Coeur d'Alene Sen. John Goedde, who's just won re-election to a seventh term in the Senate, says he may or may not continue as the Senate Education Committee chairman. "I would be in line to take the Commerce & Human Resources chairmanship, and that's something that I spent ... years being involved with as a small businessman," said Goedde, an insurance agent. "And I would not have the hassle of dealing with the leadership of the IEA there."

Clearly stung by the defeat of Propositions 1, 2 and 3, the "Students Come First" school reform measures - of which Goedde was the lead legislative sponsor and which the Idaho Education Association opposed - he said he'll "withhold judgment on how serious the IEA is on looking at education reform" until he sees what vision the teachers union proposes for future reform. "If the union is sincere in looking at reform, I think they need to be included," Goedde said. "But if it's going to be 'not only no but hell no,' which has kind of been their prior approach to this, then it's a futile effort to include them."

Goedde said by seniority, if he were to leave the education chairmanship, the next person eligible would be Sen. Monty Pearce, R-New Plymouth, who now chairs the Resources Committee. And if he didn't want to, the next would be Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, who now serves in leadership as caucus chairman.

Goedde said, "But with that said, I also made a commitment that I'd see this reform through the end, and I don't know that I can jump ship mid-term." Goedde said, "I spoke with the pro-tem this morning, and I'll speak with him again at the legislative tour." Lawmakers will gather for their North Idaho Legislative Tour starting on Sunday; it's in Moscow and Lewiston this year. The three-day event will be the first chance for jockeying to begin for leadership races; it'll also be the first chance for lawmakers to chew over the election result together. "We need to sit down as a majority caucus and talk about where we go from here," Goedde said.