Press "Enter" to skip to content

Romney pulling Idaho’s GOP

With the latest news that Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig is becoming one of the two Senate “liaisons” (Utah Senator Bob Bennett is the other) for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, you get the sense that most of Idaho’s top-tier Republicans are headed into the Romney camp.

We’ve thought that likely for a while. Locally, Romney has been talked up more than any of the other contenders. And there’s the Utah connection (through Romney’s work on the Olympics several years back) and as a member of the LDS church, to which something like a third of Idahoans also belong. His personal style is probable more appealing, too, than that of his two leading competitors, John McCain (whose sometimes a “maverick,” sometimes not manner may not sit well) and Rudy Giuliani (who among other things may simply be too New York for Idaho tastes).

Not that all Idaho Republicans will necessarily fall into line. We’d not be surprised if Representative Bill Sali signed on with the longshot campaign of Tom Tancredo; that association runs deep into the early part of Sali’s campaign last year, if not earlier. But in the main, for now, Romney seems to have the main Idaho track.

Share on Facebook