Harwood, Currier vie for seat

Rep. Dick Harwood may be North Idaho’s most controversial legislator.

The two-term Republican from St. Maries has protested against a state economic development grant to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, his district’s largest employer; backed legislation to have the state sue his own local school district over building-safety problems; and prompted a federal crackdown on leaking underground storage tanks in Idaho by blocking a state prevention program.

He used an anti-Semitic slur in a House committee, compared mandatory kindergarten to communism during a House debate and told the state’s tribes that despite their feelings, he didn’t consider the word “squaw” to be derogatory.

“I felt that District 2 wasn’t getting the level of representation that it really deserved,” said George Currier, a former longtime St. Maries city councilman, head of the local Timber Plus economic development group and Harwood’s Democratic challenger.

Currier’s top issues are health care, education funding and increasing employment opportunities in Idaho.

Harwood won by just 163 votes in the last election, defeating former Rep. June Judd, D-St. Maries. Two years earlier, Harwood had won the seat by defeating Judd with 54 percent of the vote.

“There are critical issues facing the committees on which I serve that will carry over into the next legislative session,” Harwood said when he announced his re-election bid. “I hope to have the privilege of representing the interests of northern Idaho as we work to see them finalized.”

Harwood, a self-described “fiscal conservative” who wasn’t available for comment Tuesday, noted that this year he co-sponsored HJR 9, an unsuccessful measure to amend the Idaho Constitution to ban gay marriage; and sponsored HB 641 to expand mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes to include those that occur near home day cares and preschools rather than just near schools. HB 641 died in a Senate committee.

During the campaign, Harwood has been critical of the two other District 2 legislators, Rep. Mary Lou Shepherd, D-Prichard, and Sen. Marti Calabretta, D-Osburn, for voting against public school budget bills. Harwood maintained that his votes in favor of the budget bills show he supports education, though Shepherd and Calabretta said the funding in those bills was inadequate.

“The thing that bothers me is that public school people never say ‘thank you,’ ” Harwood said at a recent candidate forum in St. Maries, as reported in the St. Maries Gazette. “It is just always that there isn’t enough money.”

Harwood backed legislation to turn the tables on local school districts, including St. Maries, that had sued the state over inadequate funding for school construction. Under the bill, HB 403, the state sued seven school districts, including St. Maries. The bill later was declared unconstitutional.

“He came back and tried to put the blame on our local administration,” Currier said. “He came back and tried to defend the bill. It irritates people in town that are ashamed of his record there.”

Harwood, on his campaign Web site, declared, “I support education and I disagree with educational unions, as the things they promote does not support what is best for our children. I have voted for school appropriations and I also support the funding of Virtual Academy and the Charter Schools.”

Harwood, who serves as vice chairman of the House Environmental Affairs Committee, led the opposition in 2003 to a plan negotiated by the state Department of Environmental Quality and the petroleum industry to set up a state inspection system to prevent leaks from underground tanks. Harwood said he thought the state plan would be more stringent than federal rules. That left the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in charge of the program, as required by federal law.

Then, last fall, the EPA cracked down on Idaho tanks, identifying 146 violations and imposing penalties totaling $24,000. Harwood said at a committee hearing, “I just wondered if it was retaliation for our not passing that underground storage tank thing.”

EPA officials told Harwood they were just doing their job as required by law.

Currier said he hopes he can serve as a bridge between varying interests in District 2, which includes parts of Bonner County and southern Kootenai County along with all of Benewah and Shoshone counties. He said he hopes to mediate between parts of the district that have different viewpoints on everything from field-burning to forest management. He also said he hopes to push for an increase in Idaho’s $5.15-an-hour minimum wage.

Harwood, 56, retired from Potlatch Corp. as a maintenance welder in 1994. He and his wife, Carol, operate H&H Cleaning in St. Maries.

Currier, 70, is the former civil defense director for Benewah County and served on the St. Maries City Council from 1989 to 1998.

In District 2’s other races this year, Calabretta faces a challenge from Republican Joyce Broadsword of Sagle, co-owner of a log home business. And Shepherd is being challenged by Constitution Party candidate Gary Schulte, a semi-retired mechanical engineer from Cocolalla.

Calabretta, a longtime state senator, served from 1984 to 1992, and then returned to the Senate in 2002. Since her return, she has served on the influential joint budget committee, and has pushed – without success so far – for allowing local-option gambling as an economic development tool in the Wallace area.

A retired social worker and former coordinator of the Silver Valley Natural Resource Trustees, Calabretta said key issues for her this year are maintaining full funding for education in the face of pressure to fund a bailout for Southern Idaho water rights holders; providing essential health care; and “legitimate economic development that benefits struggling rural areas, including such tools as local-option gambling for historic Wallace and repealing the Right-to-Work law.”

Broadsword, a former state president of Idaho Women in Timber, is making her first run for office, but has been active on many Republican campaigns, including serving as a county campaign coordinator for U.S. Rep. Butch Otter in 2002.

“Lack of jobs is a key issue,” Broadsword said. “My opponent says poverty, but that is not the problem, only the result. The Superfund designation and resulting loss of mining jobs has been one of the causes. … The increased efforts by environmental extremists to close down our forests have caused a huge loss of revenue for our communities and for the folks who live in them.”

Broadsword said water issues and taxes also are major concerns for her. “Many of our seniors are being taxed out of their family homes,” she said. “We must find some form of property tax relief for our citizens on fixed incomes.”

Also in District 2, Shepherd, a retired restaurant/tavern owner, is completing her third term in the House.

“The top issues in District 2 are jobs, taxes and education, and health care is about even with them,” she said. “I work diligently to assure that Idaho is a ‘business-friendly’ state. … District 2 is not seeing prosperity as in some parts of the state. Citizens cannot afford everyday expenses and taxes are a major entity in their lives.”

Schulte is making his first run for office. He wants to abolish judicial confirmation, change county investment practices he believes are unconstitutional and vastly simplify the voter initiative process.

“I will vote against any tax increase legislation, I don’t care what it is,” Schulte said. “That’s my promise.”

He added, “I’m not afraid to speak my piece.”