Occasional Slips In Speechifying
Congressional candidate Dennis Mansfield noticed, and scribbled a quick note, when opponent C.L. “Butch” Otter slipped during a statewide televised debate this week and said “right here in Iowa, uh, Idaho.”
The slip from Otter is particularly remarkable because Otter was born and raised in Idaho and has spent his life here.
Mansfield, on the other hand, made a point of mentioning that he’s “proud to be from the same hometown that Dirk Kempthorne came from - San Bernardino, Calif.”
Politics can be contagious
Speaking of slips, all the candidates had stock lines that they tried to use in their debate speechifying. But sometimes, it didn’t quite work out.
During Mansfield’s opening comments, for instance, he had delivered a line about how “courage is contagious.” Then, after making a show of apologizing to the other candidates for wrongly accusing them of stealing his campaign signs, he was nearly out of time when he added this:
“I think it takes courage to be contagious on that.”
He didn’t attend services
Some were wondering just what Otter meant when he said, “I’ve been up to the compound north of Coeur d’Alene several times. There’s 20 people up there.” Otter hadn’t ever been tied to the Aryan Nations group near Hayden Lake before.
After the debate, Otter explained what he meant: Human rights activist Bill Wassmuth had driven Otter past the compound, and he could see from the road that the place was little-populated.
He also said he misspoke when he said, “Randy Weaver is not a separatist.”
Otter said he meant to say Weaver wasn’t a racist - he just didn’t like anybody and wanted to be left alone.
Pre-election surprise for Dad
After the debate, a reporter from the Boise Weekly was waiting to ask Mansfield about his 18-year-old son’s citation for possession of drug paraphernalia, a marijuana pipe.
Mansfield, a Christian conservative, hadn’t known about the incident, which occurred not long after the high school senior moved out of the family home and into his own place over the winter.
Judges’ chamber of horrors
The nastiest campaign in this year’s primary election? It’s not the congressional race, and even a few bitter legislative races can’t beat it.
Instead, the prize goes to, of all things, the statewide race for the Idaho Supreme Court, a nonpartisan contest in which incumbent Justice Cathy Silak is facing a challenge from 4th District Judge Daniel Eismann.
The Eismann campaign has been critical of Silak for, among other things, doing volunteer work for the American Civil Liberties Union 15 years ago.
Now Silak supporters have noted Eismann’s own long-ago involvement with Planned Parenthood, which clashes with the anti-abortion stands he’s taken in his campaign. Idaho Statesman columnist Dan Popkey reported this week that Eismann worked as a volunteer for Planned Parenthood in the 1970s, counseling pregnant women about options including abortion - at a time when Idaho made that illegal for anyone but a medical professional. Eismann’s campaign manager told Popkey the judge changed his views after he became a born-again Christian in 1983.
Eismann has been running as something of a Christian Coalition candidate, filling out the group’s controversial questionnaire, denouncing evolution and garnering nearly a quarter of his $100,000 campaign war chest from the Coalition’s chairman and four members of her family.
Good thing this is all very dignified and nonpolitical, right?
You have the power
Idaho’s primary elections typically have low turnout, and the numbers have been dropping for the past decade. But BSU political scientist Jim Weatherby notes that, with so few people voting, your vote in Tuesday’s primary election has more oomph than your vote in November. Plus, he said, with Idaho virtually a one-party state, many contests will really be decided next week in the Republican primary.
And in the Supreme Court race, this isn’t a primary. It’s the final election. Everyone votes on it on Tuesday, and then that’s it. So take that powerful vote of yours to the polls.