City Government
McLean Challenges Bieter For Mayor Post, Needs Name Recognition
May 20, 2019 
Boise City Council President Loren McLean filed her candidacy to challenge Mayor Dave Bieter, but she may need to do a better job when it comes to name recognition.
When she walked up to the window at the City Clerk’s office with her candidacy documents, she was asked for her Idaho driver’s license as identification. An avid bicyclists and walker, McLean didn’t have her license with her. The clerk didn’t know her and was forced to turn her away. The miscue was eventually resolved and documents were executed.
“Too many folks are feeling priced out, talked over, left out or forgotten, and that should worry us all,” said McLean in a news release.
She has been making the rounds of local coffee shops talking with patrons and said, “They want their leaders to be transparent, set aside old grudges, and get serious about bold action to make every Boisean’s life better. That’s why I’m running.”
McLean was first appointed by Bieter in early 2011, won election to council later that year and was reelected in 2015. Prior to taking her seat on council she served as the campaign manager for the 2001 Foothills Open Space Initiative, served on the Boise Parks Commission and Planning & Zoning Commission.
Check out the IDAHO PRESS for McLean’s background and education.
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Comments & Discussion
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May 20, 2019, 2:09 pm
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
May 20, 2019, 2:36 pm
Transparency: check.
Bury the hatchet: check.
Bold action: not sure how much more bold action out of city hall Boise can take.
Seems that lack of transparency and inclusion is as much a fault of council leadership as it is a mayoral problem.
One wonders how the leader of a council that has been unable or unwilling to rein in hizzoner’s bullyiing and has unanimously supported his back-room deals most of the time will do a better job as mayor.
May 20, 2019, 3:59 pm
I live on the Boise Bench. So we have another candidate who will work for the foothills. I am not interested…. I want to know if there is anyone interested in the increasing traffic on the Boise Bench and how many of us will loose our front yards to the sacred automobile traffic where children walk to and from schools and playgrounds.
Yes, the NorthEnd/foothills and the area of the old Triangle Dairy are the places the City cares about.
May 20, 2019, 4:02 pm
I got the “big news” email from Ms. McLean, and my reaction was exactly the same as that of my friend, rabula.
“We need to embrace bolder, more urgent solutions for affordable housing, traffic, and congestion to keep Boise livable for everyone, in every neighborhood.”
So, Bieter’s deficiency is that he’s not “bold” enough, and Government has to act with more urgency? Sounds like another champion of “social engineering” to me. (She’s aware that ACHD, and not the city, is responsible for efforts to improve traffic and congestion, right? Or – maybe she’s advocating for government-provided relief from the type of “congestion” fomented by seasonal allergies…)
Well this “everyday person” thinks just the opposite should be done. The city could turn it down a few notches, and maybe give the everyday people a bit of a tax break in the bargain.
I’m committed to vote for somebody besides Beiter. (I don’t think I’ve voted for him since the first time he ran.) But so far I believe the alternative choices are a homeless guy, a guy who’s running on the “openly gay” agenda, and now a long-time Bieter toadie who wants government to be bigger and bolder.
May 20, 2019, 5:47 pm
from year 2010:
“…in the end it was Lauren’s extensive history of community involvement, her strong grasp of the issues facing the city and her unwavering commitment to Boise’s future that made her my choice,”
-said Mayor Dave Bieter, upon nominating Mclean to the council.
https://boiseguardian.com/2010/12/16/lauren-mclean-to-fill-bisterfeldts-seat/
In 2015 about at total of 33,000 voters cast a ballot for mayor.
Bieter got about 23,000 of those.
So, 10,000 voters are simply opposed to Bieter as mayor regardless of his opponent, so says the fact the main opponent was JPD.
If Mclean can split just 1/3 of the Bieter block (for example, the liberal female voters)– then it could go her way.
I predict she will narrowly win, but nothing will change in the next 4 years (or 8).
Not that things can change.
The mayor can’t affect the traffic mess created by ACHD and the P&Z, or the growth rate, or govt culture, or the momentum of URDS, or much else.
Heck, in some ways Mclean represents the problem! GROWTH and taxes.
She and her husband moved here to raise a family and they can afford to be close enough to downtown to ride her bike to City Hall. Her family situation allows her the LUXURY of being a part of the problem. Others on the council meet the same demographics.
Not every Boisean can afford a $700,000 house in the NorthEnd.
“Feeling priced out”? Well, not if you already own something in her neighborhood.
She led the foothills levy: more taxes on everyone so a few people in the moderate/wealthy foothills interface can enjoy the trails right out their door, have open space and encourage subsidized fire protection. She represents ‘geographic taxes vs benefit’ disparity that so MANY Guardian readers are opposed to. Just like the URDs being pushed by the current council.
Anyway, it is always good to get new people in elected offices.
Good job for her for taking the step!
I posted a year ago, on this site, “This upcoming election [2018] will be a PINK WAVE instead of red or blue”
And that wave continues…
May 20, 2019, 6:28 pm
She is not a viable alternative. She votes lockstep with the other councilors on developmental and budget issues. They raise the budget the maximum allowable by law each year while raking in annual surpluses while our property taxes go sky high.
She voted to give Jefferson Street to St. Luke’s while demanding that when the time comes St.Lukes support their desire called streetcar.
If you like the way Boise is headed, she will grease the skids!
May 20, 2019, 8:53 pm
This is another Bernie and Hillary strategy. Run someone who is just as liberal a democrat as the other so it looks like there is a “race”. That way either one that wins is just like the other.
May 20, 2019, 10:18 pm
This looks like a strategy of controlled opposition to head off challengers from outside of Team Dave. Even if she won nothing really would change.
May 20, 2019, 10:30 pm
These two nearly kiss each other with mutually supportive schmoozing. So the real intent is to eliminate any small amount of oxygen Bieter has not used up already. She has no intention of wining. She is the blocker to prevent any true challenger from making it to the front line. The intent is also to give her a leg up when Bieter quits next term. She is the chosen one.
May 21, 2019, 7:17 am
So having been on the Council for EIGHT years, did she 1. never interact with the staff in the building in which she works albeit part time and 2. did she not ever worry about transparency until lately?
Well, she would be different from Bieter although just shorter and female. Has she ever not voted the way he wanted or spent a dime differently than he?
I’m waiting for a real alternative.
May 21, 2019, 9:52 am
She doesn’t like his tactics either.
May 21, 2019, 11:51 am
As one of my favorite groups sang in “we won’t be fooled again”….
Meet the new boss… same as the old boss
May 21, 2019, 3:51 pm
Mr. Guardian,
was she the one caught texting or doing facebook during a council meeting a few months ago???…. not that there is any thing wrong with that….
EDITOR NOTE–Councilor Woodings got busted testing about bikes during a meeting.
May 22, 2019, 6:22 am
Dang, I was hoping for a Hispanic transgender lesbian so that we could get on the national news.
May 22, 2019, 12:05 pm
First thing…..coffee shops “downtown” are not The People. They are the Left SJW types that shape the social media landscape, using censorship to drive conservative and independent voices out of the debate. That should be the first Red Flag.
The only use of her candidacy here is to draw Lefty votes from Bieter and allow a GOOD candidate to run and possibly beat him. Otherwise, this is a facsimile candidate for our path to a Portlandish future.
May 22, 2019, 6:57 pm
Well yeah. Maybe there is still a candidate with a support system.
How about Pfleger – the insurance guy who had petitions in his office?
Unless he’s too right. But he’s got time and money.
Pfleger Dave out. 🙂
May 22, 2019, 7:46 pm
“Too many folks are feeling priced out, talked over, left out or forgotten, and that should worry us all,” said McLean in a news release.
I have had a call into Loren McLean since January 2018.Tried to make contact over the phone through her office and the mayors office. SHE HAS NOT RETURNED MY CALL!
She comes across to me as DAVE BIETER IN A DRESS!
May 23, 2019, 6:00 am
I like good ole’ fashion mud slinging races – if she truly thinks she is a better candidate than our current mayor – let’s get real.
What is it Loren that makes you such a great choice – and what is it about Dave that precludes him from continuing in the role?
Be honest – no glowing recommendations of what a great job Dave has done and how you can add whip cream to his current policies!
Sadly I’m in the camp that feels she is cut from the same cloth as Bieter – thus not a viable alternative.