Idaho's 1st Congressional District includes Boise and Ada County west of Cole Road, Canyon County and stretches to the Canadian border.
Republicans:
Bill Sali, Kuna (incumbent); Matthew Salisbury, Nampa.
Democrat:
Walt Minnick, Boise.
In 2006, 1st Congressional District Republicans had ample choices: six of them, in fact.
This year, Republicans are short on options. They can choose incumbent Bill Sali, the winner from the open 2006 free-for-all, despite an unimpressive first term in Congress. Or they can pick Matthew Salisbury, a political newcomer who doesn't really differ from Sali on too many issues.
We can't recommend either. So we will not endorse in next week's GOP primary. We will revisit this race in the fall, when the GOP nominee faces Democrat Walt Minnick.
Sali doesn't have a lot to show for 16 months in the House. In fairness, a freshman serving in the minority caucus, in a sharply partisan House of Representatives, isn't going to get a whole lot done in his first term.
So we will instead grade Sali on matters within his power. He has shown a propensity for baffling votes and alarming rhetoric. A couple of examples:
Sali paints himself as a fiscal conservative - "We've got to quit spending so much money," he said in a Statesman editorial board meeting last month. Yet Sali voted for a $168 billion economic stimulus bill that the nation cannot afford, largely to hand out checks that will do little to stimulate the economy in the long term.
Sali actually presents a convincing case for the need for congressional reform. He wants House committees to deliberate the pros and cons of bills, rather than simply collect testimony unrelated to legislation. He wants to eliminate multi-purpose "omnibus" bills that allow sponsors to slip new regulations into law. Yet in January 2007, as a newcomer to the House, Sali displayed his regard for the process - and his colleagues - by protesting a minimum wage bill by drawing up a symbolic, tongue-in-cheek bill to repeal the law of gravity.
This wasn't the only needless controversy from Sali's term. Last August, he said that a Hindu prayer on the Senate floor and the election of fellow freshman Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim, were "not what was envisioned by the Founding Fathers." Sali later e-mailed Ellison and, according to Sali spokesman Wayne Hoffman, told Ellison he meant no disrespect or harm.
Idaho has only two House members, and Sali has simply proven unable to be much more than a loose cannon. When it comes to national and international issues such as the deficit, health care, immigration or Iraq, the 1st District deserves better.
And it wouldn't get it from Salisbury, an Iraq war veteran and political newcomer. Salisbury doesn't really offer much of a distinction on the issues - he opposes the economic stimulus bill, but in a Statesman editorial board meeting, he seemed to spend most of his time agreeing with Sali. In this face-to-face meeting, Salisbury simply failed to present a persuasive case for change.
The absence of a name opponent in the primary, in a district that has voted GOP for 19 of the past 21 congressional elections, suggests the mainstream GOP is either reasonably satisfied with Sali - or resigned to support him. We aren't.
"Our View" is the editorial position of the Idaho Statesman. It is an unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Statesman's editorial board. To comment on an editorial or suggest a topic, e-mail editorial@idahostatesman.com.
