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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Semanko: Low turnout a disappointment

Norm Semanko, chairman of the Idaho Republican Primary, discusses the close congressional primary in the 1st District and bemoans the low turnout overall for this year's primary election (Betsy Russell)
Norm Semanko, chairman of the Idaho Republican Primary, discusses the close congressional primary in the 1st District and bemoans the low turnout overall for this year's primary election (Betsy Russell)

Idaho GOP Chairman Norm Semanko says his party will come together no matter which candidate wins the hard-fought congressional primary between Raul Labrador and Vaughn Ward; the latest results, with 89 percent of precincts reporting, show Labrador with 46 percent to 40 percent for Ward. "It's been interesting, here you had one person (Ward) who got in very early, several people who got in in the middle period, and one person (Labrador), very late," Semanko said. "I don't think there's a right way to do it."

He said his one disappointment about the primary is the low turnout: "There's so much attention and so much focus, and yet the turnout is so low."



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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