Races for state offices
Besides governor, voters get to make their picks in five other statewide races this fall: lieutenant governor, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, treasurer and controller. All are four-year terms.
Lieutenant governor
Annual salary: $27,820.
The race: The sitting governor, Jim Risch, is running for the part-time position of lieutenant governor, facing a former congressman, Larry LaRocco.
Also in the race is Constitution Party candidate William Charles “Bill” Wellisch, a carpenter and first-time candidate who opposes public education and says he was inspired by God to run.
Risch, the Republican lieutenant governor until Gov. Dirk Kempthorne joined President Bush’s Cabinet earlier this year, said his seven-month record as governor will show he can serve the state. In recent months he worked out a complex plan for management of roadless forests, opened offices in Coeur d’Alene and Idaho Falls and called lawmakers to Boise for a one-day special session to pass tax reform legislation.
LaRocco, a Democrat, held the 1st District congressional seat that represents North Idaho for two terms in the early 1990s. He said he thinks the current Republican dominance has made Idaho a “one-party state” that favors powerful special interests and lacks the give-and-take needed to make good public policy.
“Currently, Idaho sees things through one ideological prism,” LaRocco said. “Basically, I am running to shake things up in the Idaho political landscape and provide the needed change Idahoans want in their government.”
Wellisch is running for office for the first time. He said he was inspired to run by a religious experience and also by his deep faith in the U.S. Constitution. “That God-given document, the Constitution, the truth is found in there,” he said, “and it’s amazing the freedoms we can have as a people if we learn the Constitution and follow it.”
Democrat Larry LaRocco , 60, Coeur d’Alene: “Idaho needs strong leadership, it needs balanced leadership, and it needs transparency and sunshine, and it doesn’t have it right now.”
Republican Jim Risch, 63, Boise: “I believe my accomplishments as Idaho’s 31st governor exemplify my ability to serve Idaho.”
Constitution Party candidate William Charles Wellisch, 60, Dingle: “I oppose the government paying for public education and manipulating what’s taught in schools.”
Attorney general
Annual salary: $95,160.
The race: Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, a Republican, says he’s shown he’s willing to take on the tough jobs, from prosecuting Idaho officials on public corruption charges to going after the University of Idaho’s University Place scandal.
Wasden has been Idaho’s attorney general for four years, after previously serving as a top deputy in the office. His tenure has been marked by public corruption cases, including the prosecutions of the mayor of Boise, the Twin Falls county clerk, the Preston chief of police and the Idaho Falls city prosecutor.
Wasden said some of those prosecuted were fellow Republicans.
His opponent, Democrat Robert “Bob” Wallace, a Boise attorney, was galvanized to run by the anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment that’s on the November ballot, and by strong disagreements with the legal opinion Wasden provided to lawmakers on the issue last winter.
“They’re trying to outlaw private familial arrangements,” Wallace said. He believes that violates the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law.
Wasden responded, “I support the amendment, but my view is that I shouldn’t advance my personal philosophical choice. My job is to give the legal answer.”
Wallace believes the attorney general should take a more proactive role whether asked or not. He said he would speak out to stop lawmakers from moving forward with something that he feels is improper. But Wasden said as attorney general his role is simply to respond to the lawmakers’ legal questions, not to take a stand on issues.
Democrat Robert “Bob” Wallace, 55, Boise: “Abrogation of human rights and religious rights are wrong, no matter how popular they are.”
Republican Lawrence Wasden, 48, Nampa: “I believe I’ve established a record that shows I’m willing to seek justice.”
Schools superintendent
Annual salary: $85,800.
The race: A businessman and a longtime educator are competing to be Idaho’s next state superintendent of schools – a choice that wouldn’t even have been legal 12 years ago.
Idaho long required that its state superintendent be a certified school administrator who was “actively engaged in educational work” in Idaho schools. But the Legislature repealed that requirement in 1994, leaving a college degree as the minimum qualification for the job.
Republican Tom Luna, owner of a weights and measures firm, uses business language to talk about what he’d like to accomplish as superintendent. He supports doubling the number of new charter schools to open each year because “that’s what the customers of education are demanding.”
He decries the bureaucracy of education and wants to set up a “career ladder” to allow the best classroom teachers to earn higher pay.
Democrat Jana Jones, the current chief deputy superintendent, is a career educator with a doctorate in education. She is a former owner of a private preschool and has worked in the state Department of Education for the past 18 years.
Jones is backing Proposition 1 on the Nov. 7 ballot – which Luna opposes – to require a big increase in school funding. She talks about boosting teacher salaries so Idaho doesn’t lose teachers to nearby states, replacing textbooks so they’re up-to-date, and getting “balance back into our curriculum” after years of pressure to focus on tests results.
“I would like to see us work to application of that knowledge, not just the rote memory and facts and figures we can regurgitate on a multiple-choice test,” Jones said. “I want kids to know it and be able to use it. … We’ve lost ground, I believe, in that area.”
Democrat Jana Jones, 54, Democrat, Boise: “I have the breadth of understanding (of) public education in Idaho, what it takes to run a school, what it takes to work at the state department level, at the local level, in a classroom.”
Republican Tom Luna, 47, Nampa: “I understand how to run operations more efficiently, and we need to do that so we can free up more money to get it into the classroom.”
Treasurer
Annual salary: $85,800.
The race: The state treasurer’s election pits a two-term Republican incumbent against a longtime Sandpoint banker and real estate agent.
Ron Crane is seeking a third four-year term. Democratic challenger Howard C. Faux says he wants to bring “fresh ideas” and a North Idaho presence to state government.
Crane acknowledges that the office is low-profile and many of the issues the treasurer handles are technical. But he’s been trying to raise the office’s profile by using it to promote financial literacy and small-business loans, as well as the treasurer’s main duties of receiving, disbursing and investing government funds.
Faux, pronounced “fox,” said he’s running because he thinks longtime incumbents should be challenged and he thinks his background qualifies him for the job. He’d also like to see more Democrats and North Idaho residents be part of the state government.
The 40-year Sandpoint resident said if elected he wouldn’t make big changes right off. “I’ve always found it’s better off to not stir the pot too much until you get which way it’s going,” he said.
Republican Ron Crane, 57, Caldwell: “We’ve accomplished some great projects in the eight years I’ve been there, and we’ve started some others, and I want to see those through to their fruition.”
Democrat Howard C. Faux, 79, Sandpoint: “I think they need a change in state government. … It seemed like you got too much of one-party government, and why not take a shot at trying to make two parties out of it?”
Controller
Annual salary: $85,800.
The race: Republican Donna Jones and Democrat Jackie Groves Twilegar are facing off.
Jones is a former state legislator, a businesswoman and the current director of the Idaho Real Estate Commission. Twilegar is a financial manager who’s worked in corporate finance, banking, real estate and investments.
The controller is the state’s chief fiscal officer and has one of the five votes on the state Land Board, which controls state lands and endowments. The controller also oversees state payroll, financial management and accounting systems, and manages the state’s central computer center.
Jones said she’s running for controller “because I can do the job.”
“I didn’t get into politics to change the world – I got into politics to make the world a little bit better place for my children and grandchildren,” she said. “I have a pretty deep passion for Idaho. … This is a job I can do and I’m excited to do it.”
Twilegar said she’s running because “my background is finance and I have a desire to serve that I’ve demonstrated in the community on a smaller scale. I’ve looked at the cynicism of younger people when it comes to politics, and I think, if good people won’t run, then where are we?”
Democrat Jackie Groves Twilegar, 50, Boise: “The controller has to speak the language of finance.”
Republican Donna Jones, 67, Payette: “I’m not going to turn everything upside down.”