Chenoweth In Line With Idaho Values

Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth’s Democratic opponent would like you to think the Republican freshman is an extremist. That she is a polarizing force. That she’s out of touch with the Idaho mainstream he says he represents.

But her voting record says otherwise.

Chenoweth’s votes were nearly identical to those cast by the Idaho delegation’s three males, on more than 600 votes involving Conservative Coalition and Republican partisan issues. If anything, she was a tad more moderate.

She received an “A” from the National Tax Limitation Committee, like the other three. A 100 percent score from Private Property Voters, like the others. And rated 22nd of 435 U.S. House of Representative members in votes for $50 billion in spending cuts. U.S. Sen. Larry Craig was the Senate’s top spending cutter.

If Helen Chenoweth is out of Idaho’s mainstream, then so are popular U.S. Sens. Craig and Dirk Kempthorne and U.S. Rep. Mike Crapo. She isn’t. She’s a conservative western woman who speaks her mind and lets the chips fall. Liberals and environmentalists don’t like that.

Idaho, the most conservative state in the union, has a small delegation that should be united. Again, The Spokesman-Review has decided to endorse Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth for the 1st Congressional District seat.

In her opponent, Boise attorney Dan Williams, we see a bright young man who has cut his teeth on state Democratic politics. He describes himself as a Cecil Andrus Democrat with consensus-building skills. All that’s good.

But we also see a newcomer who ran a stealth campaign, allowing the national AFL-CIO to bash Chenoweth for six months with its false Medicare television ads while he and the state Democratic Party beat up on her for campaign finance problems. We didn’t know where he stood on anything until recently.

We’re not blind to Chenoweth’s faults.

We’d like to see her denounce the militia movement. She’s done a good job toning down the rhetoric of the 1994 campaign in which she called white males “an endangered species.” She must continue to do so. Finally, she should develop a working relationship with the state’s Indian tribes.

Helen Chenoweth has grown in the job and will have a productive second term.

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