Editorial: Running up the score not wise for Idaho GOP
Some sports have a mercy rule, which ends games when one team has an embarrassingly large lead. Idaho politics might need one, because some Republicans are determined to run up the score.
Take the redistricting controversy, for example.
Currently, Republicans occupy 85 of the 105 legislative seats. Plus, all of the statewide officeholders are Republicans. Few states can boast stronger one-party rule. So no matter how creative redistricting gets, the electoral whippings will continue.
That’s not good enough for House Speaker Lawerence Denney and Idaho Republican Party Chairman Norm Semanko, who tried to bench two Republican members of the redistricting commission in part because they weren’t trying hard enough to extend that 85-20 Statehouse lead over the next 10 years.
Fortunately, other Republicans – every player in this saga is one – intervened to restore some dignity.
On the advice of the attorney general, Secretary of State Ben Ysursa refused to act on a request to oust commissioners Delores Crow and Randy Hansen, who are longtime party stalwarts. The gambit should’ve ended there, but Denney and Semanko hired their own attorney and got the opinion they wanted.
On Wednesday, the state Supreme Court stymied the Denney-Semanko power play on procedural grounds. The state constitution would seem to make it clear that commissioners are prohibited from protecting a particular party or legislator. Under the most recent plan, Denney and many other incumbents were going to have to face off against each other.
As Crow colorfully put it, “The only reason they’re mad at me is because I didn’t protect their fanny.”
The commission still has to come up with a plan that will pass legal muster, because the state Supreme Court tossed the last one for dividing too many counties. This turn of events has threatened to push the May primary to August, because candidates can’t file for office until the district boundaries are finalized. The filing deadline is five weeks away.
In addition, Denney and Semanko are searching for a way to continue their complaint, so there is still the prospect – albeit a long shot – of the commission taking on new members, which would significantly slow down and politicize the process.
Former Gov. Phil Batt aired his disgust with Denney and Semanko in an op-ed for the Idaho Statesman. He correctly noted that their ploy would sully what is supposed to be an above-board process:
“I guess they want 100 percent Republicans of their own variety (Dolores and I probably don’t qualify). But I predict that Republican dominance in Idaho will decline rather than grow if we say neutrality has no place in reapportionment, and that the commission must do it our way or else.”
This controversy has sparked an intra-party war over who the “real Republicans” are. We don’t have a dog in that hunt, but we can easily identify the true statesmen.