Minnick primes the pump with voters
Cars started lining up at 8:30 a.m. for what may be the most popular stunt of the campaign season: Congressional candidate Walt Minnick’s $2.26-a-gallon gas sale.
From 10 to 11 a.m. on a sunny spring morning, Minnick made up the difference between the sale price of $2.26 and the posted price of $3.59 at a Boise gas station. Minnick, a Democrat, timed his event to coincide with incumbent GOP Rep. Bill Sali’s $1,000-a-plate “oil and gas industry luncheon” fundraiser in Washington, D.C. ($250 for individuals, $1,000 for PACs).
“For one hour today, while I’m talking to Idahoans about the high cost of gasoline, Bill Sali will sit down to lunch at a fundraiser and ask for money from oil lobbyists,” Minnick declared. “In 18 months he’s become a true Washington insider. What Idaho needs is a new approach and some simple fairness.”
Minnick campaign signs festooned the Chevron station, where the line of cars snaked through a shopping center parking lot, and police were on hand to monitor traffic. About 350 vehicles, a few of them sporting bright-yellow “Bill Sali” stickers, came through the gas sale in about 90 minutes – those who were in line when the hour-long sale ended still were allowed to fill up – and the motorists purchased 3,230 gallons of fuel and saved $4,259.
David Sizemore said his daughter called to alert her disabled dad about the low-priced gas, and he made sure to be there to fill up. As for Minnick, Sizemore said, “I haven’t heard of him at all.” But asked if he’s more likely now to consider supporting Minnick over Sali, Sizemore said, “Oh, heck yeah! I think everybody’s going to – this is what everybody needs, is our economy to get back on its feet, and this is the way to do it.”
Meanwhile, the Idaho Republican Party put out a press release criticizing Minnick’s event, saying, “This was a clever way to generate publicity for his campaign, but it does nothing to bring down the price of gas.”
And Sali’s spokesman, Wayne Hoffman, said, “Radical environmentalists and left-wing Democrats are directly responsible for the high gas prices we are experiencing today.”
As to why Sali was holding a luncheon fundraiser with the oil and gas industry, Hoffman said, “They are business people, and Congressman Sali has an excellent voting record in supporting businesses big and small. He understands that raising taxes on businesses is not going to result in lower gas prices.”
Phenneger puts in $100k of own money
Idaho U.S. Senate candidate Richard Phenneger of Post Falls says he’s loaned his campaign “almost $100,000,” but his fundraising is picking up and he’s starting to pay off the loan. He financed his campaign “with a lot of my own money to start with on it,” Phenneger told Eye on Boise. “But I think a lot of that’s going to get replaced.”
On the last campaign finance report, which covered the period from Jan. 1 to March 31, Phenneger, a Republican, had reported $9,675 in individual contributions and $29,770 in loans of his own funds, but he said he added to that significantly in April.
He isn’t the only one in the race for the seat now held by Sen. Larry Craig to draw on his own funds. Republican Jim Risch loaned his campaign $380,000 and reported $456,859 in individual contributions and $291,900 in PAC contributions for a cash-on-hand total at the close of the period of $935,876. Independent candidate Rex Rammell, who initially announced as a Republican, reported loaning his campaign $140,000 from Jan. 1 to March 31, in addition to receiving $7,802 in individual contributions.
Democratic candidate Larry LaRocco didn’t put in any of his own funds but reported receiving $281,389 in individual contributions during the period plus $125,419 in PAC contributions.
The only other candidates in the race to file campaign finance reports were Republicans Scott Syme, who reported no contributions in the period but spent $36,435, and Neal Thompson, who reported a single $1,000 contribution from a McCall resident and put in $200 of his own funds.
Of toxic sand and politics
How is it that 6,700 tons of sand contaminated with depleted uranium and lead – 80 rail cars worth – is coming all the way from Kuwait to Idaho, destined for a hazardous waste dump 70 miles southeast of Boise? The Associated Press reports that American Ecology Corp., operator of the dump, has previously disposed of low-level radioactive waste and hazardous materials from U.S. military bases overseas at facilities in Idaho, Nevada and Texas, according to American Ecology spokesman Chad Hyslop, who is based in Boise.
“As you can imagine, the host countries of those bases don’t want the waste in their country,” Hyslop told the AP. The sand is coming from Camp Doha, a U.S. Army base in Kuwait, where it was contaminated after military vehicles and munitions caught fire during the first Iraq war.
American Ecology Corp., operator of the hazardous waste dump, has been a generous donor to Idaho politicians’ campaigns. Most recently, the firm’s PAC, AEC PAC, gave $2,300 to Idaho Republican Jim Risch’s U.S. Senate campaign and $500 to the re-election campaign of state House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, R-Star. Both those contributions were in November.
Since 2002, AEC PAC has donated $3,000 to Sen. Larry Craig; $4,500 to Sen. Mike Crapo, $1,750 to U.S. Rep. Bill Sali; and $3,000 to U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, all Republicans.
The PAC also gave $1,000 to Risch’s lieutenant governor campaign in 2006; $5,000 to Gov. Butch Otter’s gubernatorial campaign in 2005; $3,100 to Otter’s congressional campaigns from 2002 to 2004; and contributions to an array of state legislative candidates from both parties.
The firm also employs a prominent Boise lobbyist to represent the firm in the Idaho Legislature, Roy Eiguren.