Despite shared party, candidates spar on several issues

BOISE – The two candidates facing off for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary clashed on cuts to the Health and Welfare Department, raising the sales tax, and bonding for road construction during a televised debate Tuesday night, but they agreed on most other issues.

“We have the greatest respect for one another – no food fights up here,” said former 1st District Congressman Larry LaRocco.

Dan Romero, a 20-year Army veteran and former adjunct instructor at Boise State University, said, “I’m not a career politician but a citizen of Idaho.”

LaRocco said he entered the race because “I said to myself, Idahoans want change. They need leadership that is equal to the vibrancy of the private sector and the economy here. It didn’t do me any good to sit on the sidelines.”

The winner of the Democratic primary will face current Lt. Gov. Jim Risch in November’s election – by that time, Risch is likely to be the sitting governor. He’ll succeed Gov. Dirk Kempthorne in office if Kempthorne is confirmed as secretary of the interior. But Risch decided to become Idaho’s first sitting governor to seek election as lieutenant governor, running for the office he’s held for the past four years. Also in the race is Constitution Party candidate William Charles Wellisch.

LaRocco, who unsuccessfully ran against Risch for state Senate in a hard-fought race in 1986, criticized Risch’s record as lieutenant governor.

“It’s been a hobby for him, and I don’t think we need a hobbyist for lieutenant governor,” LaRocco said. “What I’m talking about here is you’ve got to be a champion, and it’s not just being a part-time lieutenant governor waiting for the heart monitor to go flat so that you can become governor.”

Romero declined to criticize Risch. “Any time you’re in a leadership position, you’re always going to rub people right and going to rub people wrong,” he said.

Romero called for cutting top leadership at the state Department of Health and Welfare by 30 percent, saying the state’s largest department is “top-heavy.” LaRocco countered, “I think we’re pretty lean and mean in our bureaucracy here,” and said he instead would push to include more children in the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

LaRocco said he’ll vote for the initiative on November’s ballot to raise Idaho’s sales tax a penny to increase funding for schools and then push to exclude groceries and pharmaceuticals from the tax and ensure that other school funding isn’t cut to offset the increase.

Romero said: “The sales tax is probably one of the most regressive taxes we have, and you’re attacking the poorest of our community. I believe we need to look at different forms of taxing, and I don’t believe the sales tax is equitable.”

LaRocco said there will be a shortfall in transportation funding as Idaho grows, but Romero said he opposes bonding for highway improvements. “I honestly believe you pay as you go,” he said.

Both candidates called for new efforts to target methamphetamine and increase drug treatment. Both said they oppose the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment as redundant, since Idaho already outlaws the practice, and both supported protection for property rights through restrictions on eminent domain powers.

Both also were critical of the state Board of Education.

“I’ve got a suggestion for Jim Risch when he becomes governor: I think what he ought to do is call for the resignation of every member of the state school board,” LaRocco said. “I think that would really help education in the state. They’re just not connecting with people at the local level.”

Romero said, “I would like to see the day that we would have the state Board of Education selling cookie dough and candy bars for their supplies and not our children.”

The primary election is May 23.