HucksOnline Interviews Dan Gookin

• HucksOnline: Did the voters of Coeur d’Alene give you & Steve Adams a mandate last night?
• Dan Gookin: The mandate is that they want a public vote on McEuen Field. Some could argue that was the public vote. But going forward they want an actual ballot for a public vote.
• HucksOnline: How would you form the question for a public vote?
• Dan Gookin: The 3 big issues are the ballfield, boat ramp, and parking garage. I’d say an up-or-down vote on each of those. A question could be: Should the ballfields be moved off McEuen to Cherry Hill. I’d specify the costs. Ditto for the boat ramp. Ditto for the parking garage. I’d also favor of asking: Would you favor the Hyatt plan for McEuen? Would you favor the Walker-Macy plan?
• HucksOnline: You still are one vote short of getting a public vote on McEuen Field. How does that figure into your thinking?
• Dan Gookin: You’re assuming we’re one vote short. We won’t know until council meets in January how the other council members will go. You’re assuming Mike, Deanna, and Woody will maintain their posture. There has been a lot of self-reflection in last 48 hours.
• More below

• HucksOnline: Can you get along with Mayor Bloem & the council members who didn’t want to see you elected?
• Dan Gookin: As someone who has sat on outside of wall, you often see council as a block. I don’t think they’re all buddies. They don’t get out and play bunco every Saturday night. There’s no question that everyone on the council loves the city. We all want to do what’s best. We might differ on how we get there.
• HucksOnline: What do you think were the issues that allowed you to run away with your race against a well-known former legislator?
• Dan Gookin: McEuen Field definitely put us over the top. The Reagan Republicans had the foot soldiers. They were knocking on the doors. Making the phone calls. Stuffing envelopes. They did everything right. The real reason George lost was he was on wrong side of issues.
• HucksOnline: Should Tony Berns be looking for another job?
• Dan Gookin: LCDC is a separate state agency. It’s not a part of the city. Tony Berns is in the same fear of his job from me as Patricia Bell or Hazel Bauman would be. I’m not going to serve on the LCDC board. I don’t think any council member should serve on LCDC. I’ll look forward to seeing Tony Berns in February, however, and I’ll have some questions for him.
• HucksOnline: After your second loss for council 2 years ago, you said, “I’d rather cut off my own head than run again.” Obviously, you’re glad you didn’t?
• Dan Gookin: It was a perfect storm. There were 3 things I looked at that made me want to run. McEuen Field was the issue this time. We didn’t have a real issue last time. The second one was the Reagan Republicans. Third was the new county clerk. The election last time, in 2009, was flawed. With Cliff in there, we had a new confidence that flaws and issues that came up last time wouldn’t be issues this time.