Hollingsworth announces run for House

A Coeur d’Alene contractor will make his third bid for the Idaho Legislature, seeking the Republican nomination in May to challenge an incumbent Democrat in the fall.

Jim Hollingsworth said Tuesday he will run for the 4th District House seat held by Rep. George Sayler, stressing a platform that calls for lower taxes, smaller government and better education.

“We’re seeing a lot more government involvement,” Hollingsworth said. “We as individuals need to solve our problems.”

Hollingsworth, 67, is a general contractor who said his work mainly involves residential projects. In the past, he has worked at Bunker Hill mines, been a teacher and school administrator and a missionary in Mexico. He ran for the district’s other House seat in 2002 and 2004, losing in the general election the first time and losing the GOP primary to the eventual winner, Marge Chadderdon, in the second.

If elected, Hollingsworth said he’d concentrate some of his efforts on education, where he believes it’s possible to reduce costs and improve schools. He’d push for a reduction in school administrators and counselors, support a plan that would allow 10th-graders who pass the Idaho Standards Achievement Tests to go directly into college or into the work force, and increase the number of students in classrooms by 15 percent.

“There’s no documentation to show a child learns better in a smaller classroom,” he said.

He’s the only Republican thus far to announce a campaign against Sayler.