Risch running for U.S. Senate

BOISE – Former Idaho Gov. Jim Risch launched his campaign for Larry Craig’s U.S. Senate seat Tuesday, even as Craig continues to fight for his political life in Washington, D.C.

Idaho Republicans closed ranks around Risch, with state party Chairman Kirk Sullivan and all but one of the top GOP state elected officials joining Risch for his announcement and endorsing his run – even though the primary election still is seven months away.

“It was the right thing do to – we have got to elect a Republican senator next year,” Sullivan said. “We are going to have to fight very hard.”

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, who is co-chairing Risch’s campaign along with former Gov. Phil Batt, said, “I think that’s an appropriate role for the party chairman in unusual circumstances like this.”

Risch had been a leading contender to replace Craig if the senator stepped down, as he said earlier he’d do. Craig was arrested in a Minneapolis airport men’s room in a sex-solicitation sting in June and pleaded guilty in August. When news reports surfaced, he denied wrongdoing but said he’d resign from the Senate on Sept. 30 unless he could clear his name first. Though a bid in court to withdraw his guilty plea failed, Craig decided last week to stay in office.

On Tuesday, Craig’s office announced that two staffers in Washington, D.C., are jumping ship, at least one of them to join another congressional staff. Craig’s communications director, Dan Whiting, said Craig was in the Boise area Tuesday but had no comment on Risch’s announcement.

Democratic candidate Larry LaRocco, who has been running for the seat since April 11, held a jubilant press conference just after Risch’s, saying his campaign is right on track. “Bring ‘em on,” he said of the Republicans.

LaRocco lost to Risch last year in a race for lieutenant governor, but the former Democratic congressman said he started late in that race. In Boise, Risch told a cheering crowd of close to 100, “The bottom line is, I’m in.” He also flew to Idaho Falls and Coeur d’Alene for announcements Tuesday.

In response to questions from reporters, Risch said he’d spoken to Craig only once after the senior senator’s press conference in which he announced his “intent” to resign from the Senate.

“Certainly there’s no doubt that this has been a time of considerable personal suffering for both Sen. Craig and especially for his family,” Risch said. “Having said that, it’s really time for Idaho to move forward. … I’m prepared to lead us forward.”

Other than Craig, the only statewide elected official who didn’t attend Risch’s announcement in Boise was state Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, who was seen as Risch’s close rival for a possible appointment to the seat. Wasden’s office said he was in St. Louis on Tuesday, where he was moderating an antitrust symposium at the 100th anniversary gathering of the National Association of Attorneys General. Wasden is the president of the national group.

Every statewide elected official in Idaho is a Republican, as is the state’s four-member congressional delegation. But LaRocco, a former two-term 1st District congressman, sees an opening for a Democrat, as the longtime Sen. Craig retires amid a wave of negative publicity.

“I think it does give me an advantage, and I think it puts us on a level playing field,” LaRocco said of himself and Risch.

LaRocco has been campaigning in part by putting in a day each at various jobs around the state, from garbage hauler to nursing aide to factory worker. “I’m going to continue working shoulder-to-shoulder with people in Idaho and listening to what they have to say,” he said.

Risch, a longtime state senator who also has twice been elected lieutenant governor, served seven months as governor last year after then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne was named Secretary of the Interior. During his brief tenure, he pushed through property tax cuts funded by a sales tax increase; wrote a new plan for managing the state’s roadless areas; reorganized the giant state Health and Welfare department and more.

“People tell me I’m a really quick learner,” Risch said. “As you saw, we hit the ground running when I became governor. … I would hope, if I’m elected, to do the same thing as a United States senator.”

Longtime Idaho political observer Jim Weatherby, an emeritus political scientist at Boise State University, said the big, united GOP push for Risch may be designed to push Craig toward resigning after all. If Risch were appointed to the seat before the end of Craig’s term, he’d come into the 2008 race with an edge, gaining seniority and running as an incumbent.

“I’m wondering if this might serve that function,” Weatherby said. “That may or may not be the intended result, but that has to be on people’s minds.”

Weatherby noted that it’s unusual for a state party chairman to endorse a candidate long before his own party’s primary election. Former eastern Idaho elk rancher Rex Rammell already has announced he’ll run for the seat as a Republican, and 29 Republicans, including Risch, were on Gov. Butch Otter’s publicly announced list of possible appointees to replace Craig in the Senate if he resigned.