Posted on 04/16/2006 1:44:09 AM PDT by NapkinUser
One thing appears highly likely in the race to replace Republican Rep. C.L. “Butch” Otter, a candidate this year for governor, in Idaho’s 1st Congressional District: that the November winner in this strongly conservative-leaning district — which voted 68 percent for President Bush in 2004 — will be a Republican.
One thing even more certain than that is that the winner of the six-candidate May 23 Republican primary will hold strongly conservative views on most issues.
Norm Semanko, who is one of those candidates, is president of both the National Water Resources Association and the Idaho Council of Industry and the Environment.
He holds two distinctions in a Republican field in which all candidates are running on strongly conservative platforms: He is the only candidate who has never held elective office, but he is also the only one with Capitol Hill experience, as a former aide to Idaho Republican Sen. Larry E. Craig.
Among his five opponents, Semanko takes his most confrontational approach to state Rep. Bill Sali, a favorite of many social conservative activists who also has the endorsement of a major national group that mainly espouses economic conservatism, the Club for Growth.
The following are excerpts from an interview with Semanko conducted by CQPolitics.com’s Jesse Stanchak on April 6, in which the candidate explains his views on issues and why he thinks voters will prefer him over the others on May 23.
A background story on the race is available here.
CQ: The field in the Republican primary for Idaho 1 is packed with six very ideologically similar individuals. Some analysts have said you’re all splitting the same vote. Is their anything in your platform that distinguishes you from your opponents?
Semanko: I’m the only candidate that has any experience working on [Capitol] Hill, that actually knows Congress. I spent five years working for Sen. Craig in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s in the House as well as the Senate. That makes a big difference. But I’m not a career politician. I’ve never held office. I didn’t spend 17 years in the legislature. I’m not doing this for political survival or the next rung on the ladder.
When it comes to fundraising and money, Bill Sali has a lot of money coming in from out of state. Traditionally, Idahoans have rejected having their politicians bought by out-of-state money.
In 2000, there were eight candidates for Congress. Dennis Mansfield was funded by the Club for Growth [a national conservative organization] and Butch Otter beat him pretty handily.
The Club for Growth, I interviewed with them. I was a little disappointed to see . . . they’d already decided what they were going to do, apparently, even before they’d interviewed me. That’s problematic. . . . CAFTA [the Central American Free Trade Agreement] is a big negative in our district . . . for the sugar industry in Idaho, and Club for Growth is a big pro-CAFTA group. And Bill has that around his neck. If he gets elected, it’s going to be solely because of the Club for Growth and the money they’ ve channeled in. . . .
[Abortion] is a good indication that the Club for Growth has prematurely picked the wrong candidate. They didn’t wait to see what they field would look like, didn’t really look at Bill’s track record. If I’d been 16, 17 years in the state legislature as someone who is an activist on abortion issues, I’d hope I’d have gotten a little more done in the reddest of the red states than he has.
CQ: But are there any policy differences between you and the other candidates?
Semanko: Certainly one difference would be the importance I subscribe to rural Idaho, the natural resource and agriculture economic base of our state. Most of the other candidates aren’t talking about or don’t understand the important of rural Idaho. Once you get out of Boise, it’s still agriculture, still natural resources like timber and mining. I’ve been talking about the need to foster economic growth in those areas and multiple uses for our federal lands so there’s some productivity access to those lands. Sixty-three percent of our state is federal land.
CQ: It says on your Web site that you’d support a law prohibiting judges from ruling on issues like the displaying of the Ten Commandments on federal lands. How would such a law be implemented?
Semanko: Congress has the power to define what the law’s going to be, including whether or not there’s going to be a cause of action in a certain area. If Congress says there will not be a cause of action in an area, then they certainly have the authority to limit the jurisdiction of the court.
I don’t see it as a conflict between the legislature and the judiciary branches under the Constitution. I see it as the legislature exercising their authority to control the jurisdiction of the courts. . . . To me, it’s a matter of good public policy to say, “You know what, some of these things should be decided by legislative bodies, decided by people through citizen initiatives, and it’s really a waste of the court’s time.”
CQ: Immigration is a political issue in Idaho 1 in a way that it wasn’t even two years ago, partially because of [Canyon County Commissioner] Robert Vasquez’ campaign [for the Republican nomination] and partially because of a wave of national interest. You’ve talked extensively about illegal immigration in your campaign, but did you have an immigration policy before it became such a hot-button issue?
Semanko: My wife came here from the Soviet Union 15 years ago . . . so I’ve always felt very strongly about the value of citizenship. I saw what my wife went through. . . . I feel like it kind of cheapens citizenship to allow people to come here illegally and have the same benefits.
I haven’t been a public official all this time, but I’ve certainly had a very strong public stance on immigration, at least since my wife became a citizen. . . . I don’t think Robert Vasquez is going to win this election. But he’s raised an issue that’s very important and the question for the voters is, “Who’s going to be best able to solve this problem?” Unfortunately for him, when you spend a lot of time bashing on the senior senator [Craig] and a lot of establishment Republicans, it’s going to be really hard to turn around and work with them.
CQ: How do feel about the proposed guest worker program?
Semanko: The first thing we have to do is secure our borders. We need to do a better job of enforcing and state and local law enforcement need to be able to come into that process, if they want to. Then you get down to the folks who are already here, and there the devil’s in the details. . . .
Beyond that, I believe every able-bodied American should be able to work. We take care of that first, and then if there’s still some sort of labor shortage, we can set up a program to bring people in for a defined period of time, for a defined purpose. And then they go back home.
*Bump for Vasquez*
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