Elk-ranch advocate clinches District 9 slot
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 10:11 AM PDT
BOISE (AP) — Two of Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter’s appointments to the Legislature since 2007 were ousted in Republican primaries Tuesday.
In District 9 in southwestern Idaho, elk-ranch advocate Judy Boyle beat Rep. Diana Thomas, a former Washington County commissioner, with 53 percent to 47 percent of the votes.
And Pat Takasugi, Idaho’s former Department of Agriculture director, bested Rep. Curtis Bowers in District 10 in Canyon County. But not all appointees were losers. Rep. Steve Kren, appointed in 2007 by Otter, won his District 13 Canyon County House race against Russell Johnson.
And in the District 20 Senate race in Meridian, conservative Sen. Shirley McKague, an Otter appointee, fended off a challenge from Rep. Mark Snodgrass, a moderate who unsuccessfully tried to jump chambers. Elsewhere in Tuesday’s Idaho primary, State House Majority Leader Mike Moyle appeared to be easily fending off a write-in challenge from Nancy Merrill, a former Eagle mayor who entered the District 14 House Republican primary race in western Ada County just weeks before the primary election.
Elsewhere, some incumbents and others were locked in GOP razor-thin legislative races, including three separated by fewer than 55 votes. Candidates in Idaho can request an automatic recount when the difference between candidates is equal to or less than a tenth of a percent of total votes cast.
Moyle had tallied 4,189 votes to Merrill’s 1,866 with write-in votes counted from more than 70 percent of precincts. Their growing district includes the Boise bedroom communities of Eagle and Star.
The testy race between Moyle, a farmer and anti-tax hawk, and Merrill, who accused her rival of being out of step with his increasingly suburban constituents on issues including transportation funding, was one of several high-profile contests across Idaho on Tuesday in which established or well-known candidates faced lesser known rivals.
In a three-way race for the District 14 Senate seat, former state Transportation Board Chairman Chuck Winder beat Sen. Stan Bastian, a three-term lawmaker and former teacher who has taken moderate stands on education issues, on 43 percent to 33 percent of the vote. Saundra McDavid, a lawyer who ran a spirited but unsuccessful campaign for Eagle mayor in 2007, was a distant third.
Challenger Richard Jarvis, a corporate consultant had 50.6 percent of the vote to 49.4 percent for Rep. John Vanderwoude, a dairy farmer and first-term lawmaker.
Sen. Russ Fulcher, R-Meridian, who gained credibility in the Senate as one of the authors of the grocery tax relief bill that cleared the 2008 Legislature, used a late rally to fend off challenger Steven Ricks, a lawyer and Ada County library trustee, 51.6 percent-48.4 percent margin.
Rep. Steven Thayn, R-Emmett, rebuked by GOP leadership for overstepping his mandate on a 2007 House interim committee on family values and divorce, had 36 percent to 32 percent each for Gary Bauer and Canyon County Commissioner Matt Beebe.
In another tight GOP race, Christ Troupis held a 21-vote lead over Dennis Warren in the open Senate District 16 race in Ada County. In an open race in House District 20, Keith Bird led Joe Palmer by 55 votes. Conservative Sen. Shirley McKague, R-Meridian, a six-term House member appointed to the Senate by Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter last year, fended off Rep. Mark Snodgrass, R-Meridian, in one of the state’s most bitter Republican battles, 53 percent to 47 percent.
Snodgrass faces Democratic underdog Laurynda A. Williams in the general election in November. In guest editorials, McKague had accused Snodgrass of siding mostly with Democrats during three terms in the House. Snodgrass sponsored a bill this year to require emission testing of cars in Canyon County to improve air quality in southwestern Idaho, while McKague opposed the measure as unnecessary government intrusion. The measure passed. In Boise’s District 18A, former House Majority Caucus Chairwoman Julie Ellsworth beat her GOP rival, Gail Hartnett, a real estate agent. Ellsworth is attempting to return to the Legislature following a forced two-year hiatus after her loss to now-Rep. Phylis King, D-Boise, in 2006. She faces first-term incumbent Rep. Branden Durst, D-Boise, on Nov. 4. In Idaho Falls, former Rep. Ann Rydalch failed in a similar trip out of political exile following defeat in 2006. She lost to Erik Simpson, an employee at the Idaho National Laboratory, for the District 32 House seat being vacated by Rep. Dean Mortimer, R-Idaho Falls, who is running for the Senate. Simpson has no Democratic opponent in November. Also in eastern Idaho, Rep. Tom Loertscher, a conservative from Iona who has helped kill attempts to expand mail-in ballots and day-care licensing, came out on top of a four-way GOP race with less than 50 percent of the total vote.
