Idaho Republicans going green in red state

Republican Lt. Gov. Jim Risch ticks off a list of environmental accomplishments he made in his short term - seven months - as governor.

The candidate for U.S. Senate said he stopped a coal-fired power plant in the Magic Valley, signed rules that kept new mercury sources out of the state, negotiated a new rule to protect roadless national forests and signed a bill to increase alternative energy use in the state to 25 percent by 2025.

"I've got a green streak a quarter-mile wide across my back," Risch boasted.

Risch's unabashed efforts to court environmental voters represent a major shift for Idaho Republicans. For more than a generation Idaho Republican candidates, like current U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, ran against environmentalists as much as they ran against Democrats.

Now Republicans Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson have wilderness bills pending in Congress. Gov. Butch Otter has led the drive to get state agencies to reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

Risch's opponent, Democrat Larry LaRocco dismisses what he calls Risch's newfound environmentalism. He said Risch takes credit for successes, like the Idaho roadless rule that had wide support, incidental to his time as governor.

LaRocco's confident that his own environmental record - protecting the Birds of Prey area, the North Fork of the Payette and working with Frank Church on several wilderness bills - will keep environmentalists on his side.

"I would say nice try, but Risch has no record to stand on," LaRocco said.

Rep. Bill Sali is the only statewide Republican this year demonizing environmentalists. When they are mentioned in his press releases they are, "the same environmentalists who shut down logging in Idaho's rural communities " Sali said in a press release on forest road and school funding legislation. "It is those radical environmentalists who want to shut off all offshore oil drilling and drive gas prices even higher."

The reason Republicans are expressing environmental values is because Idaho voters share those values, said Rick Johnson, executive director of the Idaho Conservation League. He shared polls he commissioned of Idahoans with Crapo, Simpson and Risch that were conducted by Republican pollster Robert Moore of Oregon.

"All our polls show the majority of the Idaho public supports common-sense conservation that balances the diverse interests of Idaho," Johnson said.

Sali's motivation to stand alone is partially because his opponent, Walt Minnick, a former timber company CEO, formerly sat on the board of the Wilderness Society, a national environmental group, and is currently on the Idaho Conservation League board.

The Wilderness Society opposes drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and supports "locking up" lands away from logging, mining and motorized use, said Sali's spokesman, Wayne Hoffman.

"(Minnick) was a member of their governing council, so he is directly responsible for the actions of his group and the economic repercussions," Hoffman said.

The Wilderness Society also is working with Owyhee County and Crapo on his bill to protect wilderness and ranching in the scenic canyonlands. It also is supporting Simpson's Boulder-White Clouds bill.

Sali has not yet said whether he will support either bill. Risch and LaRocco support the bills.

"Walt has been the moderating conservative voice on those boards," said Jon Foster, Minnick's spokesman, about his environmental affiliations. "The fact that Bill Sali is one of the few people left using the slurs that everyone gave up on is why he's on the fringe."

Nationally, Idaho Republicans score poorly in the League of Conservation voters environmental voting scorecard. Crapo and Craig both got 13 out of 100, Simpson scored 5 and Sali zero. But Crapo and Simpson say the the scorecard is unfairly tipped toward Democrats.

Johnson said there is tension between he and national environmental groups in his efforts to work with Idaho Republicans, but the issues are becoming less partisan. Today, GOP Presidential candidate John McCain also opposes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and agrees with scientists that human activities contribute to climate change.

Many Idaho rural residents remain bitter with the role environmentalists played in reduced logging, grazing and mining during the last 20 years. But others have found they share many values with most middle-of-the-road environmentalists, said Idaho Republican Sen. Brad Little, an Emmett rancher.

Still, their ability to work together is often controlled by the extremes. On the environmental side it is activists opposing all public-lands grazing, while on the other side it is groups that want to eliminate the Federal Reserve and rescind the Endangered Species Act.

"The wing nuts on both sides define what the people in the middle do," Little said.

Rocky Barker: 377-6484