Skittish Idaho Debates ignores voters
In his editorial today, Opinion Editor Marty Trillhaase of the Lewiston Tribune criticizes the decision by Idaho Debates to hold firm on rules and allow Idaho Republican incumbents not to face Democratic opponents in a televised debate:
Two years ago, Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter pointed the proverbial gun to the heads of the people running the Idaho Debates.
Either allow everybody seeking the GOP nomination for governor on the stage, Otter extorted, or he would boycott the session.
On the Republican primary ballot that year were not only Otter's legitimate challenger, Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Merdian, but two attention-seekers: Harley Brown of Boise, described by the Idaho Statesman as a man who engages in a "sour soup of racism, sexism and poor taste," and Walt Bayes, an anti-abortion rights zealot who Mother Jones magazine said "resembles a 19th-century gold prospector." More here.
