Idaho GOP leadership targeted by alliance
Libertarians, social conservatives set sights on dismantling state GOP dominance
By JOHN MILLER
Associated Press
Friday, June 13, 2008 10:30 AM PDT
BOISE — An alliance among social conservatives, Ron Paul libertarians and backers of closing Idaho’s GOP primary aims to upend the state’s Republican Party establishment this weekend at the GOP convention in Sandpoint. Tops on that agenda will be deposing two-term Chairman Kirk Sullivan, who has angered some members by not strictly adhering to tenets of the GOP platform such as dumping the existing open primary or refusing to focus on social issues such as abortion and marriage. Lobbyist and lawyer Norm Semanko, a 2006 candidate for the U.S. House, is challenging Sullivan.
The three-day convention that concludes Saturday in the northern Idaho resort town may also see renewed attempts at more narrowly defining what the Idaho Republican Party stands for. Two years ago, Sullivan, Idaho Falls national committeeman Blake Hall and others combined to defeat a measure that would have required every Idaho GOP candidate to pledge allegiance to the entire state party platform, or else explain areas of disagreement. Similar proposals could surface.
Some in the anti-Sullivan bloc among the roughly 485 delegates are convinced resentment toward the chairman runs so deep that they’ll have no difficulty ousting him.
‘‘He doesn’t have respect for the grassroots and he doesn’t respect the Idaho Republican Party platform,’’ said LeeAnn Callear, a party member from Orofino who earlier this month won the northcentral Idaho regional committeeman post from a Sullivan ally. ‘‘He especially doesn’t believe in the moral issues, abortion and marriage.’’
Semanko, meanwhile, has won the endorsement of State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna and U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, as well as anti-abortion activist Bryan Fischer. Semanko also got the backing of Rod Beck, a former state Senate majority leader who has challenged Sullivan over the closed primary issue. Those who favor restricting the GOP primary to registered Republican voters worry that moderates and Democrats have crossed party lines to elect candidates who don’t reflect Republican values.
Beck, who originally had planned to challenge Sullivan for chairman, now is opposing Hall for Idaho national committeeman.
‘‘Blake Hall has been joined at the hip with Sullivan in fighting everything that the party wanted to do,’’ Beck said this week. ‘‘I would more accurately represent the grassroots of the party.’’
Sullivan, who didn’t return a phone call seeking comment, has retained the support of other establishment Idaho Republicans, including Gov. C.L. ‘‘Butch’’ Otter.
‘‘He’s been a great chairman. We need to continue to support him,’’ said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls.
While such internecine political warfare happens elsewhere, one political scientist said what’s unusual in Idaho is that the fight has erupted in the dominant party, in one of the most Republican-dominated states in the nation.
GOP members hold 51 of 70 seats in the Idaho House, 27 of 35 seats in the state Senate and all seven statewide elected offices. And Idaho voters haven’t sent a Democrat to Congress since 1992.
The strange brew of social conservatives such as Callear and Fischer, closed primary advocate Beck and laissez-faire supporters of outsider presidential hopeful Ron Paul makes for especially intriguing political theater, said Gary Moncrief, a political scientist at Boise State University.
‘‘Clearly, those groups haven’t coalesced because of ideology,’’ he said. ‘‘My question is, is this about Kirk Sullivan and dissatisfaction with the powers that be, or is this an ideological fight? My take is, it’s a little bit of both.’’
Democrats are watching with keen interest.
Keith Roark, chairman of the state Democratic party, said Republicans have come to power in Idaho by successfully linking Idaho’s more-moderate strain of Democrat with more liberal East Coast brethren — and by doing an effective job at representing ‘‘the great middle of Idaho politics.’’
‘‘What’s going on right now is an effort by Rod Beck and Bryan Fischer — the extreme wing of the Republican Party — to purge the Republican Party of those who hold more moderate views,’’ Roark said. ‘‘That’s a dangerous thing for any party to do. But if Rod Beck, Norm Semanko and Bryan Fischer, if that whole group wants to make my job easier by purging the Republican Party of moderates, then God bless them.’’
Fischer said bolstering conservative principles, not watering them down, will preserve the party.
‘‘The grassroots of the party sees what’s happening on the national level,’’ he said. ‘‘The national party abandoned any pretense of fiscal conservatism, that’s why we got hosed in 2006. We don’t want to see that disaster repeated in Idaho.’’
