A 6 • Monday, March 4, 2013
“The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn’t care. I wanted to save my brother.”
OPINION
Jeremy Bush, after the earth opened under Jeff Bush’s Florida bedroom and swallowed him up like something out of a horror movie
Club for Growth Targeting Rep. Mike Simpson daho voters may despise Congress, but they do not often Randy throw out their own Stapilus members — they’ve done it Ridenbaugh.com just four times in the last half-century. Less often than that do the voters of a party reject an incumbent of their own party for another term. The last time it happened was almost 40 years ago, in 1974, when Orval Hansen, a three-term incumbent in the second district, was defeated in the primary by former Representative George Hansen. The campaign was messy and a number of factors, some of them personal to the candidates, were at play. But the ideological dynamic was one familiar to Idaho voters today: The challenge to Orval by George was seen as a challenge of the right against a more moderate conservative. You wonder if the Club for Growth is doing a little research on that election. The Club, which made a splash in Idaho in 2006, is described in Wikipedia as “a fiscally conservative 501(c)4 organization active in the United States of America, with an agenda focused on taxation and other economic issues. … According to its website, the Club for Growth’s policy goals include cutting income tax rates, repealing the estate tax, limited government and a Balanced Budget Amendment, entitlement reform, free trade, tort reform, school choice, and deregulation.” It does not much compromise on any of that. In 2006, when Idaho had an open seat in the first district, it threw massive money and support to then-legislator Bill Sali, enough that you could fairly say it was the number one reason Sali won his primary and general election that year. One piece of evidence is that in 2008, when Sali ran as an incumbent, the Club stayed out of the race, and Sali lost. Now the Club is signaling it wants in again, this time targeting 2nd District Representative Mike Simpson, now an eight-term member and probably the member of the Idaho delegation with the most clout within Congress.He describes himself as a conservative, and certainly is a loyal member of the House Republican caucus, and close to House Speaker John Boehner. The Club for Growth uses other metrics.On its site primarymycongressman.com, Simpson is listed first among nine Republican House members it would like to target for defeat. It’s short description of why: “Mike Simpson has repeatedly voted for an expansion of government-run health insurance,Democrat spending bills,and pork project after pork project. He voted for the $700 billion taxpayer bailout of Wall Street banks and he was one of only three Congressmen to vote against defunding A.C.O.R.N., the far-left group notorious for voter fraud.” (About a dozen specific votes are also listed.) If the Club persists against Simpson, though, it’s likely to come to grief. Simpson has not had a competitive election since he joined the House in 1998. In 2010 he faced three opponents in the primary, and got 58.3% against the two of them during the peak of Tea Party fervor — a strong showing under the circumstances. In 2012 one of those candidates, Chick Heileson, ran again, and Simpson this time won with 69.5% of the vote. Keep watch to see if the Club maintains Simpson on its target list. If it does, that may say more about the Club than it does about Simpson.
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Randy Stapilus is a former Idaho newspaper reporter and editor, author of The Idaho Political Field Guide and co-author of Idaho 100: The people who most influenced the Gem State, and blogs at www.ridenbaugh.com. He can be reached at stapilus@ridenbaugh.com.
Autumn Agar, Interim Publisher, Editor The members of the editorial board and writers of editorials are Autumn Agar, Robert Monteith and Jess Johnson. ONLINE: Join our community of readers at Facebook.com/thetimesnews, or register an account at Magicvalley.com and respond to any of the local opinions or stories in today’s edition. ON PAPER OR VIA EMAIL: The Times-News welcomes letters from readers, but please limit letters to 300 words. Include your signature, mailing address and phone number. Letters may be brought to our Twin Falls office; mailed to P.O. Box 548, Twin Falls, ID 83303; faxed to (208) 734-5538; or e-mailed to letters@magicvalley.com.
Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau
Respite Boosts Chances for Idaho Health Exchange Speaker Bedke’s deftness leaves opponents scrambling for a leader, but holding out hope they can stop the plan. BY DAN POPKEY Idaho Statesman
Rather than seize the momentum of an impressive 2312 Senate vote for Gov. Butch Otter’s state-run online insurance marketplace on Feb. 21,House Speaker Scott Bedke laid back. He postponed a Feb. 25 hearing on House Bill 179,the trailer bill backed by 16 GOP House freshmen in exchange for support of Otter’s SB 1042. Bedke assigned Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Fred Wood to spend last week combining the two bills and adding friendly amendments agreeable to Otter. The result — scheduled for introduction today in Wood’s committee — appears to have withered House opposition and left foes without an obvious champion. House GOP Caucus Chairman John Vander Woude of rural Ada County still says he can’t find anything to like in Otter’s plan, but admits no experienced leader has sur-
faced to rally opposition. Vander Woude, the No. 4 House GOP leader, is joined by No.2 and No.3 in opposing Otter and Bedke, R-Oakley. But Majority Leader Mike Moyle of Star and Assistant Majority Leader Brent Crane of Nampa sound like beaten puppies. “I don’t like it,” Moyle said last week. “But I’m not the leader of any organized opposition.” Said Crane: “Although I am opposed to a state-based exchange,I am not the leader of the opposition and I don’t know who is.” In their place, a freshman lawmaker not part of the “Gang of 16” is stepping up, Janet Trujillo,R-Idaho Falls. “If somebody needed to stick their neck out and be the leader I would gladly take that on,” said Trujillo. “We definitely have our work cut out for us. We need to explain to people that the only way we can keep our state sovereignty is to say no.” “I’m still hopeful,” said Wayne Hoffman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, the leading lobbyist against the exchange. Hoffman says the Gang of 16’s proposal “appears to be unraveling,” but freshman Steve Miller, R-Fairfield, said the group is solid.
Bedke’s slowdown erased what might have been a persuasive argument for some, particularly the historically large freshman class dealing with a complex issue that has political punch. “There will be no legitimate basis for criticism of the process,” said Wood, R-Burley. “People can’t say, ‘We didn’t have time, they railroaded it through, they’re a bunch of bad guys because they didn’t want discussion.’ There’s been more discussion on this issue than on any issue since I’ve been here.” The review included a working group in 2011 and a task force in 2012, both of which produced bills leading to SB 1042. Bedke said he understands that stretching out the process means another Senate Committee hearing and another Senate floor debate, after the six-hour talkfest on Feb. 21. But he said giving opponents a chance to tweak a single bill will make the result less cumbersome and maybe even pick up votes. “Any new ideas have to be in good faith,that is to say: no poison pills,” Bedke said.“I’m all about a cleaner, streamlined approach.” Amendments could include a hat tip to Oklahoma’s law-
suit, which attempts to bring the Affordable Care Act down like a Jenga tower by removing the tax credits and subsidies that undergird “affordable.” But Wood said hostile amendments to put rulemaking under the direct authority of the Legislature or to limit monthly fees for customers to $5 are unacceptable. Republicans haven’t given up on their opposition to Obamacare, but Bedke hopes to convince a few more to accept the fact that, absent a state exchange, the feds will step in. “We’ve got to play the hand we’re dealt,” Bedke said. “I think it’s incumbent on the Legislature to make a bad situation a little better, while looking for a process that’s cheaper for Idahoans and keeps jobs in Idaho.” Bedke appears on the verge of winning his first big fight as speaker, after unseating the House’s leading state-exchange opponent in former Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale,in December. But bet on this: Bedke doesn’t just want 36 votes in the 70-member House. He’ll be watching if a majority of his 57-member GOP caucus sides with their new speaker, and, better yet, if there are 36 Republican votes for Otter’s plan.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Where Is Your Compassion, Understanding and Acceptance?
better.Where is our compassion,our understanding and our acceptance? I implore you to analyze what you have been taught to believe about gay people.We can stop this hate.We must stop this hate.
Dear Mr.Bell: While I can appreciate that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion,I have to say that yours is alarming. Gay people are not evil.They are people.They deserve the same rights and respect as you and I.It is ridiculous rhetoric like your letter,“God Will Not Undo What Man Has Done,” that promotes hate.Don’t you think there is enough hate in our world? Why create more with comments that have zero fact behind them? I read something recently that said, “Don’t judge others because they sin differently than you.” While I will never believe the idea that being gay is a sin,I do believe that you are passing judgment on a group of people because they don’t live as you apparently do.Shouldn’t we all be as perfect as you are,Mr.Bell? Come on,folks! It is 2013.We know
KRISTI KULIK Filer
Hurlock Rejection Came in Response to Constituent Concerns To Fran Collette: My immediate conclusion after reading your letter to the editor (TimesNews,Feb.27) was that you are a blatant sexist and that your letter was prompted by the fact that you,like Ms.Hurlock, wear a skirt. But that was not a fair conclusion because,like you in drawing your conclusion,I don’t have nor can I cite any facts to support my conclusion. You cite the Fish and Game website as to qualifications for the Fish and Game Commission.You are correct in part — Ms.Hurlock is a resident of the district of the region for which she
Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley
sought appointment. However,the fact that she was pictured with her teenage son holding a dead duck does not lead me to believe that she is “well informed and interested in wildlife conservation.” The Fish and Game website that you cite tells me that a 12-year-old boy who has hunted with his father and reads “Outdoor Life”every month and has earned a merit badge in wildlife conservation as a Boy Scout is qualified.That’s simply not true. This is a representative government, just in case you are not aware.I would rather believe,although again I have no facts,that my elected representatives and those others who voted against Ms. Hurlock’s appointment,did so because they were prompted by the response of thousands of hunters and fishermen whose license fees support activities of the department who gave input to those representatives that Ms.Hurlock was not qualified.And those representatives did as they should have — they responded to their constituents. P.S.See you at the next election!
JOHN A. DOERR Twin Falls