State House, District 4B Richard Masker, Don Pischner

Richard Masker’s white separatist views are the focus of the literature he’s handing out in his bid to unseat three-term Rep. Don Pischner.

The Hayden resident insists, however, that he’s not a single-issue candidate.

“I would be going to Boise as a state representative to address the questions my constituents in my district are concerned about,” said Masker, who’s running as a Reform Party candidate.

Republican Pischner has no shortage of state issues to discuss. They range from school funding to upgrading of U.S. Highway 95. He’s especially proud of his membership in the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee.

Pischner wants to reduce property taxes paid for community college districts in Kootenai, Twin and Jerome counties, which would increase the state’s contributions to the two-year colleges. “Yet I’m very aware of the issue of local control, and I don’t want to give that up.”

Pischner doesn’t like the idea of spending state money on school buildings, believing that’s a local responsibility. “I might bend a little on maintenance,” he said. “We’ve struggled with emergency, safety issues. We just haven’t come up with good answers.”

Pischner said he doesn’t know Masker.

“If my opponent is associated with the white supremacist philosophy or the Richard Butlers of the world, I feel really sad for him,” he said.

Masker knows and admires Butler, the Aryan Nations leader, but said he doesn’t like Nazi trappings associated with Butler’s church.

His own organization is called the International Conspiratological Association. He and his wife, Deon, say they do “political deprogramming” to help people such as police officers see the dangers of a multiracial society.

When he called Idaho’s Reform Party official to help with this year’s campaign, Masker said, he was glad to accept their offer to run for office. His latest flier asks voters to help him take America back from “this Godless tyranny of ruthless hate” that threatens the white race.

In an interview, Masker said: “The reason I wanted to run was simply to see if a poor researcher who was honest and truthful and spoke reality could be elected to office in this country.”