“Despite the talent and experience contained in this august body, I’m sure many of you share my feelings about starting a legislative session without the able assistance of former Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis,” Gov. Butch Otter said today in his State of the State address. “Our new U.S. Attorney for the District of Idaho served here for 19 years, embodying great legal scholarship, incredible legislative talent and unfailing statesmanship. Bart’s absence from these proceedings will be apparent, and we can all be grateful for his long service and consistent civic virtue.”

Otter also paid tribute to Davis on Friday at the AP Legislative Preview, saying, “Bart has been a treasured and a great political ally, he’s been a greater friend, personal friend.” He said he and lawmakers will miss Davis in the Statehouse, but said, “We should celebrate the fact that we’ve got Bart Davis now as U.S. attorney in Idaho, because he thinks the Idaho way.”