Idaho Democrats Gear Up For Counterattack In 1996

Idaho Democrats, who suffered their worst electoral defeat in two generations in 1994, are trying to put together a 1996 candidate slate that will let them recover at least some of the ground lost in the state Legislature.

When the polls closed two years ago, the Democrats were left with only one statewide office - controller - no federal officers and just eight state Senate and 13 state House seats.

Only four years earlier, the party was at a peak. It had retained the governor’s and controllers offices, won the attorney general’s office and both congressional seats and had half the seats in the state Senate.

Strong leadership and solid recruiting - plus the issue of abortion that Republicans created in the spring of 1990 - were key to that year’s victory, and party leaders are trying to put the same thing together again.

The key to 1994’s legislative debacle was that Democrats had no one running for half the legislative seats. Seventeen of the 35 state Senate seats and 35 of the 70 state House seats were in Republican hands before the campaign even began.

This year, Democratic campaign coordinator Rob Johnson said he has already lined up Democratic candidates for 19 state Senate seats and 36 House seats. The filing deadline is April 5.

And he could be getting some help from unexpected quarters. Some Republicans and a number of their traditional Republican allies wrapped up the 1996 legislative session with the private view that more Democrats to provide a healthy balance and diversity to the debate.

But in addition to creating a Republican supermajority in the Statehouse, the 1994 election swelled the conservative ranks in both chambers, and the combination left Democratic lawmakers dispirited and ineffective.

The advent of new conservatives even erased the impact Democratic-moderate Republican coalitions had on legislation in past sessions. That coalition’s one outing in the Senate this past winter - to prohibit school districts from dropping kindergarten during future economic hard times - fell short. The bill was defeated, 18-17.

“The fighting spirit of the Democrats has been really eroded,” said Karl Brooks, legislative liaison for the Idaho Conservation League and a former Democratic state senator. “They just seem like they’ve been punched around one too many times.”

To regain any semblance of clout, observers believe Democrats need a third of the seats in the Senate - four more than they have now. That at least would give them the votes to block any attempts by the GOP majority to ram bills through faster than the rules allow and to use procedural tactics to disrupt Republican plans. It also would restore some power to any coalition with moderate Republicans.

But based on early assessments, it appears the party will be lucky to pick up a seat in the Senate and needs to worry about actually losing more ground this fall.

Johnson said he would consider 1996 a success for the Democrats if they pick up three or four state Senate seats and 10 House seats. That would put the House total at 23. Only once in the last 20 years have Democrats controlled more than 20 House seats and that was after the 1990 campaign.

Democrats have raised about $150,000 toward a coordinated statewide campaign for federal and state offices.

Idaho Republican Party Executive Director Andrew Aruluanandam conceded that it will not be easy, given the already huge majorities the party has, for the GOP to extend its grip on the Legislature.