How’s this for a head-spinner: An attack on Idaho’s Proposition 2 from the right that very nearly matches with a central attack on it from the left, and center?
 Robert Vasquez |
The tone is unmistakable, though: This could be no one but (retiring, but upcoming Senate candidate) Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez.
In an Idaho Statesman guest opinion, he takes after the land use initiative in part (and this is very much a loose paraphrase) based on his experience in local government, arguing that local governments, which are most closely beholden to the voters, would be superseded by a state action. In that, he joins the view of a lot of other elected officials around the state.
Then this:
Let me set the stage by reiterating the collusion between Idaho’s 1st Congressional District candidate, Bill Sali, and the Club for Growth.
Club for Growth bought the candidacy of Bill Sali for a mere $330,000 (more or less) in soft money, negative campaign ads. Then Laird Maxwell, a staunch Sali supporter, steps forward with this Proposition 2 proposal, under the guise of “free market, private property rights” that would, of course, strike a chord with the Idaho sense of independence. What Mr. Maxwell does not disclose in his efforts is the fact that the Club for Growth has contributed to the funding to get Proposition 2 on the November ballot.
Now enters Bill Sali, still serving as a member of the Idaho House of Representatives, professing to be a low-taxes, small government conservative Republican, who voted in August to raise the Idaho sales tax by 20 percent, but makes no comment when asked about his position on Proposition 2.
Why? Because Club for Growth is guiding both campaigns, in hopes of fooling the Idaho voter once again into giving up their congressional representation to corporate greed, and the citizens’ right to testify in opposition at land use hearings under the existing land use law.
Whew. And concluding: “Let us send a message to the Club for Growth, and their puppets, Laird Maxwell and Bill Sali, that Idaho is not for sale.” Notice that Democratic call-out at the end? (Don’t tell us it was inadvertent.)
Appears, more and more, that Idaho voters are increasingly likely to kill this thing.
THE SALI ANGLE Sali’s role in this requires a little more explication, and happily the Nampa Idaho Press Tribune ran a piece today adding useful details.
Bear in mind the early conventional wisdom on Prop 2 was that – given the way its supportive rhetoric matches neatly with often-winning political rhetoric in Idaho – it would sail through to a win. We still don’t know for sure what will happen, but its chances of success today look considerably trimmed from a few months ago. Add to that a normal bit of political strategy, that politicians like to associate themselves with winning issues, not with losers. Watch people like Republican gubernatorial candidate C.L. “Butch” Otter struggle with Prop 2 and finally come out against it, and you can see the prevailing winds in action.
In July, the Boise Weekly‘s Shea Anderson asked 1st House district Republican nominee Bill Sali about Prop 2. He wrote that Sali said he would vote for it, and added the comment, “As John Locke said, ‘the preservation of property’ rights is the ‘end of government,'” Sali said in a statement e-mailed to BW. “Government should be a good neighbor with property owners, and Proposition 2 embodies that principle.” Based on that, Prop 2 organizer Laird Maxwell listed Sali on his web site as a supporter, which seems reasonable. Sali’s name has been there for quite a while; it is listed there still. (A quick aside: The endorsement list for Prop 2 includes one state senator out of 35, four state representatives out 70, and one incumbent local government official, out of thousands statewide. There may be a message in that.)
The Press Tribune today quoted, “Bill is still undecided on how he’ll vote on Proposition 2,†in the words of candidate spokesman Wayne Hoffman; and “I think what Bill said is that he supports the concept but he still needed to review the proposal.â€
This from the man whose campaign is based around the idea of black-and-white certainty about such matters as (among others) taxes and property rights. If Hoffman’s words are literally true, then Sali must be one of the last people in Idaho tracking public affairs at all who doesn’t know what they think – pro or con – about Prop 2. And that would be remarkable.
This is a landmark development in this election season in Idaho. It speaks not just volumes but shelves about both Sali and about the proposition.
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