Three Put Touch On State Policy North Idaho’s Outgoing Democrats Made Mark In Gop Stronghold

For the past decade, the face of North Idaho in Boise was that of four longtime state legislators, all Democrats, all well-known around the Statehouse.

Now three of the four are gone, defeated by Republicans in last week’s election. It’s the end of an era in North Idaho’s legislative representation, but the three can point to lasting changes they brought about in state policy.

Even Republicans who long were foes agree the Panhandle is losing something. “I felt like they did a good job of representing the people who live in their area,” said former Rep. Kitty Gurnsey, R-Boise, the longtime chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. “And maybe the people are changing.”

Idaho has the most Republican Legislature in the country, rising from 80 percent to 85 percent during last week’s election.

Sen. Mary Lou Reed of Coeur d’Alene is the best known of the three Democrats. She served in the Senate for 12 years, holding leadership posts and becoming a high-profile spokeswoman for protecting North Idaho’s lakes and improving education.

Sen. Tim Tucker, D-Porthill, has served for 15 years, the first seven in the House and the last eight in the Senate. First elected to help save a seed-trial program for local farmers like himself, Tucker became an advocate for education funding, rural health care, water quality. He worked with the timber industry on legislation for years, until he and the timber lobby parted ways a few years back.

The industry heavily backed his opponent this year, and Tucker lost the election.

Rep. Marvin Vandenberg, D-Coeur d’Alene, was first elected to the state House in 1950, at the age of 23. The young barber served 10 years, then went to work as Boundary County assessor and then as a state Lands Department employee for 25 years. He was voted back into office eight years ago.

The fourth longtime Democratic legislator from North Idaho, Rep. Jim Stoicheff of Sandpoint, will head back to Boise in January without the other three. Stoicheff, the House minority leader, ran unopposed.

Reed and Tucker were almost always in the minority as Democrats, though they had two years when the Senate was split 21-21 between the parties. Vandenberg served as chairman of the key House State Affairs Committee in the late ‘50s, when Democrats briefly held a majority in the House.

At that time, lawmakers had to speak loudly on the House floor - there were no microphones.

But, Vandenberg said, “Really, the Legislature hasn’t changed that much. … The problems we had in those days were some of the same problems we have today - school transportation, adequate money for education, a whole myriad of things that we haven’t really been able to solve.”

Some solutions, however, stand out.

He introduced the legislation that provided the first state funding for educating disabled children in public schools. That was more than a decade before federal laws required such things.

“Up until that time, the handicapped children, say, if they had Down’s syndrome or something like that, never attended public schools,” Vandenberg said. “Then-Gov. Smylie called it one of the outstanding pieces of legislation … (and said) it put Idaho in the forefront in the field of education.”

Vandenberg also championed legislation to allow 18-year-olds to vote.

Tucker said some of his ideas were picked up by Republicans and eventually became law, though the majority party was reluctant to let Democrats take any credit.

“They kill the bills, then a few years later they’ll pick up the idea once our fingerprints are off them and run ‘em, pass it and put them into law.”

Examples include a push both Tucker and Reed made to get smaller class sizes in kindergarten through third grades. Their class-size bill failed two years running, but led to some funding to help lower class sizes, along with a major study of school building needs.

Reed hopes that study will lead the state to help local property taxpayers fund school buildings - a change she’s sought for years that last year received backing from Republican House Speaker Mike Simpson.

Tucker recalls proposing state start-up subsidies for small medical clinics in rural areas.

“People would jump up and say this is communism and go on and on and on,” he said. “And I notice this year in one of the governor’s Medicaid proposals, is one to set these little clinical care units out into rural areas where they don’t have any medical care.”

“I take satisfaction in being an idea-generator,” Tucker said.

Reed agreed. “You get some satisfaction out of having been a part of it at the beginning, even though somebody else may end up taking the credit for carrying it on the (Senate) floor.”

One of Reed’s major pushes throughout her years was to get some attention paid to water quality. “We talked about water in Boise, but we talked about water quantity rather than water quality. It was very important for the North Idaho lakes to be recognized.”

In 1989, Reed successfully pushed through the Clean Lakes Act, which passed in conjunction with a GOP-backed bill on nutrient management.

Still, the state has been slow in funding water-quality efforts. Now a court order is giving the state a push.

Reed also counts broadly supported bills on human rights, efforts to promote economic recovery in the Silver Valley and advocacy for education at all levels among her successes.

Her low point, she said, came when the Legislature passed a right-to-work law and Democrats didn’t have the votes to sustain then-Gov. John Evans’ veto.

Reed, 66, who’s been active in Democratic politics in North Idaho for 40 years, says she’ll stay involved, but she doubts she’ll run for the Legislature again.

“I think I’m feeling very fortunate to have had 12 years. I don’t have a burning desire to run another campaign.”

Vandenberg, 70, hasn’t decided. “I still feel that I’m young enough to be of service to the community again,” he said.

Tucker, 51, said, “As far as I’m concerned, this is only a hiatus. I have a lot of public service left in me.”

, DataTimes