Karen Matthee
Karen Matthee (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Idaho House of Representatives to represent District 1A. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Matthee completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Karen Matthee was born in Redwood City, California. She earned a high school diploma from Prospect High School, a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981, and a graduate degree from Northwestern University in 1983. Her career experience includes working as an author and print journalist. She has been affiliated with both Rotary and the Better Together Animal Alliance organizations.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Idaho House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Idaho House of Representatives District 1A
Incumbent Mark Sauter defeated Karen Matthee in the general election for Idaho House of Representatives District 1A on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mark Sauter (R) | 77.5 | 24,265 |
 | Karen Matthee (D)  | 22.5 | 7,028 | |
| Total votes: 31,293 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Idaho House of Representatives District 1A
Karen Matthee advanced from the Democratic primary for Idaho House of Representatives District 1A on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Karen Matthee | 100.0 | 1,048 |
| Total votes: 1,048 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Idaho House of Representatives District 1A
Incumbent Mark Sauter defeated Jane Sauter and Spencer Hutchings in the Republican primary for Idaho House of Representatives District 1A on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mark Sauter | 49.9 | 7,622 |
| Jane Sauter | 31.6 | 4,828 | ||
 | Spencer Hutchings | 18.5 | 2,830 | |
| Total votes: 15,280 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Matthee in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Karen Matthee completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Matthee's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- Bring back our doctors! We have lost more than a quarter of our ob/gyns, more than half of our maternal-fetal specialists, and now 59% of our family practitioners are leaving or thinking about leaving Idaho. Last session, the GOP majority did NOTHING to stop the doctor exodus. Despite please from provider groups, the ACLU and others, they did nothing to fix language in the state's extreme abortion ban and create an exception to protect the health of a mother, as well as her life, in a medical emergency. In fact, the GOP - my opponent Mark Sauter included - passed three more bills that criminalize doctors for providing the best standard of care. This is unacceptable.
- For years, the GOP-led Idaho legislature has failed to properly fund the state's public schools, despite a clear directive from the state supreme court. Our schools remain the worst-funded in the country, and this fall, a number of schools closed throught the state due to budget shortfalls and failed levies.
My opponent holds up the Idaho Launch Program which subsidizes career education after high school as a big win for education this past session. And while, it is an excellent program, it is about all the state does to fund higher education.
Additionally, the governor's $1.5 billion facilities bill did little to help North Idaho schools. We can do so much better! - Reduce the cost of living: Property taxes continue to soar in our North Idaho communities, and families who've lived in their homes their entire adult lives are having to sell because they can't afford the property taxes. The GOP's solutions thus far have been piecemeal at best, and voters tell me they want a long-term fix. I believe a return to the index to the homeowners exemption, stopped and capped in 2016, would allow exemptions to increase gradually along with home prices, equalize the tax burden between commercial and homeowner properties, and give homeowners the relief they seek. Rep. Bruce Skaug introduced such a bill but did not get the GOP support he needed for it to advance. I would support this bill.
As a journalist, I strongly believe in doing my homework, which includes reaching out to voters and seeing where they stand on key issues affecting our state.
Idaho's GOP lawmakers are trigger happy. Many of the bills they propose are short-sighted and fail to consider their far-reaching effects on the majority of constituents. Examples are the near-total abortion ban and three other pieces of legislation passed by Republicans - my opponent Mark Sauter included - that criminalize doctors.
Every legislative bill that is passed by the state legislative body is presented to the Governor for signing. State laws prescribe how much time the Governor is allotted to sign or veto proposed legislation following transmittal. Legislation may go into effect without the Governor’s signature after a statutorily mandated time has elapsed. Different rules may apply depending on whether the state is in a regular legislative session, post legislative-adjournment, or if the state is in special session.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 30, 2024
