2 Square Off To Decide Gop Challenger Either Ferris Or Hale Will Face Mclaughlin For District 7 Seat

A forester and a carpetlayer, both Republicans, are facing off May 28 to decide who will challenge veteran state Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin this fall.

John Ferris, 55, is a forestry and tax consultant in St. Maries, where he’s lived for 30 years.

“I’m running to be a voice for families in the district, to protect our way of life, and to promote Idaho jobs and lower taxes,” he said.

Max Hale, 42, of Kooskia, sells and installs carpet and vinyl flooring. He said he wants to promote individual responsibility, lower taxes and keep federal bureaucracy to a minimum in Idaho.

“I’m in a lot of different homes and we just talk and talk,” he said. “I just felt that what was happening in the Legislature wasn’t representing what the people felt.”

District 7 covers parts of Benewah, Latah, Nez Perce and Idaho counties, plus all of Clearwater and Lewis counties.

Both Republican candidates are betting that the district is becoming more conservative than McLaughlin, a seven-term Democratic senator who served two terms in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1982.

Ferris said the district needs legislators who will fight federal edicts - like the unpopular drawdown of the Dworshak Reservoir to save fish - and to push for better education.

“We’re losing our sawmills, we’re losing our jobs, and the schools aren’t doing a top-notch job.” Ferris owns 500 acres of timber and pasture, and said he’d bring valuable experience in the Statehouse.

“It needs a diverse expertise - farmers, doctors, lawyers, whatever. We need a forester and tax man, too,” he said.

Ferris has been the chairman of the GOP central committee for District 7 and Benewah County for a decade. He’s also chairman of the Benewah County Farm Bureau.

Hale moved to Kooskia in 1990, after selling his flooring business in Pasco, Wash. He’s been a carpetlayer for more than 20 years.

“Most people feel they’re taxed to death. We have so many people with their hand out,” he said. “There’s just too many people looking to the government to answer the problems in their lives.”

He said he wants his children to have the opportunity to own their own businesses and keep control of their own destinies.

Hale said he loves public speaking and will talk to anyone. “I’m not a contentious person,” he said.

He said he’s also worried about what he thinks are America’s declining morals and decay of family values. “We want a future for our children.”

, DataTimes