North Idaho Gets Some Clout
How should folks in Boise define North Idaho?
The subject comes up because, with Sen. Gary Schroeder’s elevation to chairman of the Senate Education Committee, northerners no longer can gripe that North Idaho doesn’t have a single committee chairmanship. At least not if they count Moscow as part of North Idaho.
The last time a northerner chaired a legislative committee was 1990, when Dean Haagenson headed the House Resources and Conservation Committee and Hilde Kellogg chaired House Local Government.
But Sen. Gordon Crow, R-Coeur d’Alene, figures southern types think the north has nothing to complain about. “They think everything north of State Street is North Idaho.”
State Street runs along the northern side of the state Capitol building.
The money trail
With the University of Idaho and Boise State University looking daggers at each other in their engineering-school turf war, the Western States Center’s Money and Politics Project offers an interesting view of the dispute.
Micron Technology, the Boise-based computer chip manufacturer, has been a top backer of a BSU-based engineering school. The state Board of Education endorsed the idea this fall, reversing its earlier decision to let UI oversee the Boise program.
Here’s what the non-profit Money and Politics Project found:
Micron officials gave more than $25,000 to Gov. Phil Batt’s campaign, and $3,000 to state Superintendent of Schools Anne Fox’s campaign. They also gave more than $18,000 to GOP funds and business PACs that donated to the Batt and Fox campaigns.
Fox sits on the state board, and Batt appoints the other members.
Top elephant
Why do so many people want to be Idaho’s next Republican chairman?
Even before state Chairman Randy Smith was named to a 6th District judgeship last week, a batch of Republicans expressed interest in the job. Now the contest is on, with the showdown set for Jan. 6 at a state central committee meeting in Boise.
Among the names that have surfaced: Former House Speaker Tom Boyd of Moscow; Transportation Board Chairman Chuck Winder, a former candidate for governor; Boise surgeon and former state lawmaker Dean Sorensen; party officials Carolyn Durant of Lewiston, Dick Bauer of Boise, and John Sandy, who’s also a state senator from Hagerman; state Sen. David Kerrick of Caldwell; prominent rancher Brad Little of Emmett; former Port of Lewiston chief Ron McMurray; and former gubernatorial candidate Doug Dorn.
All this for a job that doesn’t pay. “In fact, it costs you some money,” said GOP executive director Mike Reynoldson.
But with the Republicans holding 80 percent of the seats in the state Legislature, all but one of the statewide elected posts and the entire congressional delegation, the party post looks like a winner. Especially with the last two party chairmen now being called “judge” and “governor.”
, DataTimes MEMO: North-South Notes runs every other Sunday. To reach Betsy Z. Russell, call 336-2854, fax to 336-0021 or e-mail to bzrussell@rmci.net.