Idaho Faces Tough Issues Lawmakers Eager To Get Kempthorne’S Attention

If Dirk Kempthorne can make things happen in Idaho in the next eight years, the whole country might hear about it.

That’s because Kempthorne is thought to have a future in national politics - possibly even including a run for president.

For now, the polished, consensus-building Republican is taking the state’s helm at a time when he’ll have plenty of challenges. Chief among those is his first legislative session, which starts Monday.

Revenue has been crimped by predecessor Phil Batt’s property tax relief program and a new plan to force the state to save millions each year for a rainy day. At the same time, Kempthorne has promised to phase in an end to the so-called marriage penalty in the state income tax code - a $16 million-a-year item.

School buildings are crumbling, and the courts may force the state to pay attention. The state Fish and Game Department is going broke. Timber and agriculture are on a downswing. And Idaho suffers in comparison with other states on child immunization rates, Head Start funding and more.

“He will have to work very closely and effectively with the Legislature to get his agenda through,” said Boise State University political scientist Jim Weatherby. “It isn’t obvious, at least on the surface, that he’s made many overtures to legislators.”

Kempthorne, who left the U.S. Senate to run for governor, ran on broad promises to improve education, fight methamphetamine use and boost rural economies. Now it’s time for him to turn those statements into action.

He’ll have the benefit of a Legislature that’s 85 percent Republican. But Kempthorne is no Statehouse insider, having never served in the Legislature or held a state government job.

Legislators felt snubbed when Kempthorne didn’t put them on his huge transition team, and many say they’ve been waiting to hear from him on issues but he hasn’t contacted them.

Kempthorne isn’t the only one who needs to show he can get things done. Spurred by term limits, legislators say they want to make a difference now, because they realize they won’t be in office forever.

“If I was going to tell my grandchildren about what I accomplished in the Legislature, I’d better get moving,” said House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum. “It’s put a lot of pressure on everybody. It’s not business as usual anymore.”

That fervor has prompted a shake-up throughout the Legislature. There were hot races for leadership positions in both parties, and there are seven new faces on the budget committee.

The changes brought a new committee chairmanship for North Idaho - Hayden Sen. Gordon Crow will chair the Senate Commerce Committee - and an additional seat on the budget committee, for Rathdrum Sen. Clyde Boatright.

But it’s also led to the few long-timers in the North Idaho delegation losing some of their influence, chiefly former Democratic leaders Marguerite McLaughlin in the Senate and Jim Stoicheff in the House.

Boatright is hoping to use his budget committee seat to help end Idaho’s distinction as one of a handful of states that puts no money into Head Start, the federally funded preschool program for poor kids. That lack of state money is the reason only about 20 percent of eligible Idaho kids are in the program.

Coeur d’Alene Sen. Jack Riggs, a physician, is working with Kempthorne on a plan to increase childhood immunizations. Other North Idaho lawmakers are readying their legislative attack plans on everything from funding school buildings to pushing for road projects to plans for a “covenant marriage” law.

The challenge for Kempthorne and legislative leadership will be to “steer a course of getting programs through … rather than having it break down into factionalism,” Weatherby said.

The huge Republican majority could go either direction. “That spells some trouble for leadership, whether it be in the Legislature or the governor’s office.”

Cut in the Spokane edition.