Highlights from 02-01-2013

IDAHO DEMOCRATS

State Chairman Larry Grant resigns

“When I was elected chair in 2011, nobody wanted the job. 2010 had been a terrible year for Democrats in Idaho,” Larry Grant wrote in an email to the Idaho Democratic Party staff reported on the Daily Kos website.

Grant said during his tenure, he recruited one of the most effective staffs the party has ever had and the party fielded “more candidates running than anyone can remember in a long time.”

“Did I get everything done that I wanted to? Of course not. But I do think we accomplished a lot and that we are positioned to accomplish even more in the next few years,” Grant wrote.

Nominations to replace Grant are being accepted; email by sally@idahodems.org. The election will be held at the state central committee meeting Feb. 23.

Statesman staff

SEN. MIKE CRAPO

Walking to work, senator gets in shape

Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo said after his Jan. 4 guilty plea to DUI that losing his driving privileges would force him to seek alternative transportation.

Crapo spoke with the Statesman via cellphone Thursday as he was making the three-quarter-mile walk from the Dirksen Senate Office Building to his row house in Southwest Washington, where he has a basement apartment.

Crapo laughed when asked if he was keeping his promise to deal with stress with exercise rather than drinking.

“I am!” he answered. “I’m going to get exercise out of this deal and lose some weight and get in better shape.”

Dan Popkey

HEALTH EXCHANGE

Contractors endorse state-written plan

The Idaho Associated General Contractors of Idaho is hoping to boost Gov. Butch Otter’s fight to make Idaho one of a handful of states with Republican governors to establish a state-run online insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act.

Most GOP-controlled states are leaving the job to the federal government, a move Otter says is a threat to state sovereignty — an argument echoed by AGC, which represents about 700 building contractors..

Senate Bill 1042 faces considerable resistance among GOP lawmakers, who object to cooperating with a federal law they fought to overturn in court and at the ballot box.

AGC Executive Director Wayne Hammon wrote to Otter and all 105 lawmakers Friday, saying that the decision-making “on this matter is best held at the individual citizen and state levels.”

“We believe that Idahoans can do a better job tailoring the exchange to the needs of our members than can federal bureaucrats half a continent away,” he wrote.

Dan Popkey