Sali opens campaign office – outside his district

BOISE – Idaho congressman Bill Sali has opened a new campaign office just upstairs from his congressional office in Boise – both of them in the 2nd Congressional District. Sali represents the 1st District.

“It’s a convenient location, and it’s a centralized location where people can interact easier with the congressional office,” said Sali spokesman Wayne Hoffman. “It’s in downtown Boise. A lot of people come downtown to see the offices of their elected officials.”

He added, “With regard to the campaign office, it’s a convenient location and the price is right.”

The line between the 1st and 2nd congressional districts cuts jaggedly across Boise. Much of central Boise used to be in the 1st District, but when the line moved west in the redistricting that followed the 2000 census, the center of the state capital largely went into the 2nd District.

Sali’s Democratic challenger, Walt Minnick, has his campaign office out by Boise’s largest shopping mall on the western side of the city to be in the 1st District.

“There’s lots of available office space in the 1st Congressional District, and we have very much enjoyed having our office there,” said campaign spokesman John Foster. “We chose that space because the office is literally at the busiest intersection in the state, right near the mall. We’re in the district and in Boise.”

Hoffman said the campaign office opened about three weeks ago, and it’s Sali’s only campaign office. The site is just as convenient as the congressional office, he said.

He said visitors “stop in at Larry Craig’s office, they’ll stop in at Mike Simpson’s office, Mike Crapo’s, Bill Sali’s, they’ll go and see the governor. People like having those offices grouped relatively close together.”