Column: Idaho Congressional Race
Minnick Holds Cheap Gas Event
By Jill Kuraitis, 5-06-08
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| Sue Jones and Minnick watch the gas pump. BELOW: 350 cars lined up for $2.26 a gallon gas. | |
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Idaho Democratic candidate for Congress Walt Minnick held a sale on gasoline today, and over 350 cars showed up.
The posted price at a Boise Chevron station was $3.59 a gallon, but for an hour this morning customers paid $2.26 a gallon, with the price difference of $1.33 paid by the Minnick campaign. 3,230 gallons were sold in 90 minutes. Minnick said $2.26 was the price of gas when Sali took office.
That makes $4,259 in savings for the drivers who made it into the queue.
Police were there to keep an eye on the traffic – there were 38 cars in line when I was there, winding through the Cole Village strip-mall parking lot – and TV cameras followed as Minnick visited the driver of each car.
Minnick’s Republican opponent is incumbent Rep. Bill Sali.
Minnick helped Sue Jones of Boise fill up her van labeled “Grooming by Rhonda and Rhonda’s Pet Taxi.”
“You’ve got my vote,” she told Minnick. “By the way, are you a Republican or a Democrat?”
“I’m a conservative Democrat,” he said, “who thinks we ought to pay our bills, keep the government out of our private lives, and support the troops by finding the right solution to the war.”
Jones said, “Well, I’ve always been a Republican but oh, I can’t stand this war.”
I asked Jones if she had voted for Sali in the last election. “I’ll tell you this – I didn’t vote for his ass then and I wouldn’t ever.”
Despite 45 minutes questioning drivers, I couldn’t find anyone who said they’d vote for Sali, but two cars with Sali bumper stickers were in line for gas. Neither driver wanted to talk to me. UPDATE: Sai’s spokesperson Wayne Hoffman called to tell me he knew of more Sali supporters who had bought gas at the Minnick event, and that other media reports had quotes from pro-Sali people in line today. I made a special point to try to find them, and didn’t.)
Minnick told New West that high gas prices are a result of politicians “taking millions of dollars from oil company lobbyists and are then beholden to them.” He said his opponent, Rep. Bill Sali, should be getting tough with Big Oil, “not counting on them for campaign money.”
Sali’s campaign spokesperson Wayne Hoffman responded: “Left wing radical environmentalists like Walt Minnick are directly responsible for the high gas prices we are experiencing.”
The gas-saving event was timed by the Minnick campaign to take place at the same time Sali attended a fundraising lunch with oil lobbyists in Washington, D.C. An individual ticket cost $250, $1,000 for PACs.
In a press release, Minnick said, “Idahoans are being pummeled at the pump while their congressman is hobnobbing with the very people who are getting filthy rich from high gas prices.”
Tyler, who didn’t want his last name used, said he was there “for the cheap gas. I filled up the van for $42.” Asked who would get his vote, he said, “I’ll be looking at Walt. This is pretty generous and the oil situation is getting worse.”
Minnick said today he was in favor of HR6, which he says will end extravagant tax breaks for oil companies.
But Hoffman said, “The Democratic-controlled Congress has passed a couple of bills that we said last year were going to result in high gas prices…the same HR6 that Minnick mentioned at his press conference. Congressman Sali has co-sponsored legislation that would result in lower gas prices, and has opposed any that would result in higher gas prices. We said last year that the legislation passed last year would result in $4 a gallon for gas, and we were all going to be wishing for the days of $3 a gallon.”
The Idaho Republican Party issued a press release calling Minnick’s event “a clever way to generate publicity for his campaign” with comments from executive director Sid Smith, including “Every time Republicans have put forth positive solutions, Democrats have stood in the way.”
“Republicans proposed streamlining siting and permitting processes so we can build more refineries and get more gas to the pump, and Democrats said ‘no.’ Republicans proposed drilling for oil and natural gas in an environmentally responsible way in ANWR, and Democrats said ‘no.’ Republicans proposed lifting drilling restrictions in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and Democrats said ‘no.’ All these measures would put downward pressure on the price of gas.”
Editor’s note: Full disclosure: Walt Minnick’s wife is a close friend, and I volunteered a few hours one day in his race for Senate in 1996.
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Comments
Once his symptoms have abated Dr. Proctor and the CDC will need to transfer him to the Rectal Cranial Inversion research facility near the neoconservative sanctuary in Crawford, Texas which was established after the 2006 Congressional elections under the provisions of the Endandered Species Act. Preliminary research indicates that rectal cranial inversion is an inherent genetic defect in the neoconservative species , most likely attributed to high incidences of inbreeding. Hopefully with time and several controversial techniques (i.e. embroyonic stem cell research) rectal cranial inversion will be eliminated from Idaho.
I bet Sali consistently votes against energy measures like tax breaks for solar and wind, and higher MPG standards.
He kisses so much of Bush that it is a wonder he stil has a caucasian complexion.