Otter to reimburse Simplot for jet ride to game
BOISE – Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter has asked to be billed for a flight he and first lady Lori Otter took on the J.R. Simplot Co.’s private jet to the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona on Monday, his first day on the job.
After inquiries Thursday afternoon, Otter’s staff called executives at the agricultural conglomerate and requested a bill for the flight.
“We don’t know how much it is because we haven’t received a bill for that,” said Jon Hanian, an Otter spokesman.
Otter is the former son-in-law of J.R. Simplot, the family-owned company’s founder.
He was married to Simplot’s daughter, Gay Simplot, until their divorce in 1993. They have four children. Otter was a Simplot executive from 1965 until 1993.
According to Idaho law, gifts to public servants from persons subject to their jurisdiction are allowed if they are “conferred on account of kinship or other personal, professional or business relationship independent of the official status of the receiver.”
Fred Zerza, a Simplot spokesman, confirmed the governor and his second wife were among those on the eight-passenger, two-pilot Hawker jet that departed for Phoenix on New Year’s Day from the Simplot air depot at the Boise Airport. The travel party included J.R. Simplot, whose 2006 fortune is estimated by Forbes magazine at $3.2 billion, his wife, Esther, as well as J.R. Simplot’s son, Don Simplot, two Simplot family friends, and Otter and his wife.
“He’s a former employee of the company and he asked the Simplots if there was a possibility he could come down,” said Zerza. “It was hitching a ride to get to the game, down and back, no other amenities at all.”
Zerza said the company doesn’t have an expectation of reimbursement when it provides an Idaho governor with a flight on one of its three jets.
Former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne has used a Simplot jet, Zerza confirmed, adding past governors including Cecil Andrus have also flown on one of the company’s aircraft. He didn’t know if they reimbursed the company.
Otter, a Republican, traveled to the game in Glendale, Ariz., on the invitation of Boise State University President Bob Kustra, Hanian said.
After the inquiry from the AP, Otter’s office called the Idaho attorney general’s office to ask whether receiving a flight on a jet owned by a private company met the requirements of Idaho law.
Since 2002, Otter, who served three terms as a U.S. representative from western Idaho, has received at least $12,400 in campaign contributions from J.R. Simplot, his wife, other family members or the company, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, based in Washington, D.C., and campaign finance records filed with the Idaho secretary of state.
Otter’s personal fortune is worth up to about $12.5 million, according to financial disclosures filed while he was in Congress.
That he was given space on the private jet was solely the result of his long-standing personal relationship with the Simplot family, Hanian said.
“This isn’t like a lobbyist situation. They have a relationship. It has been in the past a family relationship,” Hanian said. “This is different from a lobbyist trying to curry favor. The implication there is just not accurate.”
Zerza said Otter and others aboard the flight had expected to return to Boise shortly after the game, which Boise State University won 43-42 over Oklahoma.
But their flight was delayed several hours after J.R. Simplot, who turned 98 Thursday, fell from his motorized scooter as he was leaving University of Phoenix Stadium and struck his head.
J.R. Simplot regained consciousness Wednesday and was in stable condition after undergoing surgery at a Phoenix hospital.