Democrats Hope To Ride Nuke Train Back Into Office

Gov. Phil Batt was in a good mood when he walked out of a meeting with the Twin Falls Rotary Club.

He had just made a public appearance in the place where sentiment would likely be strongest against the nuclear waste agreement he signed last month with the Department of Energy and the Navy.

But instead, after explaining to 200 community leaders why he signed the pact, Batt got a standing ovation.

Afterward, the governor said he was a little surprised there was no hostility, but that’s the way the nuclear waste debate has been going.

“It’s complicated, and the people don’t understand it,” he said. “But when you get a chance to explain it and talk it over, they think it was the best thing to do.”

Major Democratic candidates hope nuclear waste is the train they will ride to victory in next year’s election.

But if Batt’s Twin Falls appearance is a barometer, it isn’t an issue that has ignited public sentiment, and Batt is doing a good job defending it.

A legislator met with Batt the next day at the Statehouse and said the governor was highly encouraged by the Twin Falls outing. Batt plans other trips around the state to sell the plan, including a visit next month to the Burley-Rupert area east of Twin Falls.

The governor’s office has been tracking calls on the issue. They’ve been running about 5-to-3 in favor, although written communications are running about 2-1 in support of the agreement. The governor’s office also has received a number of empty cans - people sending in their “waste” to protest an agreement allowing more nuclear waste into the state.

Nuclear activist Peter Rickards, the Twin Falls podiatrist hoping to beat GOP Rep. Michael Crapo in the 2nd District congressional primary next spring, was among speakers at an anti-nuclear rally at the Statehouse just after Batt finished his Twin Falls speech.

Someone even scrawled “You’re Killin’ Me” in chalk on the governor’s parking space in front of the Capitol. But it was erased within a couple of hours and Batt didn’t see it.

Rickards and others urged the 250 to 300 people attending to sign petitions backing his effort to recall the governor.

But that’s never going to happen. Rickards needs 125,000 signatures of registered voters by Dec. 26 to launch recall election, a virtually impossible number in so short a time.

And the Idaho Legislature, in a protect-incumbents move, made it almost impossible to recall officials unless there is overwhelming sentiment for it. It takes a majority of the votes cast, plus at least one more than the number of votes that elected the official in the first place, for a recall.

It would take 216,124 votes in the next primary election to recall Batt over the nuclear issue and it would take an unprecedented turnout - with every voter voting against the governor - to remove him from office.

Rickards obviously is using the recall effort to get attention for his anti-nuclear efforts and campaign against Crapo, with no real hope of accomplishing his goal.

Walt Minnick, the Boise businessman hoping to beat Republican Sen. Larry Craig, also has made the nuclear waste deal a cornerstone of his campaign.

It will be many years before it’s known whether the Batt deal was good or bad. The agreement gives the government 40 years to clean up and remove most of the radioactive waste that’s been piling up at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory for the last 40-plus years.

“It’s just a big selling job, that’s what it is,” the governor said. “And I’m the one to do it.”