Bruce Willis Is Hitless After Taking A Swing At Batt Actor’s Opposition To Governor’s Nuclear Waste Deal Doesn’t Sit Well With Idahoans

Sun., Feb. 18, 1996

Quane Kenyon Associated Press

Can a Hollywood actor have a major influence on Idaho politics?

Judging from the telephone calls to the governor’s office after actor Bruce Willis urged removing Gov. Phil Batt because of his nuclear waste deal, probably not.

“Tell him to go back to California, that would be a good place for him,” said one caller, who didn’t leave his name.

Willis, who lives with his wife, actress Demi Moore, and their three children in the Wood River Valley, held an unusual Statehouse news conference a week ago.

He urged his media audience to reject Batt’s deal trading another 1,133 waste shipments being dumped in eastern Idaho for promises most waste will be removed over the next 40 years. The actor describes himself as a Republican.

“We want zero nuclear waste in the state of Idaho,” Willis said. “If you can’t provide us with a state that is nuclear waste-free, then we will get a new governor and we will get a new Legislature.”

During eight years in Hailey, the Willises have purchased several businesses and talked about opening a night club in Boise. But this is the first time he has spoken up about Idaho politics.

But he’s taking on a big project if he hopes to get rid of Batt, who swamped a popular Democrat by 34,760 votes in the last election.

And the Legislature?

Hey, Bruce, the Idaho Legislature is the most Republican in the nation. The Democrats are outnumbered five-to-one, levels that haven’t been seen in Idaho since the 1920s.

The nuclear waste agreement? There’s no sign that there will be a statewide revolt over it. Batt, 13-plus months into his first term, has spent a huge amount of time traveling the state defending the deal.

And the governor believes that the more people know about the agreement, the better they understand and accept it.

Movie types have had mixed results in Idaho politics. Hollywood legend Charlton Heston came to Idaho to help win the right-to-work battle in the mid-1980s.

But actress Patty Duke, now a parttime Coeur d’Alene resident, also came to the state about the same time. She was president of the Screen Actors Guild then and argued, as a union official, against the bill. It passed anyway.

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