Cheers and Boos: The Ups and Downs of Idaho Politics

Okay, I’ve got some Idaho blog posts and news story to go through in round-up style:
Cheers: Alan at Idablue writes a very nice post about his personal experience with Governor Kempthorne. I’ve never been a huge fan of Kempthorne, but Alan’s observation of Kempthorne shows a great degree of personal decency.

Boos: Rep. Rick Jarvis (R-21) proposes to raise the compulsatory education age to 18 with the goal of reducing the drop out rate. Congratulations, Rep. Jarvis, your idea officially and completely backwards. Jarvis thinks by keeping disintersted and disruptive 16 year old in school, we’re going to reduce the dropout rate. Most likely, we’ll end up pouring a lot of money into someone who will still drop out of high school, while disrupting the learning experience of other students. If you want to reduce drop out rates, the solution will come far before the student is 16 and on the verge of dropping out. Throwing good money away on students who will most likely only serve to disrupt the education of others is a waste. Some people aren’t ready to finish high school, that’s why there’s night school and GEDs.

Boos: Julie Fanselow and the Mountain Goat Report: Talk radio whiners. Writes Julie in the Idaho Statesman:

Treasure Valley radio executives: It’s time to give your listeners a choice. Respect the fact that nearly a quarter-million people in Idaho voted for President Obama, including more than 100,000 of us in Ada and Canyon counties. We want alternatives to talk radio’s tired, old haters.

Yes, and the rest of the state voted for McCain, however I doubt you’ll begin to see a mass effort to recruit conservative slam poets.  Conservatives are the audience of talk radio, as liberals are the audience of slam poetry. Liberals have:

• National Public Radio
• MSNBC
• The Idaho Statesman editorial board
• The Boise Weekly
• Stations dedicated to liberal talk on Satellite Radio.
• Thousands of  blogs and Internet sites.

But they gotta have more. They can’t have any area where conservatives are strong or dominant.

For whatever reason, liberals as a rule have far less interest in talk radio. Ed Schultz is cited as the #8, but according to Talkers Magazine, Schultz ranks tied for 11th with Jerry Doyle. Who is Jerry Doyle? The guy most famous for playing Michael Garibaldi on Babylon 5. When you can find 11 guys with talk shows more popular than your top guy, then perhaps this whole radio isn’t for you.

Cheers: Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Eagle) and Senator Kate Kelly (D-Boise) for pushing ethics reform in our state. And cheers to the Idaho Statesman for taking a position on ethics.

Boos: Sorry, to give the blogmother grief this week, but Julie Fanselow’s partisan preening and attacks on the Statesman for failing to mention Senator Kelly in their editorial is an illustration of what’s wrong with politics. We can accomplish a lot if we don’t care who gets the credit.

Boos: Someone stealing donations meant for the ARC in Boise. Some people have no shame.

Cheers: Reps. Mike Simpson (R-Id.) and Walt Minnick (D-Id.) both opposed the Porkulus (i.e. The Obama-Pelosi stimulus.)  I don’t agreee with Minnick, but I’ll acknowledge when he gets things right. This is unlike the leftosphere which existed during Bill Sali’s tenure to criticize him with no regards for what he actually did and the merits of the issue.

Boos: Lt. Governor Brad Little (R-Id.) going ahead with a fundraiser that represents a practice he once condemned of holding fundraisers with lobbyists during the legislative session. People are tired of hypocrisy and Little’s actions simply raise more cynicism.

Boos: Former Idaho Rep. Larry LaRocco (D-Id.) who rather than being an elder statesman for Idaho Democrats has taken to attacking Senator Jim Risch (R-Id) in the Statesman’s comments. If Jim Risch were Moby Dick, Larry LaRocco is Captain Ahab and like Ahab, he just can’t let go. Somebody needs to move on and find a new hobby. If Risch runs again in 2014 (either for Governor or Senator) expect LaRocco to run too. (Hat Tip: Unequivocal Notion.)

Cheers: Tom LeClaire, the man who defeated me in the 2004 Republican Primary is considering a run for Meridian City Council according to the Unequivocal Notion. This is great! I got to know Tom and Briana over the years. They’re good people and to top it off, Tom is a former city councilman from when he lived in Moscow, so he understands how city government works. Should he run, Tom will have my full support.

By the way, thinking about it now is very important.  This is not a race you can jump into at the end of Summer on a whim. You need fundraising and to be reaching out to the community far before that.

Three cheers for: Rod Beck and the State Republican Central Committee, who voted to continue with the party’s efforts to close the Republican Primary despite a narrow vote at last year’s State Republican Convention to keep the primaries open. The vote was incredibly narrow (by about six votes.) and overrode a much stronger vote at the 2006 Convention and vote of the party’s State Central Committee. Will closing the primary to disaster as some liberals hope?

Democrats closed their primary in West Virginia and continue to hold a 71-29 lead in the State House and a 26-8 lead in the State Senate. I can live with it.