Christian Right Pushing Values Agenda But Gov. Batt, Legislative Leaders Reluctant To Deal With Controversial Issues
Dennis Mansfield’s tone is calm and thoughtful as he talks about a “vacuum of legislative leadership on the moral issues.”
But his words include more than a hint of menace, and the sense that Christian conservatives believe they’ve been patient long enough.
Last year, Idaho Family Forum’s executive director - along with other social conservative leaders - watched the Republican majority they helped elect in 1994 carefully avoid divisive debates.
This year, the moral watchdogs want to do more than watch.
And the prospect of repeating the GOP election debacle that followed 1990’s anti-abortion fight doesn’t worry them at all.
They are demanding that lawmakers take up issues raised by the Idaho Citizens Alliance’s proposed initiatives on gay rights, abortion, the Idaho Education Association and tax credits for the parents of non-public school students.
If they do not, Mansfield promises dire consequences.
“I will guarantee you that if the Legislature doesn’t address some of the four initiatives, this will be one of the costliest election years that anyone has ever seen, and I don’t mean just in terms of dollars,” Mansfield said.
“People didn’t elect bureaucrats; they elected leaders.”
House State Affairs Chairman Ron Crane agrees. And while the Caldwell Republican said he was unaware of any legislation of that kind that might come before his committee during the session that starts Monday, he rejects the idea that voters oppose legislators tackling moral issues.
“That’s what I’m elected to do,” said Crane, a founding board member of Idaho Family Forum. “I think the electorate expects us to take a position on social issues.”
Freshman state Rep. Tom Dorr of Post Falls is part of a new crop of Republican legislators who appear ready to put aside what might be politically expedient for what they believe to be their mandate.
And they are not too concerned about whether leadership likes it.
“When I was running around campaigning I don’t remember anybody saying, ‘When it gets tough just bail out. If it gets hard then go away.’ I think those hard issues, if they do come up, need to be dealt with just as effectively as anything else,” Dorr said.
But GOP Gov. Phil Batt and the Republican leaders of the House and Senate want to stay clear of even the potential for controversy. As Idaho Republican Party chairman after the disastrous 1990 election, Batt knows what it took to recover from those losses. He does not want to have to do it again.
“My advice to the party has always been not to concentrate on those issues that allow differences of opinion among those within the party, but to concentrate on our basic message,” the governor said. “Concentrate on the things that unite us rather than those which divide us.”
House Speaker Michael Simpson has his own reasons for wanting to avoid controversy. He has political aspirations that may include a future run for governor. And he sees no advantage in pursuing issues over which the state has little control - such as abortion - or about which the public already has spoken - such as the Idaho Citizens Alliance’s antigay initiative.
Simpson said that even ideas he would like to see given a chance, like tax credits for parents who do not send their children to public schools, stand very little chance because of this year’s tight state budget outlook.
“People I talk to want us to come over here and deal with the subjects that we have to, not raise their taxes, and see if we can do something about relieving property taxes and a few things like that,” the Blackfoot Republican said. “If the Republican Party stands behind those things, we’ll do fine.”
Dorr, like Mansfield, is confident that measures largely bottled up in committees before will be considered by the full House this year, even though they stand virtually no chance of coming up in the Senate.
The potential for public backlash should not be a factor, Dorr said.
“The only reason that would be the case is if the public were not behind it. I think they’re more in favor of it today than they have been,” he said. “A good way to find out is to bring it to the floor and to vote.”
While rejecting the idea that the abortion debate resulted in 1990’s Republican losses, Mansfield said the difference now is that a network of more than 1,000 evangelical churches is ready to issue more than 600,000 voter guides next fall based in part on how legislators vote this winter.
“Part of the question that we’re going to find as we go into it is who will rise to the top to stand for these moral issues,” he said. “It will be people of faith who realize that they’re accountable for their votes to an electorate that’s a little bit higher than the people who vote them in.”
Kelly Johannsen, executive director of the Idaho Citizens Alliance, said she would welcome having the issues handled without going directly to voters. But she is less adamant than Mansfield that lawmakers must act.
“We think it’s sad that all of these issues are being talked about in every house, every coffee shop in the state, but not in our Legislature,” she said. “We feel like the Legislature should take care of it. But if they don’t, we will.”
Simpson, meanwhile, is not saying yet how far he will go to keep his more strident members from sidetracking the session with what he considers pointless controversy.
“Let’s see what they do. Part of leadership is making those calls as they come up,” he said. “We did a good job last year. I think we addressed the issues that people were mostly concerned about in this state, and the fact is the Legislature can’t do everything.” xxxx SENSITIVE TOPICS Idaho lawmakers may be reluctant to take on moral issues raised by the Idaho Family Forum and Idaho Citizens Alliance. Those divisive issues include: Tax credits for parents of private school children. Gay rights. Abortion.