Gop Chairman Says Minnick Bought N-Waste Opposition

State Republican Chairman Ron McMurray on Tuesday claimed the Idaho Democratic Party has sided with its Senate candidate, Walt Minnick, on the nuclear waste issue because Minnick got the party more than $200,000 in what McMurray is calling “New York money.”

His target was Minnick’s criticism of Gov. Phil Batt’s nuclear waste deal with the federal government and Sen. Larry Craig’s attempt to push through legislation declaring neighboring Nevada the site for a temporary nuclear waste dump.

“There are many Idaho Democrats who support the governor’s agreement and the legislation from Senator Craig,” McMurray said in a statement. “It’s too bad Minnick’s New York money is the driving force behind the Idaho Democrats nuclear policy stance.

“It is no surprise that Minnick is at odds with Idaho Democrats considering he gets his nuclear advice from Hollywood liberals,” he said.

But only $22,000 of the cash windfall Minnick campaign supporters have provided the state party came from people in New York and only $9,000 from people in California. By contrast, $131,000 came from Idaho residents, Minnick’s mother in Washington and his aunt in Oregon.

Batt’s deal limits nuclear waste shipments to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory to 1,133 over the next four decades while setting a court-enforced timetable for cleanup and removal of most waste by 2035. Prior to agreeing to the provisions a year ago, the federal government intended to dump nearly 2,000 more shipments of waste at INEL over a shorter time.

Critics, who have put the deal to a voter referendum in November, claim it is so riddled with loopholes it will never be enforced and the government will eventually figure out how to evade the dumping limits.

Minnick has essentially called for waste to be held at the source of its generation for a year or two while a scientific panel determines the best place to permanently dump it.