Chenoweth’s Campaign Lead Isn’t So Solid Votes For Mentally Ill Opponent In Primary Shows Her Weakness

From his perspective in Congress, New York Republican Rep. Bill Paxon got a different feeling about Idaho’s primary election than many of the state’s residents.

The morning after, Paxon, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, issued a statement declaring that the results in Idaho’s 1st Congressional District show that Rep. Helen Chenoweth almost certainly will win her second term.

“Freshman Rep. Helen Chenoweth is safe in this solidly conservative district,” Paxon said.

Those closer to the scene aren’t so sure.

Chenoweth isn’t “safe” and hers isn’t a “solidly conservative district.”

Maybe Paxon got his districts mixed up. Rep. Michael Crapo certainly is “safe” in Idaho’s 2nd District. It’s bedrock conservative, often called the most conservative congressional district in the nation.

What the election results do show is that Democrat Dan Williams, although still a long shot, could have a legitimate chance of keeping Chenoweth from winning a second term in the 1st District.

“Chenoweth won by a solid 10-point margin in 994 and her actions since then to halt ‘Clinton’s war on the West’ have been well received by her constituents,” Paxon wrote.

Well, not exactly.

A recent poll showed the controversial congressman with high negatives, although Chenoweth blames that on all the ads labor ran against her just before the primary election.

It’s also ridiculous to call the district “solidly conservative” since the job was held four years before Chenoweth’s election by Democrat Larry LaRocco.

After his first term, LaRocco was re-elected with ratings of 80 percent with Americans for Democratic Action, 75 with organized labor and 68 with the American Civil Liberties Union.

His rating with conservative groups was under 25 percent.

Before the vote, state GOP Chairman Ron McMurray said he would be surprised if Chenoweth’s primary opponent, William Levinger of Nampa, got 30 percent. Around the Statehouse, political observers were saying that if Levinger got 20 to 25 percent of the vote - as a political unknown who spent more than half the time he was in the race hospitalized for a mental breakdown - it would indicate Chenoweth was in trouble.

What he got was 32 percent.

A similar political unknown - without Levinger’s problems - polled just 14 percent against Crapo, whose voting record mirrors Chenoweth’s but whose rhetoric is much less combative.

Chenoweth tried to put a good face on it. She said there almost certainly was a lot of crossover voting in her race by Democrats who voted in her primary since they knew Williams was going to win. Chenoweth also noted that even with the crossover efforts, she got more votes in the primary than all other candidates combined.

But she has to be concerned because votes for an absolute unknown with Levinger’s recent negative publicity must be considered possible votes against Chenoweth. Levinger’s hospitalization came after police carried him out of a television station when he refused to leave and stripped to his underwear.

Even McMurray called Levinger’s showing a wake-up call for Chenoweth, although in the long run he said it could help by energizing her supporters.

Williams was quick to capitalize, calling the 17,000 votes for Levinger “a staggering blow” to her campaign.

Rhetoric aside, Chenoweth still is the favorite to win a second term. But Tuesday’s results encouraged Williams, who was given only the slimmest of chances to win when the campaign started.

And the fact that Chenoweth didn’t do as well as many expected, outside of Bill Paxon, will encourage labor unions and others to donate heavily to Williams and redouble their efforts to oust Chenoweth.

Voters oust controversial sheriff

That incumbents can lose favor with the voters is a fact of life. But Latah County Sheriff Joe Overstreet did it in a big way.

Overstreet spent the last 3-1/2 years warring with the county commission over spending, fighting with his deputies and sparring with the local newspaper.

It all came home to roost in Tuesday’s three-way Republican primary. Overstreet was turned out, getting just 16 percent of the vote.