Holiday Politics
Gov’s Race First Skirmish is a Turf Battle
By Shea Andersen, 12-20-05
Now that Idaho is down to a bona fide race for governor (at least, insofar as a Democrat in Idaho has a chance) we can start tracking the back-and-forth between Republican candidate Butch Otter, now finishing up his term as Idaho's Congressman, and Jerry Brady, the Democratic Idaho Falls newspaper publisher who is trying for a second time to get into the governor's chair.
Brady has, to be fair, been running a campaign for a while now. But few of his comments have made it into the news pages until this week, when he picked his issue wisely.
The Idaho Statesman perked up their ears at Brady's assertion that Otter was sponsoring a bill that would be "a blow to Idaho sportsmen." The measure would allow the federal government to sell of some portions of publicly-owned lands to help pay for disaster relief efforts.
Pulling from Betsy Russell's analysis over at Eye on Boise, here's a descriptor of the bill, which Otter is co-sponsoring:
"Otter’s legislation, H.R. 3855, was introduced Sept. 21. It would require the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to select 15 percent of the land in the national forest system and sell it off, and the Secretary of the Interior to do the same for Interior lands, excluding national parks. “Priority locations� are identified as those states where the feds own more than 15 percent of the total land area.
Idaho, of course, has massive amounts of federal land – 63.1 percent of the state."
Okay, so Brady may or may not be a glutton for punishment, but he's no fool. Here's a story that is bound to rankle Idahoans of all political stripes.
I say, read the rest of Russell's blog entry
on the issue to get the entirety of each pol's statements.
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I wouldnt be totally opposed to some sales where it made sense at true market value but I do not trust republican apppointees in particular or the bureaucracy in general to do this.
Still a Democratic president in 2008 (if by some miracle we find/make one) might go for a small program (land close to urban areas for development needs). I would also be willing to transfer (or no or low cost lease) additional acreage to state and local governments where they are willing to commit legally to its environmental protection or fire control management or recreation use or some combination, to partially defuse the conservative/ corporate push for a bigger giveaway to them directly.