Last modified: Friday, October 17, 2008 10:52 AM PDT Walt Minnick and Idaho 1st Congressional District incumbent Bill Sali debate the outcome of the coin toss of who speaks last at the end of the televised debate at the Lewiston, Idaho Community Center Thursday. Minnick criticizes Sali over votes in Congress By JOHN MILLER Associated Press LEWISTON — Democrat Walt Minnick jabbed at U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, for opposing U.S. House bills to give money to rural Idaho schools and the long-term unemployed during an hour-long debate Thursday in this northcentral Idaho milltown. Minnick, bidding to win Idaho’s 1st District congressional seat, which has been in Republican hands for 37 of the last 41 years, criticized Sali for opposing a measure in June that would have paid for rural school funding with federal oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. He also panned the first-term incumbent’s vote in early October against extending federal unemployment payments to those who had exhausted their state benefits, pointing out that just days after the bill passed 368-28 on Oct. 3, Micron Technology Inc., Idaho’s largest employer, announced it was cutting 1,500 jobs. ‘‘His timing couldn’t have been worse,’’ Minnick said. Sali countered that he supports funding for schools in the region’s rural timber towns, just not the bill that failed in June. And he criticized the $6 billion unemployment measure passed by the House earlier this month because of provisions offering more benefits to jobless workers in states with higher unemployment rates. Under the measure, states where the unemployment rate is above 6 percent would be entitled to an additional 13 weeks above the 26 weeks of regular benefits. Idaho’s unemployment rate jumped to 5 percent in September, still below that threshold. ‘‘You would all be subsidizing people in other states,’’ Sali said. ‘‘I think it was unfair.’’ It was their third face-to-face meeting this week, after squaring off at town hall forums on Tuesday in Meridian and on Wednesday in the state capital. The session in Lewiston, a working-class community where the largest employer is wood-products maker Potlatch Corp., also highlighted the candidates’ differences on health care insurance reform, an issue where both men offered personal stories to illustrate their stances. Minnick, the former chief executive officer of Trus Joist International, said his now-15-year-old son as a baby had a life-threatening heart ailment that left the family with $600,000 in medical bills. Fortunately, he said, they were covered by insurance through his company. ‘‘What we have to do is get comprehensive, affordable health insurance for everyone in this country,’’ Minnick said. ‘‘If your employer provides it, fine. If you want to pay for it, fine. If you’re too poor to pay for it, the government will help you with the premium.’’ Sali, who won a six-way Republican primary before beating Democrat Larry Grant in the 2006 general election, described how in the month between when he was a state legislator and when he took up his U.S. House post in 2007, he was one of the 47 million Americans who were uninsured. He’s concluded the main problem is the spiraling cost of care, but doesn’t believe the matter has risen to the level of a national crisis. ‘‘Those principles that come with the free market, of competition and consumer choice, are the things that are going to help bring down the price of health care,’’ Sali said. ‘‘There are people out there without health care, and we need to address that, but it’s not as big of a problem as some people would make it out to be.’’ The debate was sponsored by the Lewiston Tribune, the Moscow Pullman Daily News and KLEW-TV. Panelists from the three news outlets who asked the questions wanted to know why Minnick was downplaying his party affiliation on campaign advertising. ‘‘I’m proud to be a Democrat,’’ Minnick said, before adding he was once president of the College Republicans at Whitman College in nearby Walla Walla, Wash., and had worked for the Nixon administration in the 1970s. He said he hadn’t identified himself as a Democrat on much of his campaign literature because he wanted to increase the likelihood that voters in a traditionally Republican district wouldn’t simply throw it away. ‘‘There are good people in both parties,’’ Minnick said. Sali accused Minnick of changing his stripes in a bid to appeal to conservative voters. ‘‘I don’t know that many Republicans that go and serve on the governing council of The Wilderness Society,’’ Sali said. Minnick said his role on The Wilderness Society and Idaho Conservation League boards was to encourage compromise and cooperation. The groups are working with U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson and U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, both Idaho Republicans, on two public lands bills that have support from local governments and ranchers. ‘‘I’ve been a force for moderation,’’ Minnick said.