The E Have It: House Picks Spud As State Veggie Lawmakers Find Idaho’s Potato Roots Hard To Argue Against

Spud-loving lawmakers chipped away at opposition Thursday in order to pass a bill making the potato Idaho’s state vegetable.

“There’s a potato on the license plate, a potato on the seal,” said Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, who sponsored the bill. “It’s about time we recognized it as a state symbol.”

Light-hearted legislators saw the tuber bill as a chance to break the monotony of a session that had already lasted three hours.

Rep. Bill Sali, R-Meridian, said that he would prefer to see the Dan Quayle spelling of potato on the bill. Sali contended that “potatoe” is the plural form of potato. He argued that if legislators passed the bill as written, they would have to pick a single potato to use as the symbol.

“What happens when that one rots?” he asked.

“I thought I artichoke her (Rep. Bell), I didn’t carrot all,” joked Rep. Dolores Crow, R-Nampa. “But then I thought, lettuce beat her to the punch and vote for it.”

But some legislators wanted to see the potato bill mashed. They said that the House had no time to add to the list of state symbols.

The bill escaped blight, however, sailing through the House on a 54 to 15 vote.

The proposed law will now be planted in the Senate.

, DataTimes