Ex-elk rancher running for U.S. Senate

BOISE – He’s been called a “bad actor” – and worse – for his long-standing resistance to state regulation on his eastern Idaho elk ranch, where customers pay top dollar to take aim at trophy bulls inside the fenced property and where more than 100 domesticated elk escaped last fall.

Now Rex Rammell wants to add another description: U.S. senator.

“Elk ranching taught me how government can really take away our dreams,” Rammell said Tuesday as he announced his candidacy in Boise. “I’m a fighter, there’s no question about that.”

Rammell, 46, said he’s running for U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s seat, but he’s assuming Craig will retire. Craig hasn’t announced whether he’ll seek another term. His office said Tuesday he’ll do so in late summer or fall. If Craig decides to run for re-election, Rammell said, “I’ll have to seriously reconsider.”

Also in the race is Democrat Larry LaRocco. Lt. Gov. Jim Risch says he’ll likely run if Craig retires but would support a Craig re-election bid.

“For myself, there’s no asterisk next to my name or contingency,” LaRocco said. “I’m running regardless of whether there’s a retirement or what the situation is.”

Rammell, who wore a stars-and-stripes tie for his announcement, said his escaped domestic elk were “needlessly and cruelly destroyed” at Risch’s order. Risch, governor at the time, said he was just following state law, and that doing otherwise would have violated his oath of office.

Rammell was arrested twice in the tussle over the state-ordered hunt for his escaped elk, which state Fish and Game officials feared could spread disease or genetic contamination to Idaho’s wild elk herds. He was acquitted both times and has filed a $1.3 million tort claim against the state over the incident.

“Elk ranching is controversial to some people, but to a lot of people it’s simply a matter of private property,” Rammell said. “That was my position.”

A veterinarian by training, Rammell has since sold the elk ranch and plans to campaign full time. His only previous runs for office were two unsuccessful bids for a legislative seat, in 2002 and 2004.

“The elk incident has definitely given me motivation to run for the United States Senate,” Rammell said. “What happened to me last fall, I don’t ever want to see it happen to anybody again.”

Rammell said he felt he had to announce now, even though Craig’s intentions aren’t yet clear, because of how long it takes to raise money and win name recognition in a major campaign. “In a race of this significance, it would be foolish of me to wait,” Rammell said.

He’s also savoring the idea of running against Risch in the GOP primary. “If it weren’t for what happened last fall with Jim Risch’s signature on an executive order to destroy my elk, I wouldn’t be standing here today,” Rammell said. But he added, “For a long time I have wanted to get into politics. … The actual truth is I would rather be a senator than an elk rancher.”

In the midst of the controversy last fall, Rammell’s daughter, Amanda, was crowned Miss Idaho-USA, and announced that she’d refuse to have her photo taken with then-Gov. Risch because of the dispute.

Rammell said he’s a believer in Idaho’s Republican Party platform. “I think the Republican Party has drifted a little bit, to be right honest with you, to the center,” he said. “I’d like to bring it back to the right, where it should be.”

He noted current Gov. Butch Otter’s repeated run-ins with federal agencies over his violations of the Clean Water Act at his ranch in Star, for which Otter eventually paid tens of thousands in fines. “He stood up and fought government and look what he’s become,” Rammell said. “I don’t see myself as any different.”