Aide Blames Infighting For Firing

U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth recently fired her Lewiston aide after she had been on the job only a few days.

Cheryl Holst, north central Idaho coordinator for United We Stand America-Idaho, confirmed that she was dismissed Feb. 1 after agreeing on Jan. 27 to work for the Idaho Republican.

“It seems there was a bit of local pressure from Republicans to hire the other individual,” she said in a telephone interview from her Lewiston home. “This was a decision Helen was forced to make against the better judgment of her chief of staff.”

Lewiston landscaper Scott Carlton, vice chairman of the Nez Perce County Republican Party, said he was hired to start work on Friday as Chenoweth’s Lewiston aide.

Holst said she believed some Nez Perce County Republicans did not like her activity with United We Stand America because they blame Ross Perot’s group for helping elect President Clinton in 1992.

Almost 90 percent of United We Stand America’s members supported Chenoweth’s bid to oust second-term Democratic Congressman Larry LaRocco, she said, but her firing will be noticed by other United We Stand America members.

Holst said she planned to resign her position with United We Stand America to work for Chenoweth. But Nez Perce County Republican Chairman Craig Bruns called her remarks “sour grapes.”

Chenoweth’s chief of staff, Brent DeArmond, consulted all of the Nez Perce County Republican Party’s leaders, changed his mind about who to hire as Chenoweth’s Lewiston aide and ultimately decided on Carlton, Bruns said.

“While it is certainly an issue with me and my family, I don’t see anything to be gained harpooning anybody,” Holst said. “There were some local people who had an opinion, stomped their feet and got their way. I am not going to have a vendetta.”

DeArmond acknowledged that the Nez Perce County Republican Party had “a very strong interest in who they would like to have the job.” But he said Holst’s involvement with United We Stand America had nothing to do with her firing.