidson said.

He added that the commissioners have jurisdiction to approve or deny any development outside of city limits.

“We want to make sure that if people want to build in the county, that they have a clear path to do it,” Davidson said. “We do approve houses out in the county to increase the supply of houses. ... If they don’t have places to live, that just causes rents to go up and causes the price of houses (to) go up.”

Ultimately, he said the proper role of government is what’s defined in the U.S. Constitution. Government should be small and only there to protect people’s rights, he said.

“Anything that the private sector can do should not be done by the government, ideally,” Davidson said. “The government is there to protect your constitutional rights and not provide for you from cradle to grave.”

CLYDE DORNIER

Dornier, 67, was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. He did his undergraduate education at LSU and got his master’s degree from the University of Dallas. He spent a little over four years in the Army as a field artillery officer. Dornier deployed, but never into combat. He’s also worked on and off in consulting throughout his career and continues to do so.

He first came to Idaho in September 1997, and worked at Micron. In 2012, he and his now-ex-wife sold their house and started a vacation-rental business in Hawaii while he was working in California. He came back to Idaho in 2017 and married his current wife.

“I’m not a politician. I’m not ever going to be a politician,” Dornier said. “I think of myself as a public servant. I’ve always thought that at some point it would be time to give back, and now is the time to give back.”

He said his background would give him an edge in budgeting and leading a large organization. Now that he’s semi-retired, Dornier said he has the time to do it.

Property taxes, public safety and the jail are the biggest issues facing Ada County, Dornier said. Dornier said he wants to work with the sheriff on addressing public safety. He also wants to treat this job like he’s consulting, and figure out where there are opportunities for process improvements, stopping things people don’t want and acting as efficiently as possible.

He said, when possible, he wants to be able to return surpluses to the taxpayers.

“I’m a very transparent person,” Dornier said. “I plan to hold regular meet-and-greet sessions.”