The Most Important Statesman Endorsement of 2006

Mostly the Idaho Statesman’s slate of endorsements are fairly predictable: Moderate Republicans or Democrats. As such, they rarely have a huge impact. The Statesman has been mixing it up this year. In 3 years in Idaho, the Statesman made what was it’s most significant endorsement I’ve seen by backing Tom Luna for State Superintendent. The Editorial board writes:

For these reasons, we can’t afford to continue with the status quo in the office of state superintendent of public instruction.

Republican candidate Tom Luna represents the best chance for real change, and earns our endorsement to lead Idaho’s education system. He offers unique ideas, has identified places where money can be put to better use and — most importantly — is more likely to get results with the Legislature.

Democratic candidate Jana Jones, the superintendent’s chief deputy, defends her department and what it has accomplished. She wants to continue down the path started by Superintendent Marilyn Howard, the only Democrat in statewide office.

We fear Jones lacks innovation and creativity and will be ineffective in the superintendent’s biggest job — advocating for a budget that consumes nearly half of the state’s general fund, yet competes against mushrooming demands from prisons and Medicaid. Howard’s budget requests were largely ignored during her eight years in office…

Luna is the best candidate to get buy-in from lawmakers — which was a struggle for Howard and probably would be a problem for Jones as well. Luna is endorsed by most lawmakers, including leaders such as Senate President Pro Tem Robert Geddes, Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, House Majority Leader Lawerence Denney and Rep. Maxine Bell, co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee.

They conclude with this note:

Luna has been criticized for his background. We agree Jones has the better academic resume. But this is not a teaching position, it’s a management one. We favor Luna’s successful rise in business and his life experiences for this position, which requires an efficient business model when managing a billion-dollar budget.

Bingo! I think Luna will bring more than the Status quo. He does have some ideas that will cost some money, but I think even I will be more willing to look at those ideas if we’ve got a Superintendent who is doing something about waste.

The endorsement is a huge blow to Jana Jones campaign. Democrats need the support and boost of the Statesman to win a Statewide race like this and it was widely expected for Jones to so disappoint the Statesman’s board is quite a blow, and it may be a lethal one.

My predictions for who the Statesman will endorse in the rest of the races are below:

Governor: Butch Otter (R.)
Controller: Jackie Twilegar (D)
US House District 1: Larry Grant (D)
US House District 2: Mike Simpson (R)

I think I won’t have any surprised on these races. Alas, Rome was not built in a day. But for today, my hats off to the Statesman board for putting the best interests of Idaho students and teachers first.

Tracy Lotz over at Sun Valley Online has more praise for Luna.

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