Hale Drops Out To Avoid Aiding Chenoweth Congressional Candidate Says He Was Afraid Of Splitting Vote

One of Helen Chenoweth’s congressional challengers is dropping out of the race but might be back in two years.

High-tech executive John Hale said he feared he would split the anti-Chenoweth vote with Coeur d’Alene businessman Tony Paquin.

“I didn’t want to be known as the individual who helped Helen get re-elected,” Hale said Tuesday.

Hale, a 37-year old manager for XN Technologies, started exploring a run against Chenoweth and Paquin in the Republican primary last summer.

“I was hoping to have those two fight for the ultraconservative vote,” Hale said. “I would get the moderate and crossover vote and come out with a plurality.”

Hale found plenty of people unhappy with Chenoweth but few willing to publicly throw their support to a challenger, he said.

“With Helen being an incumbent, there is a certain amount of momentum that has to be overtaken,” he said.

But the state Republican machine isn’t going to buck an established politician, he said.

“I find people who have enough distaste for her but weren’t willing to take a chance,” Hale said. The attitude was, “She’s the Republican, she’s in there, we have to accept her.”

While Hale is unhappy with that posture, he understands it. “If you put your support out there for someone else, and Helen wins, she won’t forget it,” Hale said.

The alternative for overtaking Chenoweth is having lots of money to pour into a campaign - something Hale lacks.

Still, if Chenoweth wins re-election next year and honors her promise to make a third term her last, Hale will be back. “If Tony (Paquin) wins, it’s a whole different story,” he said.

Hale was attempting to stake out the moderate ground in his pursuit of Chenoweth’s job. When he talked about his political plans in August, he decried Chenoweth’s national reputation for supporting anti-government extremists.

That has tarnished Idaho’s reputation, Hale said.

Hale also criticized Chenoweth’s focus on extractive industries and Paquin’s focus as being too narrowly focused on high-tech.

Hale’s family has roots in Payette. He was an Air Force brat who came to the state after graduating from high school.

He earned bachelor’s degrees from the University of Idaho in wildlife resources and physics. Hale spent six years in the Air Force as a physicist and a flight test engineer.

He then worked for the Idaho Air National Guard in Boise and Caldwell.

Hale works for the Cheney, Wash., company founded by his father. Because his wife, Donna, works for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho Falls, Hale lives half-time in Idaho Falls.

The other half of the time he lives in Moscow and commutes, as needed, to Cheney.

, DataTimes