Lewis makes it three Democrats after Otter’s seat
Rand Lewis, former director of the Martin Institute at the University of Idaho, is planning to announce this week that he’ll run for the 1st District congressional seat as a Democrat. Already in the Democratic race is Larry Grant of Fruitland, a former Micron Technology vice president; and Coeur d’Alene businessman Cecil Kelly.
Lewis, 58, now lives in Coeur d’Alene, where he has a family real estate appraisal business and also operates a consulting firm on his specialties, counterterrorism and homeland security. “My feeling is that whoever wins the nomination for the Democratic Party, we’re all going to jump right behind him and make very sure that a Democrat gets to go to Washington and represent the 1st District,” said Lewis, who’s originally from Moscow.
Meanwhile, Grant issued a press release this week calling for a “House cleaning” in Congress over recent ethics scandals. “Clamping down on lobbyists and promoting full disclosure to voters is great,” Grant said, “but that really doesn’t go far enough. We need to be able to enforce the rules. … We need a viable Ethics Committee.”
In other 1st District news, former state Sen. Sheila Sorensen, one of the six announced Republican candidates, has announced that she’s been endorsed by former Idaho Sen. Steve Symms. Symms, who served in the U.S. House and Senate from 1973 to 1993, is an ultraconservative with a libertarian streak. “I have nothing against the other candidates, but I believe Sheila is the best one for the job,” Symms said in a statement. “I know she would do a great job in Congress.”
The other Republican candidates are state Sen. Skip Brandt of Kooskia; state Controller Keith Johnson; state Rep. Bill Sali of Kuna; Idaho Water Users Association head Norm Semanko; and Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez. The open seat is being vacated by U.S. Rep. Butch Otter, who is running for governor.
‘Funny ideas’
UI President Tim White was addressing the House Education Committee last week when Rep. Pete Nielsen, R-Mountain Home, asked him why colleges and their “funny ideas” have been undermining the U.S. economy and society.
“When we approached the late ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, a certain thing started to happen at the colleges that has proven to me to be detrimental to some extent, that we got from the colleges funny ideas about the environment, funny ideas about animals, and et cetera, et cetera,” Nielsen told White. He cited “the white owl and the suckerfish in the Klamath Falls area,” and noted that “some of these scenarios … came from higher ed to begin with … or from Berkeley in particular.”
White responded, “The role of the universities is not to make public policy – that is your role, that is the federal role. The role of the university is to inform that policy” through science and research.
Show him the money
Recently, I watched “Idaho Reports” with my 12-year-old son, and he distinctly heard the governor promise to send a $50 check to every “man, woman and child” in Idaho. He perked right up. “I’m a child,” he said. “I want my 50 bucks!”
I explained that he’s paid neither the power bill, for which the governor’s rebate is supposed to make up, nor the taxes. He thought about that for a while, then said, “Well, you wouldn’t get it if it weren’t for me. So I’m willing to give you half.”
When I told that story to a group of legislators, one advised, “Tell him not to spend it yet.” Another suggested that my 12-year-old was the first person he’d heard of who actually supports the governor’s initiative. Bottom line? The governor’s $50-a-head energy rebate isn’t getting much traction in the Legislature.
The meaning of life
Sen. Mel Richardson, R-Idaho Falls, had this question Monday in the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting: “I just kind of want to know, what is the meaning of life? … What does life mean?”
It actually wasn’t a philosophical question – Richardson was wondering whether Attorney General Lawrence Wasden’s bill to set mandatory minimum life sentences for designated violent sexual predators who reoffend really meant what it said. It did.