Veteran Lawmaker Faces Challenge Riggs Hopes Voter Discontent Will Sweep Reed From Office

Jack Riggs isn’t afraid of trying something new, and he hopes the voters in Legislative District 4 aren’t either.

Riggs is taking on veteran lawmaker Mary Lou Reed in the general election, and is counting on some voter discontent to sweep her out of office.

“There has not been accurate representation of this area for decades,” Riggs said in a recent debate, where he challenged Reed’s effectiveness.

Reed is hardly intimidated by Riggs’ aggressive campaigning. No stranger to tough legislative races, she has managed to win six consecutive terms in the state Senate.

Her experience is one asset she regularly trumpets when countering Riggs’ attacks.

“I know the ropes and taxpayers have invested in my experience, and sending another Republican to Boise doesn’t make sense when there are so many Republicans now,” she said.

Lost in the campaign and debates between Reed and Riggs is Charles Eberle, a candidate for the ultra-conservative U.S. Taxpayers Party.

Eberle is more interested in getting the fledgling party off the ground than actually running for office. The party needs state candidates on the ballot to avoid having to petition to get on the ballot next election.

He tells his supporters to vote for Riggs.

Although most voters in District 4 are in Kootenai County, Riggs likes to talk about the Silver Valley, where the struggling economy is a big issue.

Riggs paints Reed as an environmental extremist who is oblivious or uncaring when it comes to how environmental laws affect working people.

When asked about the need to clean up 100 years of mining waste in the Coeur d’Alene Basin, Riggs - a physician - said nature will take care of itself.

“It seems like there’s so much discussion about a non-existent problem,” he said. “I haven’t seen a case of lead-poisoning. I don’t think it’s a problem.”

As author of the Clean Lakes Act and co-founder of the Idaho Conservation League, Reed is a leader in environmental efforts statewide. But in her quest for clean water, she hasn’t forgotten her constituents, she said.

In the past two years, Reed has worked with the North Idaho delegation to get state matching funds for the cleanup of the Silver Valley’s Superfund site, she said.

Reed bristles at Riggs’ accusation that she’s anti-timber. A healthy timber industry relies on healthy forests, she said.

“I’m for sustained yield, no cut-out and get-out tactics,” she said. “I support the (timber and mining) companies that have endorsed modern practices.”

The timber political action committees are supporting her opponent, however.

Riggs portrays his advocacy of timber and mining interests as a support for jobs. But the big labor unions continue to back Reed, who championed a minimum wage bill that failed to gather steam in the Legislature.

Riggs opposes the minimum wage bill.

He and Reed do agree that something needs to be done to help school districts build new schools. While Reed talks about state-matching funds for school construction, Riggs supports lowering the super-majority requirement to pass school bond levies to 60 percent.

Both also support tax reform.

While Reed discusses specific measures to relieve the tax burden on property owners, Riggs says he’s willing to tackle overhauling the entire system.

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