Mike Crapo to seek fourth term in U.S. Senate

BOISE – Idaho GOP Sen. Mike Crapo announced Tuesday that he’ll run for re-election in 2016, seeking a fourth six-year term.

Crapo named Gov. Butch Otter, Sen. Jim Risch, and Reps. Mike Simpson and Raul Labrador, all fellow Republicans, as his campaign co-chairs.

In a statement from Washington, D.C., Crapo said, “It’s an honor to have the support of these tremendous Idaho leaders who I have worked closely with over the years as we have served the people of Idaho and together fought for conservative values and policies.”

There had been some speculation that Crapo might not run again after his DUI arrest in December 2012, to which he pleaded guilty and apologized. Crapo had long been known as a teetotaler because of his strict Mormon faith. The arrest shocked his supporters. But several times since the DUI, Crapo, 63, has said he intended to seek another term.

After the arrest, he told police he had consumed several shots of vodka before going for a drive. He later told reporters he had been drinking vodka with tonic water at his apartment, then went for a drive to “try to wind down.” He was arrested after making a U-turn at a red light. He registered a 0.11 blood-alcohol level at the scene and a higher 0.14 level in a test taken later at the jail. He was sentenced to a $250 fine, a suspended 180-day jail sentence, an alcohol awareness program and a one-year license suspension.

After his guilty plea, Crapo told reporters he had started drinking at home during the previous year in a misguided attempt to relieve stress, and regretted bringing shame to himself and his faith. “I’m swearing off alcohol and I am not going to continue to drink,” he said then.

Crapo also is a survivor of prostate cancer, for which he’s been treated twice during his Senate career. A Harvard-educated lawyer, Brigham Young University graduate and Idaho Falls native, he served eight years in the state Senate and three terms in Congress before winning his first U.S. Senate term in 1998.

Federal Election Commission reports show his campaign had $3.7 million in cash on hand as of March 31.