In Idaho, Republican congressmen have had a sense of entitlement for the last eight years to return home as the state’s duly anointed governor.

U.S. Sen. Dirk Kempthorne took the baton from Gov. Phil Batt and handed it off for safe-keeping to Lt. Gov. Jim Risch when Kempthorne left office early to become the Interior secretary in the Bush administration. If all goes according to plan for the Republicans, Risch will give the baton to U.S. Rep. Butch Otter in January – and then wait his turn until he gets a clear shot at the governor’s seat in four or eight years, if he’s still interested.

Multimillionaire Otter is acting like the governor-elect already, opting for a Rose Garden strategy that keeps him away from Democratic challenger Jerry Brady and two other candidates as much as possible. In an Associated Press article, political science expert Jim Weatherby termed Otter’s strategy “good politics.” Weatherby said: “Otter is hard to pin down.”

Otter may be pursuing a sure-fire strategy to win an election in a solid Republican state. But it isn’t a strategy that inspires confidence that he will be a “buck-stops-here” governor like Risch or that he’ll run an open government. Opponent Brady, meanwhile, has a long record of accomplishment in both the public and private arenas, ranging from his days as a law student who founded a small-business assistance program in Latin America to his role as a newspaper owner in establishing a job-creation program in southeastern Idaho. He’s a visionary in the mold of former Gov. Cecil Andrus. As governor, he’d be a check on a supermajority of Republican legislators who at times run amok. Brady’s not a career politician like Otter. He’s simply the better candidate.

Otter, of course, deserves kudos for his principled stand as a freshman congressman after the Sept. 11 attacks in warning America of the possible dangers of the Patriot Act. Otter was the only Republican to speak against the Patriot Act when it was first proposed. However, his decision to fill in wetlands on his property without proper permits before he became a congressman is a continuing cause of concern, as is his initial support for selling public lands in Idaho to fund hurricane relief and his failure to appear for a key vote on an Idaho wilderness bill that had bipartisan support this year. Otter’s list of accomplishments during his three terms is unimpressive. Two of the four bills in which he was the primary sponsor called for renaming buildings in Boise.

Brady, by contrast, has gotten things done his entire adult life, in a variety of venues, from serving as a spokesman for the Peace Corps to establishing a law practice in Washington, D.C., that specialized in international trade, natural gas imports and energy conservation. From helping create thousands of jobs in Idaho Falls by founding an economic development council to organizing a program that led to a $1 million initiative for early childhood development in eastern Idaho. As a former Idaho Falls Post Register editorialist and publisher, Brady established his credentials as an advocate for schools, Indian gaming and Idaho’s poor.

No one is entitled to the governor’s job.

Otter would be more colorful as governor. Brady would be more effective.