Idaho Senate minority leader fighting brain cancer

BOISE – An Idaho lawmaker battling brain cancer is finding plenty of support from both Democrats and Republicans.

“I’m gonna beat this thing,” said Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum.

He had brain surgery Jan. 29 and this week travels to the University of California-San Francisco, to begin six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation.

Stennett, during a recent interview in his office, picked up a stuffed briefcase.

“That’s full of letters – cards, flowers, you name it. It’s been a real sign of support, which really gives me strength,” he told the Twin Falls Times-News. “It’s hard to believe, but when it comes down to it, the Senate’s a big, happy family.”

Former Idaho House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, a Republican from Burley who retired in 2006 after 19 years in the Legislature, has agreed to “coach” Stennett. Newcomb was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1993, and has encouraged Stennett to do research and remain positive.

“He’s an awfully good friend of mine. I’ve known him for years,” said Stennett, who plans to run for re-election later this year. “He totally believes that as a cancer survivor he is responsible for helping other cancer patients survive.”

After learning of Stennett’s cancer, Newcomb talked to some friends who knew someone with the same type of brain cancer as Stennett.

“I kind of feel like there’s karma, a divine intervention here,” said Newcomb, who gave Stennett 59 pages of cancer information.

Newcomb also helped Stennett search for doctors. Senate President Pro Tempore Geddes, R-Soda Springs, was the first lawmaker to visit Stennett in the hospital.

Jasper LiCalzi, a professor of political economy at the College of Idaho, said the bipartisan support Stennett is getting is not surprising in Idaho.

“To me, looking at the Idaho Legislature is kind of what Congress used to be in the ‘50s,” he said. “Once it’s 5 o’clock, once the session’s over, you go out for dinner together, you go out for drinks together. Things aren’t personal.”

Newcomb said helping Stennett is a way to repay some of the help he received when he was diagnosed.

“I’m not trying to tell him what to do, I’m just trying to get him the information that helps him make a decision that helps him, and he is one of my best friends and it’s just what friends do,” Newcomb said. “I’m a Republican. He’s a Democrat. But he was raised four miles away from me in Declo.”