By Melissa Davlin, Idaho Reports
Two months ago, Gov. Brad Little made headlines for appealing to country music star Garth Brooks to add another Boise concert to his tour.
“If it happens, it will be because of this phone calls,” Brooks told Little.
All in good fun, sure. But it got me wondering: Outside of the chaos of the legislative session, what do people contact the governor’s office about? And how many people really contacted Little about another Garth Brooks concert?
Idaho Reports submitted a public records request for all constituent comments submitted to Little’s office during the week-long period between when the first Garth Brooks concert sold out and the release of the video.
In that time period, Little received 114 constituent e-mails and three voicemails. This number does not include social media comments to Little’s accounts.
Of those, three were about the Garth Brooks concert. Two asked for more shows, and one asked for an investigation of ticket resellers.
The rest dealt with a range of issues. A plurality of messages, 23, were related to the environment, including salmon, flood control, nuclear issues and a proposed smelter in Washington near the Idaho border.
Sixteen concerned judicial issues, including sentencing reform, probation and parole, the conditions of county jails, and the death penalty. Fourteen people wrote to Little about abortion, with the majority asking for legislation restricting abortion access.
Only six discussed education-related topics.
Most of the rest dealt with a grab bag of subjects, including licensing, regulations, invitations to events, texting while walking, and a couple pieces of hate mail.
