The Idaho Association of Commerce & Industry, a big-bucks lobbying group that touts itself as the “voice of business” in Idaho, is re-evaluating, the Idaho Statesman reports, after a scandal over a profanity-laced email from its president bashing a Senate committee chair and threatening political retaliation against him - for backing teacher pay increases over IACI-backed business tax cuts - went public and prompted the IACI board to place President Alex LaBeau on leave. Statesman reporter Bill Dentzer writes that “IACI is the 800-pound gorilla of state special interests and its members are heavyweights themselves,” with its board a who’s-who of the state’s biggest corporate names: Simplot, Micron, Idaho Power, Melalueca, and more.

Since LaBeau took over in 2007, Dentzer writes, IACI has refocused on political hardball, leading to a 2011 Statesman headline, "Going for the throat: Alex LaBeau has honed the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry into a sharp-edged political knife." Since LaBeau took over, IACI has formed PACs aimed at defeating Democratic candidates for governor and even incumbent GOP lawmakers, drawing on far-off political consultants from Florida and New York. Dentzer’s full report is online here.