In her run for governor, Kemp eschews parties

BOISE – Former GOP state Rep. Jana Kemp has launched her independent campaign for governor, now that she’s surpassed the number of required verified signatures on her petition for candidacy by several hundred. Candidates for governor of Idaho can either collect more than 1,000 verified voter signatures or pay a $300 fee to get on the ballot.

Kemp says she’ll run on “a platform of jobs, education, energy, fairness and responsibility.”

The 44-year-old businesswoman and author cited a recent national poll showing most Americans don’t have faith in either party’s leaders to solve the nation’s problems.

“This is the perfect time for an independent to run for governor in Idaho and the need has never been greater,” she said. “We know the popularity of the Democratic Party isn’t high in Idaho and the infighting in the Republican party has created a lack of leadership and many pro-business, pro-entrepreneurial and very religious people feel the Republican Party has left them.”

Kemp, who served one term in the state House representing Boise before losing to a Democrat, said she thinks “the nuts and bolts of good governance are best kept free from partisan influences.”

Kemp is one of two independent candidates seeking to challenge GOP incumbent Gov. Butch Otter in this year’s race; the other is Pro-Life, who was known as Marvin Richardson before he legally changed his name to the slogan.

Also in the race are Republicans Sharon Ullman, Rex Rammell and Ron “Pete” Peterson; and Democrats Keith Allred and Lee R. Chaney Sr.

Guv in spat with AARP

On the verge of Idaho’s legislative session – which starts Monday – Gov. Butch Otter has gotten into a spat with the state’s senior citizens.

First, over the holidays, Otter sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi decrying the health care reform bills passed by both houses of Congress, along with the “deal making, arm twisting and the ends-justifying-the-means attitude that we saw throughout the process and recent votes.” The governor said he’ll “explore all my options, including legal action” against the federal legislation should it become law.

Then, the Idaho arm of the American Association of Retired Persons, which has been pushing hard for specific items in the health care reform legislation – including closing the so-called “doughnut hole” that leaves a group of seniors with particularly high out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs – fired back.

The AARP of Idaho said Otter’s threatened legal action would hurt seniors and other Idahoans struggling with health care costs. “To simply say ‘no’ to health care reform can only serve to make Idaho’s health care crisis worse. The cost of inaction on this issue is too high,” said Jim Wordelman, state director for the seniors group in Idaho. “We’re calling on Idaho’s elected officials to set partisan politics aside and work to make the final health care reform bill the best it can be – that’s what Idaho deserves.”

AARP said 221,000 Idahoans are uninsured, though 88 percent of those uninsured Idahoans are employed. Also, about 27 percent of Idaho’s Medicare beneficiaries last year fell into the doughnut hole.

Lowe adds additional claim

Former Idaho Transportation Director Pam Lowe, whose wrongful-termination lawsuit against the state is now pending in federal court, has filed an amended complaint adding an additional “claim for relief” to her case, which already charged sex discrimination, political pressure, due process violations and more. The added claim: that the state hired a man to replace her and decided to pay him $22,000 a year more.

“By paying Plaintiff at a rate less than her male replacement for substantially equal work on a job requiring substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar work conditions, Defendants violated the EPA (Equal Protection Act),” the lawsuit states. “Because Defendants paid her less than it paid her male replacement, Ms. Lowe has suffered and will continue to suffer economic losses.”

Lowe charges she was fired for refusing to yield to pressure to favor a politically well-connected contractor, and also was discriminated against for her gender; she was the state’s first female transportation director.

Allred names campaign staff

Keith Allred, Democratic candidate for governor of Idaho, has named former U.S. Attorney for Idaho Betty Richardson as his campaign manager. Richardson heads a Democratic Party candidate recruitment committee that helped persuade Allred, formerly a nonpartisan citizen activist, mediator and Harvard professor, to become the Democratic standard-bearer.

Allred also named Shea Andersen, former editor of the Idaho Mountain Express and Boise Weekly, as his press secretary; Democratic fundraiser Suzanne Gore as his finance director; former Obama campaign state director Kassie Cerami as statewide volunteer coordinator; and Matt Compton, who managed T.J. Thompson’s successful Boise City Council campaign last year, as director of operations.

Allred previously named his campaign’s honorary co-chairs, former Gov. Cecil Andrus and former GOP Sen. Laird Noh; and his treasurer, former state Rep. Margaret Henbest, D-Boise.

More 1st CD candidates?

Gov. Butch Otter, while serving as a guest co-host on KBOI talk radio in Boise, was asked by a caller what he thinks of the candidates in the 1st Congressional District GOP primary race. Otter briefly praised both Vaughn Ward and Raul Labrador and said, “The Republican Party’s got a pretty deep bench when it comes to all the offices.” But he added, “There may not be all the candidates in that race yet that may get in it. … Remember they’ve got until the middle of March in order to get in.”