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Interview Transcript:
Reporter: So we’ll just have you start by telling us a little bit about yourself.
Brunt: Sure. But as I said, my name is Christopher Joseph Brunt:. I’m the 46 year old fifth generation legacy resident of Idaho Falls. My family’s been in Idaho Falls for 129 years. First showed up in 1896. So, I was raised in Idaho Falls. Educated in the district 91 and, also attended Eastern Idaho Technical College and Idaho State University.
Brunt: And my children are here. I work here. I’ve been, engaged in, businesses that I’ve owned here as well. And then currently I’m actually engaged in, food service. The food service industry here in Idaho Falls. So.
Reporter: All right, so you’ve definitely invested in Idaho Falls.
Brunt: Absolutely. I’m also a homeowner as well. So you know.
Reporter: So what inspired you to run for office?
Brunt: My well, first and foremost, we were raised with stories of my my great grandmother who ran for mayor back in the day. And, we were always told how amazing it was that she stood up for what she believed in. And that inspired, all of us. It was it was bedtime stories, but it was also, you know, respect your history and and know where you come from. She was a prohibitionist and, also, you know, lady and, I’m a mormon as well. So kind of a lot of things riding against her at that at that particular point in time. But she stood up for what she believed in and, so much so that, the powers that be actually levied death threats against our family. And, they had to, retreat to a dry farm out in Arco. Yeah. And so, we were we were raised with those stories and that inspired me. And I’ve also been interested in politics my whole life. We come to I come from a conservative household, and, my father and I, whenever I would go with him out to business trips that he’d have to do, we’d be listening to the radio, listening to Rush Limbaugh and and all that stuff. And my father was very interested in politics, active in politics. And, when I saw the the seat two was open and there was no incumbent. I thought, well, this is great. This is a chance to not be worried about fighting with anybody or conflict with anybody and be able to focus on, a pet issue or things that need to change or, improve things that are already great. So I jumped at that opportunity.
Reporter: Okay. Fantastic. Let’s go to my next question. Okay. What would you like to accomplish or even change if you were elected?
Brunt: I am astounded by everybody that I speak with everything every time I am in a forum or in a discussion group. How the one thing seems to keep coming up all the time, and that is the breakdown in communication with City Council. That is the amount of people in town here that haven’t been heard. That will actually participate. And then they’ll find out that they were either insulted or they came up short somehow, and they were just absolutely mistreated. And I feel that, whether you’re talking about the issues of growth, whether you’re talking about the, you know, the high density apartments or the crime or anything like that, it all comes down to a breakdown in communication. So my platform is strictly about observing what, what the job is supposed to be about, and that is understanding that the person in this position works for the people. They are an employee of the people. And in that they need to be prioritizing, listening, listening to the people, understanding what it is that the people want and understanding, what their marching orders are, are more or less. And then secondly, learning and putting all that information to work and then going to work with that information. And I don’t think, I think I’m kind of the lone person on this hill, even though there are seven of us running up the hill to that seat. I think I’m the only person focusing on this because I think, again, all of our problems that we have and Idaho Falls is a great city where we’re doing very well. But if the communication is not working and if the people in the positions of authority don’t understand exactly who their boss is, then we definitely have some problems that need to be addressed. And I think this is this is the main one.
Reporter: All right. Thanks for that. Now. Yeah. How would you this kind of leads into the next question. How do you go about maintaining or creating that relationship with citizens?
Brunt: Well, first of all, you have to be relatable. I think that’s that’s a huge issue. We have a lot of people running that have a laundry list of educational accomplishments. You know, volunteer accomplishments, things like that. But, the question that I think a lot of people have is, well, is this person like me? Can I see myself sitting down with this person and having just a casual conversation? And can I can I see this person understanding where I come from, what my problems are, and then being able to go to bat for me, because we meet in the middle somewhere and we’ve shared the same experiences. And so in my end of things, because I’ve lived here my whole life, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve seen things come and go. I’ve, I’ve witnessed ups and downs. You know, from everything that, say, like, as a child, when I saw the Grand Teton Mall come in and I saw the business community practically shattered, downtown, that it’s still recovering from that. When my family was, strong, armed by a certain box store from Arkansas that first moved into Idaho Falls, and, I, for the first time heard my father weep after he he saw the property value diminish after they built right across the street from the house that I was born in or raised in. Excuse me. And, so experiences like that makes them relatable. And that’s, that’s the first key to to being able to break what is, I’m thinking, voter apathy, community apathy, because people just don’t feel like they’re going to be listened to. And it’s critical when the people who are in a position to be your representative, they have to be able to listen and people have to be able to participate. They have to want to participate, to.
Reporter: All right. How are you feeling about how your campaign is going so far?
Brunt: Oh my gosh. It’s it’s such a learning curve. It’s so steep. The last time I ran for office, it was, in two throughout 2013 and ran for state representative. And if I remember correctly, we had about nine months for that particular campaign. And so it was you learned a lot better than any college course I’ve ever taken, but it was spaced out enough that it was a little bit more digestible. But this oh my goodness, two months basically, you know, and it’s but it has been an absolute blast. I have loved meeting people. I’ve loved hearing people. And I’m getting more involved in the community that has been that has been a gem that I didn’t really expect to glean from this, but I really have. And, the people that like what’s happening, the people that don’t like what’s happening and just a sense that I had before, which is what inspired me to run, was wanting to help, wanting to wanting to mean something in the community that I’m invested in and and being able to say, hey, you know, someone wasn’t heard by city council or someone was their business was undermined by city council. I can do something about that because I’m seeing where this is all coming from. This is all a lack of communication. And, I can do something about that.
Reporter: Awesome. Is there anything else that you would like to address or a question I didn’t ask that you were hoping I would ask.
Brunt: Well, one of the big things and you know again it all circles back around to communication. One of the big things is the fact that I think in every election, especially city centric elections, have had very low turnouts, very low turnouts. And if a person is following marching orders in this position and doing what his employers, the people tell them to do, you’ve got to have input. You absolutely have to have input and you have to have participation. And if the numbers are correct, I’m assuming then based on national numbers, that Idaho Falls, those numbers are pretty similar. So if we’re looking at 70,000 people in Idaho Falls and the national numbers being what they were for this last election, we had, you’re looking at about 80% potential registered voters. So you’d be looking at 50,000 people who would be potential registered voters. But in the last, the last numbers we had for elections, it was, 2023, I think is what it was. We were looking at 5000 people around about. So we’re looking at about 10% participation that again communication. It all goes back. So anything I like to say to people would be get out and vote. It is so critically important because how can the people who are supposed to be working for you know what to do, unless you’re talking to them? It’s a it’s a two way street. It really is. So get out and vote. The voting starts the 20th of October and it goes until the 31st of October. And then the actual voting day is November 4th. So there’s plenty of opportunities. But if Idaho Falls is going to belong to all of us, then we all need to be participating.
