Chenoweth Driving Voters Away
Republican Rep. Helen Chenoweth’s campaign hasn’t been doing well.
One of her party’s biggest stars, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, gave her a big boost this past week, and it remains to be seen if that’s enough to offset the steady flow of criticism the GOP incumbent has been attracting.
Challenger Dan Williams, a political unknown outside the Democratic Party structure and the Boise area, appears to be benefiting from a huge negative feeling against Chenoweth.
The polls have indicated voters who might go Democratic in the 1st District congressional race might be voting against Chenoweth as much as they are voting for Williams.
Political veteran Skip Smyser, who served in both House and Senate and ran for the congressional seat against Larry LaRocco in 1990, thinks Williams would be better off just staying home. In campaigning, Smyser feels, Williams might lose support once voters find he’s a young, relatively inexperienced Boise lawyer.
A Statehouse rally staged to steal some of the publicity from the Gingrich appearance took on the look of a nonpartisan coalition against Chenoweth. That’s bad news for the incumbent, since it shows a wide variety of groups and organizations are out to get her.
Representatives of senior citizens, children’s advocates, environmentalists, organized labor, college students, women’s groups, welfare advocates, educators and university women all showed up to complain about Chenoweth’s votes or statements on issues important to each of them.
Besides putting some new energy in the Chenoweth re-election bid, Gingrich also brought in some badly needed cash.
In an anomaly in the usual incumbent-challenger status, Williams has matched Chenoweth in raising money and up until this spring actually had more cash in the bank than the conservative freshman. The two campaigns were about even at the end of June although Chenoweth still has a large debt from 1994.
That’s due in part to the fact that Democrats, the labor unions and other Williams supporters feel Chenoweth is vulnerable.
The cash that Gingrich generated will go a long way toward helping Chenoweth offset the attack ads from organized labor. And the fact that Gingrich, a dynamic speaker, came to town to urge Republicans to work harder for Chenoweth, certainly will help her campaign.
xxxx GIVE AND TAKE A lot of the campaign’s negativism has been generated by Chenoweth’s statements and votes in her first 19 months in office, but she’s also been the target of a relentless stream of attack ads by the AFL-CIO.