Column: Elections 2008
Dramatic Idaho House Race May Reflect a Changing West
By Jill Kuraitis, 10-31-08
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In this historic year when Americans will probably elect the first mixed-race president, voters seem to have rejected the far-right wing of the Republican Party, hate-filled fear politics, and the rich getting richer at the expense of the poor and middle class.
Idaho, which will likely give McCain his biggest win, is an exception - but one race may be the beginning of a shift already felt in other Western states.
It’s the run for Idaho’s First Congressional District between incumbent Republican Bill Sali and Democratic challenger Walt Minnick. Will this one hold the red line and keep a far-right fear-politics ideologue in office, or defy Idaho’s history to elect a Democrat – albeit a conservative one?
Not since 1992 has there been a Democrat from Idaho in Congress (current U.S. Senate candidate Larry LaRocco), but if ever there was a time it’s realistically possible, it’s on Tuesday.
Minnick might be the best possible Idahoan the Democrats could have chosen. It’s not easy to find a magna-cum-laude Harvard JD/MBA and successful CEO with Minnick’s intellectual gifts, executive temperament, seriousness of purpose and conservative-to-moderate politics who isn’t a Republican.
The Sali campaign hasn’t been able to use Minnick’s education against him – an arcane tactic often used in this anti-intellectual state – because Republican Senator Mike Crapo also has a Harvard law degree. But Sali has tried nearly everything else to keep his seat.
Sali, who has a J.D. from the University of Idaho, practiced law before being elected in 2006. He is often in the news for extreme statements and gaffes. When Sali was in the Idaho legislature, speaker Bruce Newcomb famously said, “That idiot is an absolute idiot. He doesn’t have one ounce of compassion in his whole frickin’ body – and you can put that in the paper.” The previous Speaker, now-Congressman Mike Simpson, once threatened to throw Sali out the window. And, as Josh Kraushaar of Politico wrote, “Bill Sali’s embarrassments have single-handedly given Democrat Walt Minnick an even chance to unseat him in an Idaho district that is one of the most Republican in the country.”
Just a month ago, Sali made the national news for heckling Minnick’s spokesman, literally in a public square, during a TV interview. He is repeatedly accused of using his federally-paid staff to work on his campaign, openly listing them on a campaign website. He says things like, “I am not ashamed that we use a lot of energy in this country. It has made us the most prosperous Nation on the face of the planet. ... Using energy makes us prosperous” during debate on an energy bill that, among other things, invested in alternative and renewable energy sources and repealed tax subsidies for large oil companies.
Sali’s campaign contributions list shows donations from Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobile, and Marathon Oil. Minnick has no oil companies listed on his FEC report.
A lot of Sali’s appeal to Idaho voters is his continued insistence that something is rotten in Washington. Many have campaigned on the concept, but Sali, who isn’t afraid to be audacious, didn’t stop saying it once he was elected – it’s one of his mantras (another being “we pay too much in taxes”). He cites wasted time and confusing legislation, which is right in line with how things look to a large majority of Americans - Congress’ approval rating has been as low as 9% this year. In June, Sali said there were only “around 130 people that are very good folks” in Congress, a statement which caused an outcry from many lawmakers, including some in his own party, but which can sound astute to anti-government Idahoans.
Walt Minnick agrees that something is rotten in Washington, but challenges Sali to prove he’s sincere based on his campaign PAC contributions.
Sali is in favor of privatizing Social Security, but Minnick warns, “Not everybody makes good financial choices, but everybody gets old. Anyone who has looked at their IRA or 401K statements in the past few weeks will see why we shouldn’t privatize Social Security.”
The two candidates have recently sparred over how many guns each owns – Minnick has seven; Sali five – a typical campaign issue in the land of elk and deer and pickups full of guys in forest camo. Minnick has been endorsed by the American Hunters and Shooters Association; Sali got the nod from the National Rifle Association.
Army veteran Minnick has pushed Sali, who has no military service, hard to prove his support of veterans. Minnick is the recipient of an independent expenditure ad showcasing his support from veterans group VoteVets, the nation’s largest organization of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
The Sali campaign responded to the ad with this statement: “A far-left group called ‘Patriot Majority West’ has launched a misleading and dishonest attack ad against Idaho Congressman Bill Sali. Patriot Majority West is attempting to deceive Idaho’s veterans and their families by blaming Sali for voting against flawed legislation.” The campaign formed a group called Veterans for Sali but Idaho Navy veteran and blogger Joel Kennedy, who appears in Minnick’s ad, found the group disingenuous.
Two recent polls show Minnick ahead of Sali by more than the margin of error. Four out of six polls taken during the race show Minnick ahead; one of the two showing Sali ahead was done by Sali’s pollster, Greg Smith. Some of Minnick’s support comes from an unlikely source: Republicans for Minnick which includes some prominent Idaho business and opinion leaders.
Sali’s website doesn’t list any official endorsements, but has a list of awards, some of which are “Hero of the Taxpayer” from Americans for Tax Reform; “Taxpayer’s Friend Award” from the National Taxpayers Union; “Guardian of Seniors’ Rights” award for protecting Social Security and the “Benjamin Franklin Award” for supporting repeal of the estate/death tax from the 60 Plus Association.
In these final days before the election, Sali is the recipient of a TV ad paid for by a Republican group, an ad which says Minnick is a “Washington liberal” – two words that, in Idaho, might as well be “hell’s devil.”
But the last time Minnick worked in Washington, he was a Republican in the Nixon White House, organizing a new agency which became the DEA. It was the Watergate era; he left the employ of the federal government and eventually, as he has said, “the Republican Party left me.”
“I’m a social moderate and a fiscal conservative,” said Minnick at a recent forum at Boise’s City Club. “And I think we ought to be very careful in our dealings with foreign governments.”
In July, the Wall Street Journal wrote about the race, with a memorable statement from well-known and respected Idaho Republican Bruce Newcomb, former state speaker: “It’s difficult for any Democrat to win in Idaho. But Mr. Minnick is ‘a formidable foe,’ he said, who could capitalize on Mr. Sali’s reputation for ‘poking his finger in people’s eyes.’”
[End of article]
I saw this news article on Sali's bounced checks to an Idaho farm family last night - here is the link. WHo else knows about this story? http://www.kivitv.com/global/story.asp?s=9270833
Comment By bikeboy, 10-31-08Jill, Mr. Minnick's endorsement by the "American Hunters and Shooters Association" is a liability among "single issue Second Amendment voters." While the name sounds legit, that organization shares more in common with the Brady Bunch, than with the NRA, including board members who serve in both places.
The NRA - the heavyweight champion of 2nd Amendment organizations - gives Minnick a D+ grade, based on his responses to their questionnaire. Which means he's not as extreme as Obama, Schumer, Kennedy, the Clintons, etc., but he's NOT a reputable ally in defending the law-abiding citizen's freedom to own and operate firearms.
Minnick will likely win big in "urban" Idaho. But when I'm rolling around the countryside in Canyon, Owyhee, Gem, Washington... there are sure a lot of Sali signs.
Bill Sali is a member of Club for Growth http://www.clubforgrowth.org/about.php
Who in their right mind would vote against that? A rhetorical question of course, democrats are against everything Club for Growth stands for.
Bill Sali and Club for Growth are against wealth redistribution which seems to be the mantra of the covetous folks of the in the democrat party.
The democrat party seems to be a bit short of Joe the Plumbers and Cory the Well Drillers (http://fairlyconservative.com/obama/a-chat-with-cory-miller-aka-cory-the-well-driller/) and would prefer medicine from the government and checks from the government than letting our employers thrive.
When we penalize our employers we penalize ourselves. When we penalize Wal-mart and Albertsons with higher taxes we pay those taxes at the cash register.
BUT WE ARE TO STUPID TO DO THE MATH!
Bill Sali and Club for Growth are against wealth redistribution which seems to be the mantra of the covetous folks of the in the democrat party.
Gosh, you should draw that up for the Op-Ed page and see if you can get syndicated. It's quite the comic caricature. Yes sir, as a Democrat, I just sit around grinding my molars about all the rich Republicans who have more than I do. Maybe I should be stocking up on ammo too.
Here's the simple math on health care, Daryl: if insurers get to pick and choose who they want to cover, and large corporations are the main providers of broader group coverage, we're agreeing that tens of millions of people are going to be cut loose.
That ain't covetousness, but it is sinful.
Tom,
TORT REFORF, we need tort reform and nobody is saying a word about it.
I got bucked off my horse a couple of months ago and I went in for an MRI because I was afraid I had ruptured a spleen. I got the bill was surprised to find out I got 4 MRI's because if I had left with a broken vertebra and they hadn't found it some ass might of sued them so the bill was $4,000 instead of $1,000, they had to cover their ass because we stupid Americans think our medical system is the Power Ball lotto.
Obama can’t do TORT Reform because the democrats are beholden to the trial lawyers because they as a group are one of their largest patrons.
In the 2006 election cycle Wyoming tried to pass TORT reform but showboat lawyer Gerry Spence campaigned all over the state proclaiming he didn’t have a horse in the race but TORT Reform would be bad for Wyoming. As soon as it was defeated he ran a full-page ad in the Jackson Hole Guide for people to join his class action suit against Vioxx.
I don’t blame the hospital for covering their ass; I blame ambulance chasing lawyers, their clients and us idiots that will do nothing to stop it.
All corporations have business model with a target profit margin, when we raise their expenses they will pass the cost along to us, their profit margin remains the same, and it pisses me off that collectively we are to blind to see this simple thing.
"Tort reform" could make for an interesting discussion, Daryl, but is it relevant to the Idaho CD-1 race in some way?
It might be a good topic for the Senate race; Jim Risch made a good chunk of his fortune as one of the "ambulance chasers" you decry.
Tom,
Democrats will never go for TORT reform and CD-1 represents Idaho in Washington and whoever wins will be one of 435 in the House of Representatives that decide things like if we are going to follow Obama into socialism or if they are going to raise the price of my groceries at Albertson's because socialists are covetous of Albertson's black ink.
Tom, I guess you don't agree with my caricature of democrats but the stereotypical democrat to me and millions of others is someone looking to big government to take care of them in one form or another, a metaphorical panhandler if you will. As I have told you before I grew up in a democrat family on welfare and nanny state programs turned my siblings into dependant slugs.
I have a nine year old and a twelve year old I don’t want my boys to inherit a cradle to grave nanny state that is the liberal nirvana that is Obama and Hillary’s village.
Obama has failed to help his brother in Kenya or his aunt in a Housing Authority tenement in Boston and you think he will take care of you. My nine year old is my nephew that I rescued from his intravenous meth-using father. The State of Idaho and SSI kept my brother in money so he could have more time to sell meth to your children, if he would have had to work he would have had much less opportunity destroy himself and others.
Rasmussen Reports Polling finds that just nine percent (9%) of Likely Voters give Congress positive ratings. Why in the world would we consider strengthening this body of failures? We can’t afford another big government rubber stamp liberal in Washington, lets keep Walt Minnick in Boise and make it just one vote harder for Obama, Pelosi and Reid to bankrupt our country any farther.
So if Government can bail out auto companies, Banking corporations, Saving and loans Corps and other financial institutions that are supposedly too big to let fail why can't it arrange decent universal health insurance, retirement insurance, and disability insurance for working Americans?
Comment By Tom von Alten, 10-31-08Ah, so it's the generic anti-Dem sentiment, based on your stereotype, as informed by really good anecdotes.
Well, I'll spare you equally invalid counter-anecdotes, and just say that my stereotype of a liberal is someone who is open to discussion moving beyond black-and-white thinking.
Supporting Bill Sali based on party label is a bit of a risky bet: he prides himself on his minority position for most every issue, whether it's supported by Rs, Ds, or by bipartisan majorities.
If the Dems win as big in Congress as the polls suggest is going to happen, my guess is that Congressional approval polls will go up significantly. If Republicans lose their ability to obstruct, laws will start getting passed, and some people will be pleased.
The rock-bottom approval ratings of Congress are a validation of the success of the Republican tactic to obstruct. The bad news is that the strategy is proving to be a dismal failure for both the party and the country. Sort of reminds you of Newt Gingrich and his shutting down the government.
To characterize Nancy Pelosi’s lockstep democrats as “liberal’s open to discussion moving beyond black-and-white thinking” is laughable and thanks for that Tom.
If what you say “Bill Sally Prides himself on his minority position for most every issue” It sounds like the kind of crossover open minded guy you would like to support.
If a stronger more liberal congress gains support with its agenda to socialize America it is time for me, many others and industrial America to gather up Thomas Jefferson’s masterpiece and take it to somewhere where it could live on.
Mickey Garcia. I don’t know if anyone has noticed but the country is broke, no, worse than that we have borrowed 10 or 15 trillion dollars, and the tally ticker is still smoking from George Bush’s stumble into socialism in his feeble effort to reverse the extensive damage whose genesis was President Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act, but that is another story.
The point is, we can’t afford one more entitlement, we are already on the road to fiscal suicide because of our financial collapse (http://www.free-press.biz/usa/national-debt.htm) and we already have San Francisco socialist Nancy Pelosi running the House of Representatives, liberal Senate Leader Harry Reid may soon have a filibuster proof Senate. It has been widely reported that Barack Obama has the most liberal voting record in the Senate; out of curiosity I wanted to see where the Senate’s only self declared democrat socialist was on the list. Bernie Sanders (DS) Vermont came in as the fourth most liberal in the Senate right behind Joe Biden. If you are to the left of an avowed socialist, you are in fact a socialist. Obama will rubber stamp every liberal nirvana piece of legislation that comes down the pike and with the liberals controlling both the House, Senate and Whitehouse there is no check and balance to stop this freight train full of expensive voter pandering to a greedy and ignorant public.
At least with Bill Sali we may be able to slow down our national fiscal suicide.
Mickey Garcia, how much more can we spend our progeny’s money before you are happy?
Tom when I was doing my national debt study in 1999 I thought the message of blue dog democrats was a good one but they have no power and never will until they team up with and turn into republican budget hawks that support the Club For Growth.
If a stronger more liberal congress gains support with its agenda to socialize America it is time for me, many others and industrial America to gather up Thomas Jefferson's masterpiece and take it to somewhere where it could live on.
I'm sure this is just more overblown rhetoric on your part. Like you're going to move to Canada? Argentina? Iceland?
Oh, Australia likes free spirits such as yourself, and you wouldn't have to learn a new language. Lots of wide open spaces for the horse you rode in on.
Tort reform will keep people from economic justice. If it had been somebody else who had caused you to need exRays you'd still have had to pay the bill; because you would not have been permitted to sue. Reform is certainly called for; because some lawyers have turned litigation into a malicious business enterprise.
But the tort reform you seem to be lobbying for is akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater...
Herbert Hoover another ding bat conservative was president at the time of the great crash of 29. He ran around the country telling everyone that "prosperity is just around the corner" and he did zilch to pull the U.S. out of the depression. We came out of the great depression 13 year later in 1943 saved by the greatest government program in the 20th century, World War II. From about 1946 to 1964 was a time of great prosperity, The people who fought WWII and lived to tell about it, made babies like crazy, bought homes with government loans and went to school on the G.I. Bill. The Government built highways and suburbs and did indeed redistribute a lot of wealth. The only flys in the public policy ointment during this period was racism, sexism and people who freaked out whenever they heard the word "communist" were in charge of U.S. foreign policy. At the time of the crash of 29 Total Government expenditures (Fed,State&Local;) was about 10 percent of GDP. Today, Total Government expenditures as a percentage of GDP is 40 percent headed to 50 percent. I've got to chuckle when right wing working folks drawing social security and medicare benefits, and using the mortgage deduction warn of coming socialism under Obama. With total Government expenditures approaching 50 percent of GDP, I'd say that we already are socialist. And the important question is how to spend our socialist government dollars most effectively and efficiently.
Comment By Tom von Alten, 11-01-08...Total Government expenditures as a percentage of GDP is 40 percent headed to 50 percent....
I'll confess I have no idea what's going on with the "bailout," so perhaps these two fairly wild numbers you cite have some basis in reality. I do expect (or at least hope) that the majority of what's being given away (?) will be one-time deals.
What's your source for 40%?
The CBO's very long-term extrapolation back in 2002 talked about "the total cost of government, including interest expense, could more than double as a share of the economy, rising from 19 percent of GDP in 2002 to 40 percent in 2075."
C.f. http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=3521&type=0
and do give a more current report if you have one.
google up "total government spending as a percent of gdp by country" and have a ball. There is interesting food for thought there but remember total government spending means the sum of federal, state, county, and city spending and you have to extrapolate forward from the date of the study.
Comment By Daryl L. Hunter, 11-01-08Jed, TORT reform includes reasonable settlements, and stops frivolous litigation.
Frivolous litigation and people not paying their hospital bills is the reason health care is so expensive. If you want good and reasonable priced health care, fix the problem don't hide from it.
Government health care isn't the answer; if you think that is the solution the problem won't be fixed.
Mickey Garcia -
I guess you don't understand the meaning of broke; the government certainly is the answer for you as America has mistreated you so badly so far.
Tom, when I did my national debt study in 1999 we were spending 350 billion a year in interest to service the national debt it must be twice that by now.
Last year extrapolators were estimating that to service the national debt it would take all the annual revenue of the treasury, there would be no money for SSI, Medicare or anything else.
How about that SCHIP lets pile on with some socialized medicine, lets just spend like there is no tomorrow because Tom - there isn't.
I will take a Club For Growth candidate any day over some advocate that wants to give me more free stuff.
My children can’t afford more free stuff.
We all have different numbers, the government has multiple sets of books, they didn’t want to add the bailout onto the National Debt books, and I don’t know what they did with it.
Tom, you have the less alarmist numbers so let’s go with them. 40% sounds great don’t it? 2002 was before SCHIP, Medicare Part B, and Obama’s “Redistributive Change” http://daryl-l-hunter.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-on-redistributive-change-and.html or anything else that might crop up between now and 2075.
When I started Citizens For A Freer America in 1999 a post that remains there today says:
If you think that the financial collapse of America is improbable, I would like to point out how improbable it seemed to the Russian people during the 60's that their economy could collapse while competing with America for the race to the Moon and world domination.
When I wrote that 10 years ago I predicted America would be bankrupt by 2050, I now think it will be much sooner.
We have been so fat dumb and happy for so long that we don’t think anything catastrophically fiscally can happen to us.
I feel lucky so on Tuesday I am going bet the farm on the Marxist candidate as Mickey Garcia has convinced me of their socialist magic.
Here's another number for Guys with big belt buckles and big hats to contemplate. In 2005 Idaho got about 1.8 billion more in federal expenditures than Idaho citizens paid in federal taxes. In other words, Idaho, a red state, is on the federal dole being subsidized by blue states and cities. Isn't that socialism? Google up "federal taxes paid vs federal spending received by state" and see for yourselves. By the way I'm not a big fan of deficit spending and borrowing from the Chinese.
Comment By Daryl L. Hunter, 11-02-08micky,
Since you and I are against such spending :D lets mull this one over, I wrote this article about eight years ago.
http://www.free-press.biz/usa/free-state.htm
Micky, you said "big belt buckles and big hats" as if it was a slur, do you have something against the farmers and ranchers of Idaho?
Jill pointed out in the article that the oil companies donated to Bill Sali, That simply reflects the fact that majority democrat congress will continue to exacerbate our energy shortage which will cripple our economic recovery.
If you are worried about Sali reforming SSI maybe you should be more worried about Nancy Pelosi's Democrats reforming you 401k. We didn't deserve our savings anyway Karl!
House Democrats contemplate abolishing 401(k) tax breaks
http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081012/REG/310139971
I see this as the first step to shore up a national treasury that can't withstand the pressure we leeches are putting upon it. This reform will be voluntary to start with but soon will be mandatory.
Isn't socialism great!
Broke!? Who said broke?! A lot of working poor Americans spend their whole lives Broke. Many of these Americans have to declare bankruptcy when they have a medical problem. Conservatives like to claim that they are just lazy bums and they deserve to be abandoned. I say bullshit.
Comment By Daryl L. Hunter, 11-03-08Micky,
Our empty treasury says broke, we have borrowed Ten Trillion dollars a number that climbs exponentially daily, an average of
$3.83 billion per day, (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/) because of poorly conceived entitlement programs that are unsustainable.
Micky, I drive a city bus, I live paycheck to paycheck, I have no savings and I am developing a website that I hope will provide for me after I retire because I have very little in my 401k because my bus driving job doesn't have benefits. I used to drive a dump truck until my rheumatoid arthritis stopped my ability to continue, a huge cut in pay and a loss of benefits followed.
I had to declare bankruptcy in 1997 because my son that was born in 1996 was born with Atrial Septum Defect. I understand poor, I understand bankruptcy, I understand chronic disease.
Most of us blue collar types work our asses off so that our children can have more than we had, but for some reason we are willing to give them everything but:
A SOLVENT TREASURY, THE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL COUNTRY!
Micky, you have a vote so go ahead and cast your vote to bankrupt my children's national treasury.
The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance. --
Cicero,55 BC
Good advice from Ciscero. But the U.S. is dead last in foreign aid as a percentage of GDP. Its about 0.13 percent. And you've brain washed yourself into having exaggerated fears that lazy bums are draining the treasury and you're obsessing about liberal socialists. Mean while you've been snookered by Larry Craig, a Brokeback cowboy, and a Lilly livered Butch Otter who wouldn't even support protecting private property rights when it was on the state ballot a couple of years ago.
Comment By Tracy Lotz, 11-03-08Sali a member of Club For Growth? So what? So is Sun Valley Millionaire Kiril Sokoloff.
Who is Kiril Sokoloff?
Kiril Sokoloff is the man who brought the Dalai Lama to Idaho much to the happiess of liberals.
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/kiril-sokoloff.asp?cycle=04
Liberal Candidate Walt Minnick and the Idaho DEMS released Bill Sali's Social Security Number last week. Nice Move. You just energized the base of the Idaho GOP.
Idaho Liberal Walt Minnick is not what Idaho needs to team up with REPO... Reid Pelosi Obama