Boise mayoral candidate speaks out against ad supporting him, calling it LGBTQ ‘attack’

Boise mayoral candidate Mike Masterson spoke out against political advertisements supporting him that he called an “attack on our LGBTQ community.”

The Building Industry Group Treasure Valley’s Building Industry Group PAC paid for advertisements on social media supporting Masterson. A portion of two Facebook ads showed a photo of Mayor Lauren McLean participating in a Boise Pride parade. One said Masterson would stop McLean’s “radical far left agenda” and the other her “extremist social agenda.”

The most recent ad, published Friday, has been marked as “inactive” on Facebook.

Masterson, a former Boise police chief who is running agains McLean in the November election, said he “disavowed” the ads.

“I became aware of these ads today, and I want to make it clear to every Boisean that I had nothing to do with their creation and that I do not condone them,” Masterson said Saturday in an emailed statement.

Masterson said the ads don’t “reflect my values” and “I strongly disavow them.”

“My candidacy is about restoring independent, transparent, and collaborative leadership to City Hall and bringing people together —not condemning our LGBTQ community,” he said. “I’m proud of decades of working alongside LGBTQ police officers and with LGBTQ individuals and groups.”

It’s the second time Masterson has spoken out against supporters who express anti-LGBT sentiments. He returned a $100 donation on Sept. 10 to to a former local college-trustee candidate Ryan Spoon, who made an anti-gay post online, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.

Spoon posted a photo of a message he said had flown over the Boise Pride Festival, which read: “Rainbow is Gods (sic) not yours.”

“Flying over the Filth Fest (aka, Pride Fest),” Spoon captioned his post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“I can tolerate differences of opinion, but can’t accept support that violates my personal values,” Masterson said in an emailed statement to the Statesman after he returned Spoon’s donation. “I have spoken out against discrimination throughout my career wherever, and whenever, I have found it.”

Group has funded conservative ads in past

The Building Industry Group Treasure Valley is a nonprofit whose stated intention is to inform people about the home-building industry, find housing solutions and “publicly advocate for initiatives and candidates that support free-market principles embedded into a commitment for responsible growth.”

It is run by Tradewinds General Contracting owner Steve Martinez and Avimor General Manager Dan Richter.

Martinez told the Statesman that he believed there was “some confusion” about the ad’s message. He said the ad was intended to show why the group believes McLean has “failed” the city when it comes to housing and the city budget.

“The fact is, McLean has failed to address affordable housing and homelessness that continues to plague the city and get even worse under her administration,” Martinez said by email.

Martinez did not respond to the Statesman’s follow-up questions about the group’s stance on LBGT issues.

Over the summer, the group settled with the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office for not disclosing all campaign fund spending. The group had to “pay the state $2,500 and backdate its political contributions for the duration of 2021, totaling nearly $60,000,” BoiseDev reported.

The group has launched a number of political ads since 2020 that touched on conservative talking points. A November ad about Rep. Steve Berch, D-Boise, called him a “woke progressive who backs high-density overdevelopment and state-funded critical race theory, mask and vaccine mandates and even sex-change operations on minors.” In another, Ada County Highway District Commissioner Miranda Gold was said to have a “radical far left” agenda. Eagle mayoral candidate Stan Ridgeway was called a “woke liberal who wants to spend all your money” in the caption of a third.

The group’s Building Industry Group PAC has received $209,600 since October 2021.

James Auld, a former Idaho legislator and Auld Investment Properties owner, donated $50,000 to the PAC. Billionaire Harry Bettis, founder of Clearwater Analytics, has donated $60,000 to it.