Ahlquist adds spice, $$$ to guv’s race
Columnist Chuck Malloy/Idaho Politics Weekly comments:
The infamous “hole” that was a part of Boise’s downtown landscape for 25 years, doesn’t have much meaning to people living outside the city – especially to those who think of Boise as one big hole in the first place.
But that gigantic pit was a huge, ugly embarrassment. Then along came Tommy Ahlquist, a physician-turned-developer, who started making something happen. Ahlquist, the chief operating officer of Gardner Company, was the developer of Zions Bank – the tallest building in Idaho that sits proudly in the heart of downtown. But, as he tells it, it wasn’t easy.
“People told me there was no way I could do that – no way,” he said from his 17th-floor office across the street at the U.S. Bank building he owns. “I had people laugh me out of their office.”
No doubt, there are a few naysayers who are laughing at Ahlquist’s entry into the governor’s race. He has never run for a political office, and here he is seeking the most powerful political position in the state. More here.
