Sheeley letter: Mike Crapo

The denigrating and demeaning of out-of-state callers in connection with the Betsy DeVos nomination by Sen. Mike Crapo was, at best, wrongheaded and, at worst, patently hypocritical. Crapo justified his conduct by alleging that many callers were on someone’s payroll, but failed to provide an iota of substantiating evidence on that claim. Crapo forgets that he is a public employee paid from the U.S. Treasury. Very few of the matters Crapo considers and votes on in Congress affect only Idaho. All the citizens of this country pay Crapo’s salary and are affected by his actions in Congress. As such, Crapo should extend due respect and consideration to any American contacting his office.

However, if Sen. Crapo adamantly believes that devaluing out-of-state people is warranted, perhaps Idahoans could at least expect consistency on his part. As per the Federal Election Committee, during the 2015/16 election cycle 71 percent of the itemized individual contributions to Crapo’s campaign came from out of state. In fact, Crapo received 1,735 out-of-state contributions, which comprised the vast majority of the amount of individually contributed monies he received. To ensure a consistent policy, Crapo should curtail receipt of such contributions.

This story was originally published April 9, 2017 at 11:03 PM with the headline "Sheeley letter: Mike Crapo."