Boise Mayor Lauren McLean is in the newspapers, again, lying about her critics, her agenda, and her actions to date.  Thursday’s “open letter”  is mostly public relations and posturing disguised as an effort to inform the community. True to form, she bobs and weaves like a pro, including just enough “golly shucks” moments to make herself sound credible. Consider: 

• McLean wrote just days ago that she wants to “put people ahead of partisan ideology.” McLean is as partisan as they come, as evidenced by her speech last week via the Democrat National Convention. “We’re not waiting for Washington to act on climate change!” McLean bragged before a national audience. If she’s so ideologically nonpartisan, why was she sounding like AOC as she cast the Democrats’ votes for Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders? A nonpartisan politician wouldn’t go out of their way to participate in the most partisan event of the year and then act as if it never happened.
• McLean’s first city spending plan includes a “Climate Action Division” and “diversity and inclusion” training at City Hall. This is the very definition of a mayor who governs with leftist ideology. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: Boiseans just want a well-run city, not a center for either liberal or conservative activism. 
• Not so long ago, the mayor was among the politicians who forced the unnecessary closure of Boise businesses. Now, as some of those businesses have been unable to reopen and people remain out of work, McLean has increased the number of city employees; raised many of the fees paid for government services; hiked property taxes by an estimated three percent for the average owner-occupied home; and, preserved the city’s ability to levy even higher taxes on landowners next year or at any point into the future. She didn’t write about that, because it doesn’t help her story, but the unspoken truth is: Her budget hurts Boise residents far more than it helps. 
• She erroneously says her critics are worked up over “things like public pre-k.” That’s just downright deceitful, and she knows it. She conveniently leaves out just a couple of words so that the reader will draw inaccurate conclusions about what her own inner circle proposed. In truth, her critics are upset up about “sex education for pre-kindergartners,” which was proposed by one of her transition committees and was included on the the mayor’s website. Sure, government-run pre-k comes with its own set of objections. But that’s not what’s on the table. It’s a proposal to teach sex ed to three- and four-year-olds that has people riled up. 

Of all the politicians I have encountered over the years, no one spins a tale like Boise’s new mayor. There’s a reason I call her “Lying Lauren” and “Mendacious McLean.” Her record of deceitfulness after just eight months in office explains why, when confronted by a TV reporter, McLean couldn’t straight up answer the question “are you a socialist” with a simple yes or no.

McLean’s “open letter” is filled with a lot of words about “community before ideology.” But words are just words. Her deeds, so far, prove she’s all about ideology, and one that is better suited to Portland than it is Boise.