Grant, Sali will debate at NIC

The two leading candidates in a much-watched race for North Idaho’s open congressional seat will face off in their first head-to-head debate Friday in Coeur d’Alene.

The debate, sponsored by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the North Idaho College Popcorn Forum, is free and open to the public. It will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Lake Coeur d’Alene Room of NIC’s Edminster Student Union Building.

NIC political scientist and Popcorn Forum coordinator Tony Stewart said the Coeur d’Alene Tribe deserves credit for setting up what should be a lively debate.

“It’s the first one between these two candidates, so it’s getting a lot of attention,” Stewart said.

Democrat Larry Grant, a former vice president of Micron Technology, will debate Republican Bill Sali, a longtime state representative from Kuna. Both men are attorneys, and both are seeking to represent Idaho’s 1st District, which includes all of North Idaho and the western half of the rest of the state.

Also running for the seat are independent Dave Olson, United/Natural Law Party candidate Andy Hedden-Nicely and Constitution Party candidate Paul Smith.

But the face-off between the two major-party candidates has drawn national attention, in part because it’s considered a competitive race with an uncertain outcome. Stewart said national experts have picked out just 45 of the 435 congressional races this year as being “in play,” and “this is one of them.”

Sali won a bitter six-way Republican primary with 25.8 percent of the vote to become his party’s nominee. Grant defeated Coeur d’Alene businessman Cecil Kelly III with 74.8 percent to win his party’s nomination.

“All indication is that it is a competitive race and could go either way,” Stewart said.

The national attention on the race comes in part because Democrats and Republicans are vying for control of the U.S. House, where their numbers are fairly closely split but Republicans now hold a majority.

Issues in the race range from immigration to public land management to the war in Iraq. Just this week, the two candidates clashed over Sali’s call for making English the official language of the United States, which Grant called a “diversion” from more important issues such as federal spending, corruption and Iraq.

The 1st District seat is open because its current occupant, three-term GOP Rep. Butch Otter, is giving it up to run for governor. The election is Nov. 7.