Two Vie To Unseat Vandenberg Gop Legislative Candidates Share Many Of Same Views

Voters in the May 28 primary election will choose which of two conservative, Republican political newcomers they’d like to see run against a conservative Democrat political veteran.

Curtis Ellis and Jim Clark both want the chance next fall to defeat Rep. Marvin Vandenberg, D-Coeur d’Alene. Vandenberg, 69, has served nine terms in the Legislature.

Both Ellis and Clark are eager to promote a pro-business environment in the state, and local control. Beyond that, the differences between them may be mostly matters of style and experience.

Ellis, 33, owns Idaho Ruby’s, a restaurant in downtown Coeur d’Alene. He is more soft-spoken than his opponent, and talks more frequently about social issues.

For example, in a discussion of school funding, Ellis makes it clear he thinks property taxpayers carry too much of the burden. Then he quickly links the amount of money taxpayers are spending with the quality of education they’re buying.

“If we were churning the top-quality students and the perception was we had a quality education system in North Idaho, people would be more willing to vote for a bond issue,’ he said.

His daughter attends a Christian school. He frequently refers to the Christian underpinnings of his decisions.

For example, when asked for his position on gambling, Ellis searched his computerized Bible to find just what it said about the subject.

He found nothing opposing gambling, but he did find an admonition to spend money wisely.

Ellis emphasizes that government should be run more like a business, and that the tax burden on business should be kept low.

“Here’s my grand scheme: If we improve education, we will have a strong work force,” he said. “And if we encourage small businesses to relocate here … It will allow my kids to be able to get a good job here.”

If elected, Ellis said, he’d like to “unmake” what he considers single-issue, after-the-fact laws. He’d be looking for ways to shift decision making to local governments, he said.

Clark, 52, is a talkative business consultant who also teaches at Eastern Washington University.

His campaign focuses almost entirely on financial matters.

Clark supports the One Percent Initiative as a means of property tax relief. “It’s all we’ve got,” he said. The initiative, which will be on this fall’s ballot, would shift some public school costs to other sources, among other things.

What sources? Higher sales tax is one possibility, although Clark said he’s not big on that idea.

“I’d look at eliminating property tax exemptions given to agriculture, timber, production,” he said. Such exemptions cost the state more than $400 million annually, he said.

Local option taxes are a sound idea, he said. The downside, he said, is that they foist the burden of collecting taxes onto business, and can complicate life for businesses that operate statewide.

Clark said he shares Ellis’ interest in seeing government take a business-like approach to finances. But, he believes most people don’t like it when government makes other kinds of decisions in the efficient, behind-closed-doors manner that businesses do.

“Nine times out of 10, when government makes a business decision, people complain that they weren’t consulted,” he said.

, DataTimes