Bedke calls foul on Redoubt News over allegations

By Cameron Rasmusson
Reader Staff

Idaho Speaker of the House Scott Bedke butted heads this week with North Idaho website Redoubt News over allegations of wrong-doing.

Speaker Scott Bedke.

The Spokesman-Review reports that Bedke fired back against the far-right website after it published allegations from a former secretary that she overheard him make crude remarks during a committee hearing. Bedke denies that he made any such remarks and said it was “premature” as to whether he’d file a lawsuit against Redoubt News or the secretary.

Redoubt News writer Sheri Dovale, who published the secretary’s affidavit, wrote that the alleged behavior demonstrated a hypocrisy in Bedke’s removing Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, from her committee assignments for four weeks. Scott was disciplined for remarking that females only advance in the Legislature by trading sexual favors. Her supporters were fiercely critical of Bedke’s decision, calling him part of the “Boise swamp” in an echo of President Donald Trump’s language.

In response, Bedke said that the former secretary had stalked him in 2013 after she was not hired back from the 2012 legislative session. According to the Spokesman-Review a string of Idaho State Police reports detail interviews with the woman, who said at the time she had a “crush” on Bedke.