Kenck to step down as Idaho Dems chair

Larry Kenck, chairman of the Idaho Democratic Party, will step down for medical reasons at the end of this week, and party Vice Chair Jeanne Buell will become acting chair and will head the search for Kenck’s replacement. Kenck, a retired labor organizer from Post Falls, was just re-elected in March to a second two-year term as state party chair. “Sadly, health issues have come up that I must deal with,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “The path we are on requires an active chairman that is not dealing with these issues.” A new state chair will be selected at the party’s spring quarterly central committee meeting on June 13. Buell, of Worley, said in a statement, “Larry has been a true friend to Idaho Democrats and he has helped lead our party into a time of renewal, a time of growth, and a time of momentum. I know that our party has a lot of talent out there and that we will find a chairman who shares Larry’s vision of a better, balanced Idaho.” Kenck is a former legislative candidate and longtime Democratic activist. He twice served as Kootenai County Democratic Party chairman. Idaho’s Democratic Party is distinctly in the minority, with Republicans currently holding every statewide office, all four seats in the congressional delegation and 80 percent of the seats in the state Legislature. But under Kenck’s leadership, the Democrats have touted their unity, most notably when both parties held state conventions in 2014, and the Democrats’ went smoothly, while the Republicans’ degenerated into a divisive fight that ended with no agreement on a party platform, resolutions or leaders.