Macdonald’s Seat Up For Grabs Simpson Files, Rankin Considers Run For County Commission Post

Reed Simpson, the force behind establishment of the East Side Fire District, will challenge Kootenai County Commissioner Bob Macdonald in May’s Republican primary.

Simpson, 54, filed Wednesday for the two-year term.

The Harrison computer consultant is the second conservative to express interest in Macdonald’s seat, setting up the likelihood of a three-way primary race.

Tax activist Ron Rankin also is considering a run against Macdonald as a Republican. He most recently ran a 1994 gubernatorial campaign as an independent.

Democrats say they expect a candidate announcement in the same race later this week.

No challenger has surfaced to take on Dick Compton, the retired IBM marketing executive who ousted Republican Kent Helmer in 1994.

“Our goal is to have a candidate for every race,” Democratic Party Chairman Bob Brown said.

Since there is no Democratic incumbent, Brown said the party would benefit from the time, money and infighting saved by not having primaries.

Macdonald, the former manager of a wholesale beer and wine distributorship, is seeking his third commissioner term, after two successful bids as a Coeur d’Alene city councilman. Attempts to reach him Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Simpson gained public exposure in 1992 as a representative for presidential hopeful Ross Perot’s United We Stand campaign. In 1992, he started a fire district in southern Kootenai County which accepts only voluntary membership instead of annexing landowners.

It has grown from 26 property owners to 1,400 in three years. Now a fire commissioner, Simpson oversees a $70,000 budget.

“I’ve shown you don’t have to have a million dollars to do the job if you have a lot of people who want the job done,” he said.

As a commissioner, Simpson said he would seek out county functions that could be cut to save money.

“A lot of times we try squeezing juice out of an onion,” he said. “Maybe the onion just doesn’t need to be there.”

Rankin said a three-way race would help him.

Challengers often end up losing because they split anti-incumbency votes, he said. But Rankin is so well-known - and in some cases despised - Macdonald and Simpson would likely split the anti-Rankin vote.

, DataTimes