Two challenge senator in District 2 primary

Four sessions into her duties as Second District Idaho State Senator, Joyce Broadsword is facing not one, but two challengers in the Republican primary.

Broadsword, who represents the sprawling Second District from her home in Cocolalla, won the seat herself back in 2004 when she defeated the Democratic incumbent.

Now Republicans Bill Largen and James Stivers are hoping to repeat history, by defeating Broadsword in the primary. The winner of the May 27 contest will run against Democrat Rand C. Lewis in November.

The district includes part of Bonner County, Shoshone County, Benewah County and part of Kootenai County.

Joyce Broadsword

Joyce Broadsword is married and has three grown children and three grandchildren. She co-owns Northern Log Homes and owns a medical courier business.

She sits on the Senate’s Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee, is vice chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, and is on the Commerce and Human Resources Committee.

Over the past session Broadsword worked to increase the grocery tax credit and to limit personal property taxes. She helped push through legislation to mandate truck use of tire chains on Interstate 90 mountain passes during inclement weather.

Since she was first elected she has been trying to eliminate exemptions to Idaho’s child safety seat laws which now allow children to ride unrestrained if a parent is changing a diaper or feeding a baby or if there aren’t enough seats in the vehicle.

“For me that puts our most vulnerable citizens at risk,” Broadsword said.

She said the size of the district is a challenge, but that she makes sure to visit all parts of it. Since April 1 she has put in 3,500 miles on the campaign trail.

“I think it’s important for the people of my district to see me on a regular basis,” she said.

Broadsword said issues of continuing importance to her constituents include transportation, property tax reform.

She voted to fund a performance evaluation of the Idaho Transportation Department. “I think the results of that will be very telling,” she said.

Idaho homeowners need to be protected from losing their homes when rising property values push property taxes beyond what they are able to afford, Broadsword said, adding that she will continue to support legislation that would cap the amount of property tax homeowners would have to pay.

Broadsword said that her roots are in North Idaho and she hopes to continue representing its residents.

“I work really hard for them because I enjoy it,” she said. “I feel it’s my absolute duty and responsibility to do my best for them.”

Bill Largen

Bill Largen lives near Cocolalla with his wife and two boys. Largen owns a high-tech start-up company that is working to develop sensors to detect contaminants in the air, water and ground. He also helps home-school his children.

Largen has lived in Bonner County for 14 years. He graduated from Washington State University and has served in Iraq as part of the Idaho Army National Guard.

“There’s the people that talk and the people who do,” he said of his decision to run for state Senate.

“The economy in North Idaho is not good and it hasn’t been good for some time,” said Largen, who cites a lack of living-wage jobs and excessive taxes.

Government needs to be more fiscally responsible he said. “In my household, if we don’t have cash, we don’t buy it.”

Largen said that he’d like to say Idaho property taxes eliminated and replaced with sales taxes which are paid for by both residents and visitors.

Idaho could save money on education by investing in computers only at the high school level, while keeping primary and middle school education focused on basics, he said.

He describes himself as a government minimalist who believes that government should be small and leave most jobs to the private sector. He cited bike helmet laws and vehicle emissions testing as examples of unnecessary government regulation.

“We don’t need meddling in the things we can take care of,” Largen said.

James Stivers

James Stivers is a father of seven, who lives with his wife on 30 acres near DeSmet. The couple homeschools the children and Stivers works as a house painter.

“We kind of do the homestead thing,” he said.

He is an ardent supporter of presidential candidate Ron Paul.

“We need to enlarge the base of the Republican Party,” Stivers said. “This is a time when we need to retake the Republican Party and return it to its roots.”

Stivers said the party strayed by running up a huge federal deficit with the war in Iraq and that the Patriot Act offends him because it compromises citizens’ Constitutional liberties.

Stivers’ father served in the military and raised his family in the Midwest, where Stivers first became involved in politics.

He worked on Pat Robertson’s 1988 presidential campaign and for the 1994 “Contract with America.”

Stivers graduated from Lee College in Tennessee and practiced as a clergy member for a time before moving west.

Idaho needs to take back it rights as a state government and keep the federal government from encroaching on those rights, he said.

“Another area of concern is that the state’s resources are for sale to foreign companies,” Stivers said.

The state, he said, could save money on education by having high-schoolers attend school just four days a week.

“I think we’re entering a time where we need more aggressive leadership,” he said of his desire to serve as a state senator. “Sometimes leadership requires faith in your convictions and principles.”