Em frames Kootenai County commissioner race as blue-collar vs white-collar

Steve Em is trying to turn the Kootenai County District 2 commissioner race into a test of who the county really works for. His message is blunt: “It’s white collar versus blue collar,” a frame he says captures a choice between polished county politics and the people who run small operations, work with their hands and feel local decisions first.

That argument landed in public at a May 1 forum at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library, where about 100 people heard Republican commissioner candidates answer questions about growth, planning and trust. The event was presented by Coeur d’Alene Regional Realtors and the North Idaho Building Contractors Association. Em told the crowd he was “a blue-collar worker coming into a white-collar field” and said he wanted to mend division, not deepen it.

The race carries unusually high stakes because the Republican primary on May 19 is effectively the election in District 2. The winner will run unopposed in November. Under Idaho’s closed-primary system, only registered Republicans can vote in that primary unless the party opens it to others, narrowing the decision to a comparatively small slice of county voters.

Em is challenging Commissioner Bruce Mattare, who is seeking a second term after first winning election in 2022. Mattare has tried to steer the race toward performance and management, saying the county has increased staffing in the sheriff’s office, reduced taxpayer dollars spent on Citylink and cut permit wait times in the Community Development Department. He has also said roughly three-quarters of the county budget is personnel-driven, and he wants service-level measures such as 911 response times and prosecutor workloads built into the comprehensive plan so commissioners can track the effects of growth.

Those debates are unfolding as Kootenai County rewrites its long-range playbook. The county launched an online survey on April 7 for its comprehensive-plan update, which is expected to continue through April 2027. County officials describe the plan as a 20-year guide for growth and development in unincorporated areas, and the update covers 17 state-required elements, including housing, land use, transportation and recreation.

The pressure on commissioners is only growing. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated Kootenai County’s population at 188,323 on July 1, 2024, and 191,864 on July 1, 2025, up 12.0% from the 2020 census base. In that environment, the District 2 race is less about slogans than about who will decide taxes, permitting, staffing and the county’s response to growth. Mattare reported $18,200 in contributions by May 13, while Em had reported none, sharpening the contrast between an incumbent with a financial base and a challenger leaning on a working-class pitch.