Kempthorne risks staining his legacy

Gov. Dirk Kempthorne will be known as the governor who forced the reluctant 2005 Idaho Legislature to fix dangerous U.S. Highway 95.

In North Idaho, he’s also a welcome friend who has supported Indian gaming as an economic tool and stood by Coeur d’Alene and hard-pressed communities in the Coeur d’Alene Basin that fought against the Environmental Protection Agency’s push to designate the entire watershed as a Superfund site.

As a former University of Idaho student body president, Kempthorne understands North Idaho issues and has been supported solidly twice by region voters.

However, the governor has embraced a practice that’s as widespread as it is questionable – charging expenses such as lunches, coffee, gifts and travel to his campaign credit card. Although he’s not running for re-election, he’s still able to collect donations from major corporations, such as Albertson’s, Micron Technology and Qwest Corp. In the first 30 months of his second term, according to columnist Dan Popkey of the Idaho Statesman, Kempthorne has charged $70,604 in personal expenses on his campaign credit card – almost the exact amount he still owes from his 2002 campaign.

As Kempthorne’s final term winds down, he risks staining his solid legacy as governor by refusing to relinquish his campaign charge card, which raises questions when he supports legislation favoring his “slush fund” donors, as he did this year. Unquestionably, governors face some personal expenses that their constituents don’t. But they also receive considerably more money than most state residents – in Kempthorne’s case, $98,500 a year in salary, plus a $4,500 monthly housing allowance. Kempthorne and other governors should be able to live within their means without campaign perks.

Of note, Kempthorne, as a state of Idaho employee, is allowed to seek reimbursement for legitimate expenses incurred while conducting state business. He uses his campaign card for regular hamburger lunches – 88 for the first six months of the year, according to columnist Popkey – Starbucks coffee, gifts, books, rental cars and on and on. Imagine what your boss would say if you tried to gain reimbursement for frequent, non-business lunches at McDonald’s.

Kempthorne’s reliance on his campaign card has provided fodder for cynics and partisan political foes. Idaho Democratic Party Chairman Richard Stallings, for example, has asked the Internal Revenue Service in writing for an opinion whether the purchases should be treated as taxable income.

Former Democratic state Sen. Jim Hansen of United Vision for Idaho told The Spokesman-Review: “If one of his department heads had this fund where he was accepting money from people who do business with the department and then was spending it on whatever he needed, meals, etc., that’d be a clear violation of Idaho’s ethics laws and he’d probably be fired.”

To his credit, Kempthorne has disclosed all his nickel-and-dime expenses in his finance statements. Some appear to be political expenses that should by covered by campaign contributions. Some, but not all. In a state where low incomes prevail, the governor has set a bad example by accepting this perk.