Candidates and background checks…
As part of a voter guide my newspaper is putting together for the upcoming election, I was tasked with asking a series of questions of all the candidates for the Idaho Legislature who are running in contested races in Districts 1 through 4 in North Idaho. Among them: Whether they’ve ever been charged with a misdemeanor or felony, and whether they’ve ever declared bankruptcy. The results were interesting – it’s largely a law-abiding group. Here are some highlights:
Most responsive: Patrick “Pat” Mitchell, a Democrat who’s running against Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, in District 4, owned right up to his DUI conviction in April of 2015. “My past is an open book,” Mitchell said.
Least responsive: Two candidates, both incumbents, refused to answer the question, Reps. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, and Sage Dixon, R-Ponderay. My own initial checking of Idaho court records showed nothing but traffic violations for either of the two. Scott paid a $43 fine for a mudflap violation in Kootenai County in 2001. Dixon had a handful of traffic violations, including a $10 seatbelt fine in August of 2016, speeding tickets in 2013 and 2006, a $53 fine for failure to yield at a stop sign in 2004, and another $10 seatbelt fine in 2003.
Most interesting response: Tom Hearn, who is running for an open House seat in District 4, revealed that he was arrested during a student demonstration at California State Unviersity-Chico in 1970, where students were holding a peaceful sit-in to demand closure of a street through the center of campus due to safety concerns. More than a dozen students and professors were arrested, but the case was thrown out of court and the prosecutor admonished for abuse of prosecutorial power for filing excessive charges. “I was exercising my First Amendment rights and I stood up for what I believed in 46 years ago,” Hearn said. “I would think that voters would want somebody who has been standing up for what he believes in all his adult life.” He added, “I had to stand up a lot for what I believed in when working in the child abuse field for decades.” Hearn operated North Idaho Treatment Associates, a mental health clinic that specialized in the assessment and treatment of physical and sexual abuse victims and perpetrators, until his retirement in 2013.
Second story from the Seventies: Rep. Eric Redman, R-Athol, said he declared bankruptcy for one of his ventures back when he was in the real estate development business in the ‘70s, filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the S corporation. “It was the Carter years, 1979,” he said. “I had a planned unit development on the South Hill in Spokane. … The interest rates went through the roof and I just wasn’t able to hold onto it. It’s a successful development now.”
Most defensive response: Steve Tanner, who is challenging Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, as a Democrat even though he’s a tea party conservative, said he’s had several misdemeanors, but all were simple traffic offenses; he declined to elaborate. “It used to be, 10 years ago or better than that, every blinker going out was a misdemeanor,” he said. He also said, “I don’t trust government, I don’t trust people in government.”
Most meticulous response: Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d’Alene, revealed that he was once incorrectly charged with a misdemeanor, driving without privileges, due to a clerical error. He’d been pulled over around the time he started law school and didn’t have his proof of insurance with him, so he received a no-insurance citation, which is cleared up by submitting the proof, which he did. However, he said, “They forgot to update iStars,” the statewide records system. So when he was pulled over later, it appeared he’d never submitted the proof and thus was subject to an administrative license suspension. It was all cleared up and his record is clean.
Other than those, pretty much all the candidates answered the question, “No, no, and no.” Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, added, “I did a get a parking ticket once.”
