Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa is predicting 80 percent of registered voters will turn out to vote on Tuesday. “We are expecting a record turnout in numbers, at around 700,000 ballots cast,” he said. “This is higher than the previous record set in 2004…
The Idaho Attorney General's office is recommending that anyone who got a campaign flier showing the Social Security numbers of a congressman and his wife shred it. “We’d urge ‘em to shred it,” said Deputy Attorney General Brett DeLange, who heads the office’s Consumer Protection…
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden traveled to Boise today to tout his bipartisan health care reform legislation and to campaign for Democratic Senate candidate Larry LaRocco. Wyden’s visit came as the five candidates seeking Idaho’s open U.S. Senate seat have staked out widely differing positions on…
In the final days before the election, three new campaign commercials are airing in Idaho’s hot 1st District congressional race. They include one from each of the candidates, GOP Rep. Bill Sali and Democratic challenger Walt Minnick, and a new one from an outside group,…
Pressed by two of his opponents to explain why he never served in the military, GOP Senate candidate Jim Risch said today that an ulcer kept him from serving in the Vietnam War. “I had an ongoing ulcer, and they didn’t want me,” Risch told…
The two leading candidates for Idaho’s open U.S. Senate seat are focusing on their differences on taxes and Social Security, and airing clashing claims in their campaign commercials. Republican Jim Risch has a new TV commercial out, airing throughout the state and in the Spokane…
1st District Rep. Bill Sali now says he’ll move his main district office if he’s re-elected, after the House Committee on Administration said he’s violating House rules by maintaining his office outside the 1st Congressional District. Kyle Anderson, press director for the committee, said, “The…
Four of the candidates for Idaho’s open U.S. Senate seat ripped into the fifth, GOP candidate Jim Risch, as they debated on live statewide TV on Thursday night while Risch declined to join them. “I would ask him … why he is spending so much…
The latest campaign ad by an outside group targeting an Idaho race features an image of GOP Rep. Bill Sali with a bunch of sheep, charging he’s “hanging with the wrong flock in Washington.” The commercial, placed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, uses what’s…
Both Jim Risch and Larry LaRocco came out in favor of the Idaho wilderness bills proposed by Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson for the Owyhee Canyonlands and Boulder-White Cloud mountains, respectively, during a debate tonight on KTVB-TV. Rex Rammell, an independent candidate for…
Less than 15 minutes into tonight’s live debate between four candidates for Idaho’s open U.S. Senate seat, independent candidate Rex Rammell took ill and left the stage. “Mr. Rammell is not feeling well,” moderator Dee Sarton informed the audience. Just moments earlier, Rammell had given…
The Sun Valley area, which long has had two competing weekly newspapers, is losing one, as the Wood River Journal ceases publication with its Oct. 22 edition. Express Publishing Inc. of Ketchum, publisher of the rival Idaho Mountain Express and Guide, has purchased the assets…
Democratic Idaho Senate candidate Larry LaRocco has two new TV ads out criticizing Republican rival Jim Risch on social security and taxes. While the ads aren’t technically inaccurate, the Risch campaign objects to their claims as “half-truths,” while LaRocco says they’re spot-on. “I stand by…
Larry Craig has represented Idaho in Washington, D.C., for 28 years. Now his shadow falls over the race to replace him, as five candidates face off for a rare open seat in the U.S. Senate and a chance to launch a new chapter in the…
The foreman of the jury that sentenced killer and child molester Joseph Duncan to death has "no regrets" about the unanimous verdict, which jurors reached in just three hours. "To me, the evidence was overwhelming," said Chris Robbins, speaking publicly about his experience for the…
The Idaho Transportation Department has announced it’ll delay the sale of $116 million in GARVEE bonds for major transportation projects, which lawmakers authorized this year, until the nation’s financial markets stabilize. “It is the cautious and appropriate approach to take,” said ITD Director Pamela Lowe.…
Last night at dinner, my 15-year-old son shared his opinion of all the campaign commercials that have been cluttering up the TV airwaves. Most, he said, seem serious and appropriate. But he singled out two that he said rubbed him the wrong way: Bill Sali’s…
Here’s a link to my full story in today’s Spokesman-Review on the developments in the Sali-Minnick race yesterday, from Sali agreeing to change a misleading claim in an anti-Minnick TV ad to a clash between the candidates on use of congressional staff in the campaign.…
If today’s Boise City Club forum with 1st District Congressman Bill Sali and his Democratic challenger, Walt Minnick, is any indication, the airwaves should be cooking this Sunday night when the two debate on live statewide TV. The two clashed during the luncheon forum over…
An interesting point in the Lewiston debate between three of the candidates for Larry Craig’s Senate seat came when they marked out sharply differing stances on global warming. Here’s what the three – Democrat Larry LaRocco, Independent Rex Rammell and Republican Jim Risch – had…
The March of Dimes held what it billed as its “inaugural Blue Jean Ball” on Friday at the Star, Idaho ranch of Gov. Butch Otter. Sponsored by the Employers Insurance Fund, the event raised more than $70,000 through ticket sales and silent and live auctions;…
Big, fat flakes are falling thickly across the city and there’s nearly an inch of snow on the railing outside my window – and it’s only Oct. 10th! Nevertheless, it’s Boise’s first snow of the season, and it’s a pretty good one. Oddly, North Idaho…
There have been multiple debates already in the race for retiring U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s seat, but tonight in Lewiston was the first one where GOP candidate Jim Risch joined the other candidates debating. At the three-way matchup between Risch, Democrat Larry LaRocco and independent…
A new political commercial targeting Idaho Senate candidate Jim Risch isn’t from any of his four opponents – it’s from a national group that's also run lots of ads against Oregon GOP Sen. Gordon Smith. The group is closely tied to the Democratic Party and…
Idaho ranks as one of the most restrictive states in the nation for college students looking to register and vote at their college addresses, according to a national study. The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School surveyed all states' election laws…