Whalen: Nonini Squandered Influence

On his Facebook wall, challenger Bob Nonini reports: “One point of interest on my opponents sunshine report is the very small amount of money he raised from the Republican Senate leadership. If you attended the forums you will likely remember that he started saying (and I paraphrase here) “the Senate Leadership has maxed their donations to my campaign.” He was reacting to the obvious fact I pointed out several times that when he financed challengers to six leading Republicans (two in the House, four in the Senate) two years ago, he severely damaged his influence and goodwill among Republicans. It is likely one of the reasons that our current governor felt that he could ignore the adage “speak no ill of other Republicans” and endorse me. My opponent violated that adage with cash and we paid the price, losing influence in the Senate.”

Question: Do you think Bob Nonini has influence in the Idaho Senate after giving campaign donations to opponents of such heavy-hitting state senators as Shawn Keough and Dean Cameron?