Phenneger joins Senate race

Post Falls businessman Richard Phenneger commissioned a poll that showed only 21 percent of Idahoans were satisfied with the two major-party frontrunners for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat – Republican Jim Risch and Democrat Larry LaRocco – and now Phenneger’s running too. Phenneger, a retired airline and military pilot who’s built a career developing employee stock ownership plans for companies throughout the country, is a Republican; click here for my full story on his candidacy and his statewide poll, conducted by Robinson Research of Spokane. That brings the field of announced Republicans in the open-seat race up to five. In addition to Phenneger and Risch, there’s former eastern Idaho elk rancher Rex Rammell, Caldwell real estate broker and Iraq veteran Scott Syme, and former Caldwell city councilman Kent Marmon.