Congress contest starts to shape up

BOISE – A six-way race for the GOP nomination for an open congressional seat – the one representing North Idaho – led to plenty of rancor among the six Republicans duking it out for the nomination, from name-calling to allegations of lying and deceit.

When the dust began to settle Tuesday night, state Rep. Bill Sali of Kuna had the lead in early results, but the votes still were being tallied at press time.

Results were much clearer on the Democratic side, where former Micron Technology vice president and general counsel Larry Grant easily defeated Coeur d’Alene stationery store owner Cecil Kelly III for their party’s nomination.

Grant said he’s running because he believes Republicans in Congress are mired in problems they can’t solve, from immigration to spending to corruption. “Their party’s in trouble right now,” he said, adding that he looked forward to running against “whoever they put up.”

The Republican and Democratic nominees will be joined on the November ballot by one independent, Dave Olson, of St. Maries, and two third-party candidates, Paul Smith of the Constitution Party and Andy Hedden-Nicely of the United/Natural Law Party.

The seat in Congress is open because Butch Otter is giving it up to run for governor, but the GOP slugfest was notable for its nastiness, particularly toward the final stretch of the campaign.

Said political historian Randy Stapilus, “I haven’t seen one in quite a while that’s been as bitterly contested as this one.”

In a debate televised live on Idaho Public TV five days before the primary election, the GOP candidates variously called each other liars, defrauders, closet liberals, tax-raisers, supporters of illegal aliens and violators of Republican principles.

Former State Sen. Sheila Sorensen of Boise said, “I think negative campaigning hurts everybody.” Sorensen, who was running neck and neck with state Controller Keith Johnson for second in early results, said she tried to keep her campaign positive, though she was targeted in independent campaigns by at least two groups supporting Sali. “Tonight we’ll see at the end of the day how much negative campaigning works or doesn’t work,” she said.

Sali, an attorney and eight-term state lawmaker, was ebullient as the early results came in. “This feels darn good,” he said. “If this holds, we should be in pretty good shape.”

Surrounded by dozens of supporters at a Boise hotel, Sali said, “People say a lot of things during a campaign, primaries get a little tense at times.” But in the end, he said, he thought Republicans would come together. “I’m sure I’m going to have a spirited race with Larry Grant.”

Sali ran a campaign that was boosted by an endorsement from the Washington, D.C.-based Club for Growth, whose members across the country helped fill his campaign coffers with more than $400,000. The group also paid independently for TV ads touting Sali and attacking Sorensen and Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez.

After Sorensen and Johnson jostling for second, Vasquez was running next, with candidates Norm Semanko and Skip Brandt trailing.

Johnson said he still hoped to pull ahead and run “a very clean campaign” against Grant. “We can really focus on issues and substance and hopefully move away from some of the negative campaigning we saw in the Republican primary,” he said.

Sali is known for sponsoring anti-abortion legislation in the state Legislature, much of which has been overturned in court. Sorensen, who served in GOP leadership in the state Senate and chaired two Senate committees, made her mark as a moderate, pro-business legislator, but infuriated backers of an anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment by blocking a vote on it in her committee.

Sali insisted the race was between himself and Sorensen, whom Sali derided as a closet liberal. But Sali himself, while loudly proclaiming his conservative credentials, lost his chairmanship of the House Health and Welfare Committee. He also repeatedly clashed with GOP House Speaker Bruce Newcomb.

Vasquez, a two-term Canyon County commissioner who’s tried to bill the Mexican government for the cost of accommodating illegal immigrants in his county and who’s suing local employers for racketeering for hiring illegal workers, focused his campaign on the illegal immigration issue.

With the issue hitting a high point in Congress and President Bush giving a major speech on it just as the congressional primary campaign hit its peak, Vasquez triumphantly noted that all the GOP candidates were talking about the same issue he’s long championed.

“Certainly, regardless of the numbers, I was able to get my message out,” Vasquez said Tuesday night. Idahoans, he said, are “fully aware of the invasion by illegal aliens and the cost that it’s incurring on the citizens of Idaho.”