Voter Guide: Mary Shea (D)

• Background politically and professional:   
  • I am a trial attorney with over 30 years of experience with an emphasis on family law and civil rights.  I am also a Child Welfare Law Specialist, working in the Bannock County juvenile court system with Pocatello’s most vulnerable families.  I have lived in Pocatello for a quarter of a century, working as a lawyer, a former instructor and program coordinator at ISU; a community advocate; and a small business owner.  I have led numerous boards and organizations, including Idaho Legal Aid and the Portneuf Health Care Foundation.  I had the honor and privilege of substituting for Senator James Ruchti at the end of the 2024 legislative session, and I had the opportunity to debate against some bills that are not popular here in Pocatello.  I am ready to serve as Pocatello’s newest Representative, fighting for laws that promote a fair, just, prosperous, and fiscally responsible Idaho – a place where our children and grandchildren will want to stay and thrive.  
    
• Career/Education:  
  • I graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1987, and from the University of Richmond School of Law in 1990.  I was a law clerk for the Virginia Supreme Court from 1990-1993, and then I worked for the Virginia Attorney General from 1993 – 2000.  I started my litigation career in the criminal division but focused primarily on civil rights litigation defending the State.  I represented the Virginia Department of Corrections, Virginia Probation and Parole Officers, and I was the primary attorney assigned to represent the Virginia Parole Board.  I transferred to the civil litigation division in 1995, and I represented Virginia in many of their highest profile civil rights cases and personal injury cases.  I was also assigned as primary counsel to represent the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia judiciary.   I worked for GOP Governors and Attorney Generals from 1994-2000, and I am proud to say that they trusted me with their most difficult, sensitive, and high-profile policy-oriented litigation strategies.In 1999 I moved to Pocatello Idaho, got married, and raised three children who are now young adults.  I shifted my legal career to meet the needs of this community, focusing on low income and pro bono needs, and representing CASA in child welfare cases.  I am a three-time CASA attorney of the year, and I have also received the Pro Bono and Service awards from the Idaho State Bar.   
    
    I taught most of the courses and I ran the Idaho State University Paralegal Studies Program from 2010-2017.  In 2014, I closed my law practice to focus on this position.  In 2017, I returned to full time law practice at Merrill and Merrill Chartered.  In 2018, I decided to focus on child welfare law as a specialty practice, recognizing the needs of the community.  I have worked as a conflict Public Defender representing parents and children exclusively in the juvenile court since that time.
    
• Personal information  
  • I was born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to Virginia when I was in third grade.   I lived in Virginia until 1999, and I have lived in Pocatello since then.  I am the mother of three young adult children who are pursuing their education and careers here in Pocatello.  I have two dogs and two cats. 
    
    Part of the reason we came to Idaho was because my former husband recognized the high need for medical professionals and particularly specialists in Idaho.  He is a neurosurgeon still practicing locally.  We also came to Idaho because of the scenic beauty.  I love to ski, hike, kayak, and paddleboard.  I try to get outside every single day I can.  I came to Pocatello and started a family knowing no one and having no family or other support here.  I found this community to be warm, kind, and welcoming, and now I am so thankful to have so many good friends who feel like family here.  I love this community, and I am ready to go to work in the legislature to make Pocatello and Idaho the best they can be.
• What issues do you feel are important and what would you do if elected: 
  • I am running to move the needle in Idaho, to focus more on the needs of the people, and less on catering to largely out of state billionaire agendas that truly do not reflect our Idaho values.
    
    I am committed to supporting public education, including pushing back on any voucher or tax credit schemes that threaten public education funding; that violate our State constitution; and that lack accountability to taxpayers.  Despite investments in public education over the last two years, we are still ranked last in the nation for per pupil funding.  We still have a $1 billion dollar budget shortfall for deferred maintenance needs due to decades of neglect.  We now face an $80 million budget shortfall for our special educational needs.  Idaho is already ranked as one of the very best states in the nation for school choice, and we cannot afford to fund any parallel education systems until or unless we are fully funding our constitutionally mandated public school system.  This idea is not coming from grass roots Idaho – it is being pushed and funded by out of state billionaire lobbies, who frankly do not care about our public education system or blowing out our state budget.  This is not a fiscally responsible road for Idaho to go down.
    
    I am also focused on amending our extreme laws that are chasing our doctors out of state.  The physical, mental, and financial harm they are causing to Idaho mothers and families is unconscionable.
    
    I am also committed to policies that uplift everyone in Idaho, including promoting greater access to mental health and all healthcare services; addressing Idaho’s growing housing unaffordability; finding ways to help working Idahoans thrive economically; and supporting Idaho working families and children. I will work to fully utilize our federally allocated tax dollars where it makes sense to do so. I will support Medicaid and fight to protect Medicaid expansion that was approved by Idaho voters in 2018.   I will support the ICCP program and work to help make childcare more affordable generally.  I support examining the sales tax and reducing or eliminating the grocery tax.   I support fully funding our public education system, promoting early childhood education, and I support higher education and vocational training through programs like LAUNCH.   
    
    
• Website: https://maryforidaho.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maryforidaho
• Twitter: https://x.com/MARYFORIDAHO @maryforidaho
• Instagram: @maryforidaho
• Youtube:  @maryforidaho
• Tik Tok: @maryforidaho

Interview transcript:

My name is Mary Shay, and I'm running for, House seat 29A here in Pocatello, Idaho. I am an attorney at Merrill and Merrill, and I've been a lawyer for about 30 years. A trial lawyer specifically.

Originally from Chicago and grew up in Virginia and was educated there and started my legal career there, working for the Attorney General's office, moved to Pocatello in 1999, started my family and sort of switched gears. I now practice mostly family law and civil rights law. And, I'm also, a child welfare law specialist, which is a specialty certification in the law. Only a handful of Idaho attorneys have that certification. And I'm a member of the National Association of Council for Children. So, I do a lot of child welfare work in our local juvenile courts and sometimes some juvenile criminal work. That gives me sort of a unique perspective of the struggles of our most vulnerable families here in Pocatello.

And I've been active in the community, active in the Idaho State Bar. I have, led the Sixth District Bar Association, as well as the family law section here. and I have also been, past president of the Idaho Legal Aid, and I'm also still a board member of that, have been past president of the board of Health Care Foundation.

It's now known as the Portneuf Health Trust and was a board member of that. and I've just been active in the community. I really love this community. I came here in 1999 and started a family, got pregnant, knew nobody here except for my husband. And, and I found this community to be really warm and welcoming and connected with it really right away.

I love this community, and I'm ready to serve.

So what made you want to run for office?

A lot of things, I think, I've been around politics, you know, early in my legal career, I worked for the governor and attorney general of Virginia, and, And so I've been around politics.

I've always been interested in politics, but I never personally thought that I would get involved in politics. I think that a couple of years ago, some local Democrats came to me and asked if I would consider running, including Senator James Rutchi and Representative Nate Roberts. and the late Senator Mark Nye and I had never really thought about it before, but I agreed with them, and they knew that I agreed with them that we feel like Idaho is sometimes headed in the wrong direction with some of the legislation that's been passed.

A lot of it doesn't even originate from grassroots Idaho. It's coming from ideas from out-of-state billionaire PACs and lobbies. And a lot of it just doesn't serve Idaho's interests and doesn't reflect our values. So, I agreed to get involved and try to move the needle a little bit in Idaho and get us back to a common-sense government that really addresses the needs of the people.

What do Idahoans need What do Pocatelloans need, not what do out of state billionaire lobbyist think we need.

What issues do you think you want to campaign on or you think are important, that you're running on? What's your platform, basically.

 Yes. So, I think one of the biggest issues I think that's facing Idaho right now is this idea of taking public tax dollars and giving it to private, religious, and home schools.

It's an issue that has been pushed in Idaho for the last few years. And again, this is not a grassroots idea coming from Idaho. This is coming from billionaire PACs that have invested heavily in Idaho races, legislative races. In fact, they're coming at me right now with negative ads, from out of state money. because they know how I feel about this issue and they know how my opponent feels about this issue, and they think they have a real shot of getting vouchers across the line in Idaho this year.

They also targeted GOP primaries for the last two election cycles for the same reason. Most GOP have also been opposed to this idea, for reasons, you know, that I support, values that I share with a lot of GOP people. It's not fiscally responsible for Idaho to do. And the reason it's not fiscally responsible is because we cut taxes in 2022. And, so we've got declining projected state revenues coming in. We have chronically underfunded our public education system. We still have an estimated at least $1 billion deferred maintenance budget gap to cover. That's a lot of money, crumbling schools all over the state of Idaho. It's what led to the fire at Highland High School. And also other budget gaps. We're facing an $80 million budget gap for special education needs in Idaho due to a misinterpretation of federal law. Other budget gaps, all throughout the state of Idaho in various school districts that need to be filled. And so. And what I hear, you know, from our educators locally as well as from parents and, and students, is that we don't have enough support in the schools to meet the needs of our special education.

Students are challenged learners, learners who are challenged with, mental health issues or behavioral issues, learners with autism and things like that. We're relying on volunteers, to handle those needs, and that's just not it's safe or appropriate for our public schools. So we can't afford it is flat out. We can't afford to fund a parallel system until we're fully funding our public education system.

But there are a lot of other concerns with voucher programs. They really don't help low—and middle-income families because in state after state that have implemented this idea, they're still priced out of a private school. It won't be enough for them to pay the full tuition. And so they're still priced out. Lots of these private schools will raise their tuition when they get the public money as well.

And they also they're permitted to discriminate in a way that the public schools are not. They can exclude the more challenged learners. They can exclude LGBTQ students. And we're basically taking resources away from the public school system to deal with some of our most challenged learners.

And then, I think that, accountability is a real problem with these programs. And I know some of our GOP lawmakers are saying that they would push for some accountability, but it wouldn't be equal accountability. And I if we were going to do this, I would push for equal accountability. If we're giving public money to a parallel system, they should have to follow all the same rules that are public schools have to follow and, and I know that they're not willing to do that.

Part of the reason is because studies that we do have show that educational outcomes decline. They don't improve. When you implement a voucher program. So, for all of these reasons, I'm opposed. I'm going to be a strong voice in Boise for that opposition. And I think that's why the out of state money is targeting me with negative ads right now because they know that. They know that I'm informed on the issue. and so I want to go to Boise and fight about that.

Couple of other issues that I'm really concerned about and that I'm hearing from voters about is, you know, cost of living is really tough in Idaho right now. It's super tough in Pocatello right now. Our housing prices really increased after Covid exponentially. We were neck and neck with Boise in terms of how fast our housing prices increased. And, and that has stuck. And so rents are high, mortgages are high, interest rates went up. And so anybody with an adjustable mortgage, their mortgages went up, food prices too high, child care costs too high. So I would like to go to Boise.

I would like our lawmakers to be focused on the needs of our working families. About 50% of our Pocatello families now qualify as Alice by the United Way. And that's asset-limited, income-constrained, and employed. So these are people who are working as hard as they can, but they still can't meet the needs. And so we need to be focused on those folks, people who are working hard, playing by the rules, and doing everything that they can.

Nobody's grifting the system, but they can't make it. They can't earn a living to stay. I want my children to to want to stay in Idaho. they do love it here, but they are feeling like they may not be able to afford to stay. And that's I've been hearing that from all kinds of young people and, and older people too, on fixed incomes who are feeling like they can't afford to stay in Idaho anymore.

And that's not right. And so we need lawmakers who are focused on those issues. Finally, I'm hearing a lot about reproductive rights, a lot about reproductive rights. People are very concerned about how harsh and how extreme our abortion bans are. And they are seeing for themselves with the results of that are, I mean, I've had friends who have told me that they are not going to expand their families because they've had risky pregnancies in the past, and they cannot afford to have to go out of state to get emergency care if they need it.

I've known people who've had to go out of state to get emergency care. That's expensive, and it's emotionally burdensome to the families who have to go through that experience of losing a wanted pregnancy that way. And we need to make some changes. I've been working on the ballot initiative process for that as well, and I do expect it will be on the ballot in Idaho in 2026.

In the meantime, we really need to expand our medical exemptions. People are getting hurt.

Great. Thank you. what do you think, is going to be the most important thing about this upcoming election or upcoming legislative session, I should say, I'm guessing abortion is going to be one of those.

Well, yes, I do. I think of reproductive rights and amending reproductive rights is going to be a big topic of discussion.

And it needs to be. I mean, it's been two years. It's the legislature has had ample time. And they know this. They know all of this, that I'm saying they know that people are getting hurt. It's time to do something about it. and the voucher issue, I think the voucher issue is coming to a head in Idaho.

and I think we're going to be talking about it a lot.

Great. I think we answered to some of the issues people from your district are discussing or seeing as important. you may have already mentioned that, but if you have anything else there.

Yeah. Some other issues. So I hear a lot about the economy and the cost of living. I hear a lot about high property taxes as well. And I know the legislature and the governor have worked to help with that issue.

But Bannock County is still second county in the state, highest in property tax rates. And, by the way, if we implement a voucher program, that's going to get worse, not better. And so, so I hear a lot about that. I have also been hearing a lot at the doors about concerns about our water resources because, you know, while the Pocatello district is an urban district all around us, we all know, ranchers and farmers who depend on those water resources. And so, I'm definitely paying close attention to that issue as well. and, I would say, generally hearing that people are kind of tired of the legislature focused on things like drag queens and book bans and not paying attention to childcare costs and housing costs and what really matters to day-to-day people. So, those are the things I'm hearing at the doors and with the voters when I go out and talk to them.