House hopefuls trade barbs

BOISE – The six Republican candidates running for Idaho’s 1st Congressional District seat dropped all pretenses of intraparty good will Thursday night, calling each other liars, pawns of special interest groups and closet liberals during a statewide televised debate.

The tense exchanges and snide remarks highlighted the unpredictability of the marquee race in next week’s Idaho primary election. One of six GOP candidates will face the winner of a two-way Democratic primary between Larry Grant and Cecil Kelly in November to fill the congressional seat being vacated by incumbent Republican Rep. C.L. “Butch” Otter, who is running for governor.

Most of the sniping centered around the three perceived leaders in the GOP race – state Rep. Bill Sali, Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez and former state Sen. Sheila Sorensen. But the others – state Controller Keith Johnson, former congressional staffer Norm Semanko and state Sen. Skip Brandt – also supplied frequent barbs during the 90-minute go-round.

Vasquez and Sorensen blasted television ads sponsored by the Washington-based political action committee Club for Growth, which has endorsed Sali and helped him amass the largest campaign warchest in the race. The ads criticize Sorensen and Vasquez for voting in favor of tax increases, something both candidates called false and misleading.

“That was a sales tax that was temporary. I have never voted for a permanent general-fund increase in all the years I was in the Legislature,” Sorensen told Sali after he challenged her conservative credentials. Sali also told Vasquez that he has been “masquerading as a conservative,” and asked him why he thought Sali’s criticism of Vasquez’ vote in favor of a property-tax increase was wrong.

“I have not taken exception to your claim; I stated it was a flat-out lie,” said Vasquez, adding he had voted to raise county property taxes just $14 during his nearly four-year tenure. “Certainly the Club for Growth is a proponent of cheap labor and they have purchased their candidate in this election.”

Vasquez, who lost a leg while serving in the military in Vietnam, was the only candidate who questioned the Bush administration’s strategy in the Iraq war. “It is very easy for someone who has never seen war to cavalierly commit to it,” he said. “I think it’s time to re-evaluate our mission in Iraq.”

Johnson was one of several candidates who cast aspersions on the source of Sali’s campaign fund, which totaled more than $400,000 according to the most recent federal report.

“Well over 80 percent of the money you have raised for financing your campaign has come from out-of-state interests and I would ask you how you can represent the people of the 1st District when you have so little support coming from within the district?” Johnson said.

Responded Sali: “I think the people of this district want the same things as those people who are giving to me – they want lower taxes and smaller government.”

Johnson countered that Club for Growth had spent $200,000 opposing Otter when he ran for Congress, adding “that (convicted former lobbyist) Jack Abramoff has shown special interest groups cannot be trusted and I do not believe Club for Growth can be trusted.”

Brandt challenged Johnson’s support of President Bush’s call for line-item presidential veto power, something that was struck down by the Supreme Court eight years ago as unconstitutional.

“Are there any other congressional powers granted by the U.S. Constitution that you’d give up?” asked Brandt. Johnson replied he supports presidential veto authority as a way of reining in unchecked federal spending by a Republican-dominated Congress.

“Republicans have not done a good job of managing the budget,” Johnson said.

Semanko said he would resurrect a proposal to amend the Constitution to require Congress to balance the federal budget and then chided Sali for believing he could effect change in the U.S. House by being part of a group of ultraconservatives known as the Republican Study Committee.

“You have to work with all 435 members of Congress, not just the 100 you have as your friends,” Semanko told Sali.

But Sali focused most of his animus toward Sorensen, saying she has a “100 percent pro-abortion record” and is being “openly endorsed by Democrats.”

“The race is between Bill Sali, a conservative, and Sheila Sorensen, a liberal,” Sali said. Sorensen countered that she is personally opposed to abortion but supports the current statutes allowing it, adding that Sali’s anti-abortion stance is “a far radical point of view.”