Chenoweth Overcomes Campaign Adversity Crapo Easily Elected To Open Senate Seat

She may be the queen of controversy, but U.S. Rep. Helen Chenoweth also rules the hearts and minds of most Idaho voters.

The two-term Republican appears to have survived another season of high-profile gaffes to defeat Boise Democrat and lawyer Dan Williams for the second time. Preliminary returns showed Chenoweth with about a 10 percent lead.

Chenoweth was cautiously optimistic but not ready to declare herself the winner late Tuesday.

“It’s still pretty close to call because we don’t have much in from the North,” Chenoweth said. “I’m still watching and waiting.”

If the margin holds, it’ll be a poorer second showing for Williams than in 1996, when he came within 6,500 votes of defeating Chenoweth. At any rate, a Chenoweth victory bolsters her bulletproof image - no matter where she stumbles.

In the past 18 months, Chenoweth admitted to an old affair, denied lying about that relationship, and accused minorities of avoiding North Idaho because of the cold climate. Her campaign got off to a rocky start a year ago when she fired her first campaign manager, Frank Anderson of Coeur d’Alene.

Then in July, Chenoweth was forced to fire a campaign consultant who wrote a piece for a Boise newspaper claiming Anne Frank’s diary was a hoax.

Chenoweth’s probable victory likely spells the end of Williams’ Congressional quest.

“You only have so many of these in you,” Williams said late Tuesday. “They are hard on you and hard on your family.”

Still, he found solace in the fact that he pushed two issues that resonated with voters - public lands and education, he said.

One important glitch could change the balance of a close race, even today. Tuesday afternoon, an Ada County District Court Judge ruled that 3,600 of the county’s absentee ballots may have to be voided.

Those ballots were accidentally mailed to voters with the primary-election instruction sheet. Those instructions tell voters to vote either strictly Republican or Democrat.

If these ballots could make the difference in a close race, they will be examined by the court. Where any of the 3,600 absentee voters voted straight party lines, the ballots will be voided and reissued, the judge ruled.

The contested ballots, about a quarter of the 11,000 Ada County absentee ballots, are from both the 1st and the 2nd Congressional districts. They were challenged by the Idaho Democratic Party.

Republican 2nd District Congressman Mike Crapo was easily defeating attorney Bill Mauk and Natural Law Party candidate George J. Mansfeld in the race for Idaho’s open U.S. Senate seat.

Crapo, 46, a Harvard-educated attorney and Idaho Falls native, has represented southern Idaho in Congress since 1992. Before that, he served as president pro-tem of the Idaho state senate.

Mauk, 51, a former Democratic party chairman and Pocatello native, ran a spirited, although underfunded, campaign against Crapo. He crisscrossed the state in an old blue school bus attacking Crapo’s votes in Congress on education, taxes, energy and tobacco.

Crapo won a surprising endorsement this year from the National Education Association and the Idaho Education Association. But he said he’s always considered education “the single most important issue that we have.”

He promised to oppose school voucher legislation and push for more federal funds for education.

With his quiet, low-key style, Crapo has gained a reputation that’s more moderate than his deeply conservative voting record. In the Senate, Crapo said he’ll have more clout to push the same ideas.

“The focus doesn’t change,” Crapo said. “It’s the opportunity to have the effective platform of the U.S. Senate.”

Mauk claimed credit for pushing Crapo to take more definitive - and Idaho-friendly - positions on education, Social Security and agriculture. He also is reluctant to commit himself to another run at statewide office, but said he’ll keep a hand in politics.

“The issues are too important to me to just fade into the woodwork,” Mauk said.