Minnick calls Sali ‘fringe’
Democrat cites vote against bridge bill
NAMPA, Idaho – In his bid to portray Republican Rep. Bill Sali as a U.S. House extremist, Democratic challenger Walt Minnick on Wednesday found a blazing-hot dirt parking lot in this southwestern Idaho sugar beet town where TV news cameras had a clear shot of an aging Interstate 84 bridge.
Minnick decided to feature the bridge – considered “structurally deficient” by highway officials – in a campaign appearance after Sali was on the losing side of a 367-55 July 24 House vote approving the National Highway Bridge Reconstruction & Inspection Act. That bill is meant to create tougher standards for inspections and add $1 billion to help fix the nation’s most-dilapidated spans.
Minnick said the vote confirms that his rival belongs to that sliver of House lawmakers who are unwilling to consider compromise, even when public safety is at stake. A 66-year-old former timber industry executive, Minnick is following a strategy Idaho Democrats have tried before: brand himself a can-do pragmatist facing an unapologetic extremist in hopes of ending a 14-year run where western Idaho’s 1st Congressional District voters have sent iconoclasts Helen Chenoweth, now-Gov. Butch Otter and Sali to Washington, D.C.
“He’s part of the lunatic fringe,” Minnick said. “My guess is, almost 100 percent of the people of Idaho want structurally deficient bridges repaired as soon as we can.”
Two years ago, in the race for the then-open 1st District seat, Democrat Larry Grant’s campaign railed against Sali’s 16-year record in the Idaho Legislature, where he promoted a tough anti-gay rights stance, an anti-abortion agenda and got crossways with his own Republican leadership, including state House Speaker Bruce Newcomb. Grant still lost by more than 5 percentage points.
In the 1996 and 1998 1st District races, Democrat Dan Williams scolded Republican Chenoweth for what he called similar stubbornness at the expense of progress. Chenoweth beat Williams both times.
Jasper LiCalzi, a professor of political economy at the College of Idaho in Caldwell, deep in Sali’s district, said one reason for the winners’ success is that Idaho voters love a “standing at the breach” attitude. Chenoweth, for instance, once accused federal agents of using black helicopter gunships to harass ranchers.
“They said, ‘She’s a wacko. She’s out of the mainstream. She’s extremist,’ ” LiCalzi recalled. “But Idahoans love that kind of individualistic mentality. With Sali, he may be trying to be like Davy Crockett at the Alamo: He gets killed, but he stands for what he believes in.”
Sali aides said Wednesday that Minnick’s characterization of Sali’s bridge inspection bill vote as a blow to public safety unfairly simplifies a complex debate to score cheap political points.
Sali, a 54-year-old lawyer, voted against the $1 billion bridge bill because of his concern that provisions in it could limit the Idaho Transportation Department’s ability to transfer federal bridge funding to other necessary programs – concerns raised by groups including the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Sali spokesman Wayne Hoffman said.
“The problem with this bill is that it actually ties the hands of the states that have to deal with this issue,” Hoffman said, adding of Minnick’s effort to make campaign hay, “I understand what they’re doing, but they’re not being straight with people.”
Jeff Stratten, a state Transportation Department spokesman, said the term “structurally deficient” has become commonplace among highway engineers after the Aug. 1, 2007, collapse of a busy Minneapolis bridge that killed 13 people.
“The term does not mean that a bridge is unsafe,” Stratten said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. “Structurally deficient means that a bridge is no longer in an ideal condition. Bridges rated structurally deficient are inspected annually by the Transportation Department.”
Back at the Nampa bridge, Minnick, whose ads show him hunting and fishing, activities almost sacred in Idaho, pointed out that five-term U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, voted for the July 24 bill.
“I don’t think bridges are Democratic or Republican,” Minnick said. “Congressman Simpson in this case showed a similar concern and a similar attitude of pragmatism.”
Sali votes most of the time with Simpson and Idaho’s other two Republican lawmakers, U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Larry Craig, Hoffman said. Still, he won’t apologize for not being in lock step.
“Bill Sali was elected to represent Idahoans in the 1st Congressional District,” Hoffman said. “What’s being said is, ‘Bill should accept the lousy legislation that Congress is doling out.’ ”