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Erstwhile congressional wannabe Larry Grant (pictured) caused a hubbub when he told Rocky Barker 
that he could win the 1st District nomination as a Republican by cobbling together a coalition of moderate Republicans and disenchanted Democrats. Grant quickly backtracked and said he was joking when the observation caught fire in Idaho blogs and brought the Congressional Quarterly calling. At that point, he said all the right things re: party unity and that he had no intention of running for Walt Minnick’s seat. However, some damage remains from his comment that he’s approached weekly by unhappy Democrats about the possibility of taking Blue Dog Minnick on in the Demo primary. Several prominent bloggers have written about this flap, including Kevin Richert/Idaho Statesman, Randy Stapilus/Ridenbaugh Press, and, of course, the Congressional Quarterly.
Question: Could Larry Grant win the 1st Congressional District nomination as a Republican, if he tried?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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Sisyphus on December 15 at 2:05 p.m.
No. And at the risk of pissing off other Dems, Grant also ran as a pro-business fiscal conservative. Why do people think he’d be much different from Minnick?
The CQ makes an interesting observation that I’ve been toying with since Labrador’s announcement and one which inures to Minnick’s benefit. The Republicans are trying to out-conservative each other to win the primary, particularly on immigration. Their position alienates moderate Republicans and big money donors like IACI and the ag industry.