Andrus playing favorites at Minnick presentation

Former Idaho guv Cecil Andrus was in top form this week when he introduced Demo congressional wannabe Walt Minnick to a group of about 40 partisans at CdA’s Harding Family Center. Spotting former state Sen. Mary Lou Reed in the audience, Andrus exclaimed, “my favorite senator.” Which prompted Minnick to point out another former state senator in the audience, Denny Davis. Unperturbed, Andrus responded, “If you look at Mary Lou and Denny, who would you take?” … Minnick was accompanied to the announcement by his wife, A.K., and his 10-year-old adopted daughter, Denali, who was abandoned on the steps of a police station as a baby in China. Denali may be the only child in Idaho to have a mountain named after her. Or at least that’s what Walt and A.K. have told their daughter all her life, tongues firmly cheeked … After the Minnick announcement, your Huckleberry Hound congratulated Councilman Ron Edinger on his “landslide” victory over challenger Dan Gookin in the municipal election earlier this month. Edinger, who finished as the leading CdA council vote-getter yet again, beat Gookin by only 366 votes in a hotly contested race. He admitted he was nervous on Election Night after the absentee ballots provided a lead of only 100 votes or so. But his wife, Nancy, remained philosophical throughout the evening. She told Ron that any margin of victory was a landslide. Even a single vote … Edinger, by the way, told Huckleberries that if he’d lost he was prepared to give political activists Kathy Sims and Tom Macy a piece of his mind for their last-minute campaign mailing under the umbrella of Concerned Taxpayers of Kootenai County. The direct mailing contained dubious claims about the city’s urban renewal work and urged voters to oppose incumbents Edinger and Al Hassell.