State Senate, District 5 Tim Lohrmann, Gary Schroeder

The District 5 Senate race, which pits veteran Republican incumbent Gary Schroeder against novice Reform Party candidate Tim Lohrmann, centers on money.

Lohrmann, a third-year law student at the University of Idaho, has collected and spent practically no money on his campaign. His opponent, a Moscow business owner who has served seven years in the Senate, has collected $5,650 from supporters this election including $250 from cigarette, food and beverage company Phillip Morris.

“My original goal as a candidate was to talk about campaign finance reform,” Lohrmann said.

“I don’t know where I thought I’d find time to do this,” Lohrmann said about running for office. “It’s not much of a campaign.”

Running as a Reform Party candidate against a seasoned Republican incumbent, Lohrmann is not expecting to have much of a chance. “I’m cautiously pessimistic at this point.”

If he does win, though, he said he’s ready to put school on hold and focus on his duties as a legislator.

His opponent, Schroeder, is less focused on Lohrmann and more on prioritizing schools, state higher education funding, and blending the needs of the economy and the environment.

In a statement to a Moscow-area community group, Schroeder said he thinks the state’s budget surplus should be directed to school facilities which are in sore need of improvement.

“Idaho is the only state in the nation that provides no state funding for school facilities and requires two-thirds of those voters voting in school bond elections to vote in favor of the bond … Many Idaho children are going to school in unsafe and certainly outdated schools and classrooms.”

In Boise, he’s made efforts against the legislative majority to raise taxes direct state funding to schools.