Idaho candidate filing, now done (save only for write-ins at the primary), turn up not a lot really remarkable - a fairly normal portion of seats left uncontested, a normal number of primary contests. And a good many familiar faces from past go-rounds.

The sheer number of candidates for the U.S. Senate, for the seat held by Republican Larry Craig, is 13 - suggesting the whole thing is a lot more competitive than it really looks to be. The conventional wisdom, which we won’t argue with, has it that Republican Jim Risch, the lieutenant governor, is odds-on favorite in primary and general; and if there’s a major upset, if for example there were a huge national Democratic tide or some such, then Democrat Larry LaRocco, who is a known quantity and has been running a long-term and energetic race, would have a shot. You have to wonder what motivates the other 11 - those being seven Republicans, two independents, one Libertarian and one Democrat - to do this. (We’ll acknowledge that the independent running under his new legal name of Pro-Life has more or less an implicit explanation.)

Democrats did this time field candidates for all three congressional seats on the ballot - in fact, they fielded two for each.

Of the 105 legislative seats, 34 are uncontested - those incumbents have a free ride (with the asterisk that a write-in at the primary could change that). Of those, nine are Democrats - a high portion of the total number of Democrats (26) in the legislature. Democrats are making out better with free passes than the Republicans are. A handful of additional seats, however, have primary contests featuring Republicans only.

Familiar names surface through the filings. In Canyon County, Democratic candidate (experienced through several runs at this point) Dan Romero is running against Senator Patti Anne Lodge. In District 16, a legislator from a couple of decades back, Republican Elizabeth Allan Hodge, makes a return run (in five-way Republican primary for an open seat now held by Democrat Les Bock, who’s running for the Senate). In Weiser, former state Democratic Chair Wayne Fuller runs for the Senate against Republican incumbent Monty Pearce. In Twin Falls County, Democrat Bill Chisholm (well, he’s running as a Democrat this time) is on the ballot again - is this somewhere around his tenth run for the legislature? Democrat Allen Anderson returns in Bannock County to take on Republican Ken Andrus for - we think - the fourth straight time, including one win and two losses. Over in Idaho Falls, Democrat John McGimpsey, who ran a strong campaign in 2006 against Republican Russ Matthews and came close to winning, is trying again.

Odds and ends to be checked on. Soon.

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