Posts published in “Mansfield”

DENNIS MANSFIELD

In the many years that I've worked in politics, I've never quite seen a more curious start to a race for Governor than this year - in Idaho.

Both candidates appear to be running against Barrack Obama - from two different sides. Both want to be more pro-life than the other, as well.

One candidate is an incumbent who joined a small group of three Republican governors embracing Obamacare by developing/supporting a state run health exchange.

All other GOP governors in the US refused to do this.

Another candidate is wrapping his opponent in Obamacare, preparing - as it were - for a political burial at sea.

The sea is an apt description - for we may be about to observe a major sea-change regarding the incumbent's tenure.

Yesterday's exchange on abortion between Butch Otter and Russ Fulcher is a telling case in point. With Obama's partial-birth aborting of his own political "signature-law offspring", Butch Otter unwanted-ly could become an accessory to his own politi-cide - and Russ Fulcher knows it.

Senator Fulcher has regularly attacked Governor Otter, over these past few months, for the incumbent's role in failing to stand with the other Republican Governors in direct opposition top Obamacare. Governor Otter sided with the insurance industry lobbyists in developing the state health exchange. The pro-life community asked him not to do it. He chose a different course.

Yesterday, the Governor attacked Senator Fulcher, attempting to wrap the most pro-life senator in the state Capitol as someone who would be inviting Planned Parenthood into the state to determine policy within a federal health exchange.

Hmmm, what?

Something is happening within the Otter camp - something is unnerving its handlers.

Otter doesn't bother with political slap-fests. In many ways he's always been above it. So this response by his camp is somewhat awkward to watch.

Having run against him, myself, for US Congress, I can tell you that he's cool, calm and collected - always in control of events, causing things to happen without himself appearing to be struggling. He also makes things happen without it looking like he did anything to his opponents - in a sense, above the fray.

But Idaho's demographics are changing - younger people who don't think of Governor Otter as their friend are shying away from elected officials who were against Obamacare before they were for it - and they may see their new premiums as too huge to pay. My guess is they just may vote with their past-due premium notices, tucked inside their depleted checkbooks.

And it won't be for Obamacare's state exchange champion in Idaho. (more…)

DENNIS MANSFIELD

I haven't blogged yet on the political weakness of the entire GOP, observed recently by all.

Today I decided to do so.

A little needed background before I make my point:

For years I've been both a businessman and a political consultant.

In business I've owned a small mortgage company, a mid-sized soil erosion control company & a local city-wide firm that helped house ex-addicts. I've been a business coach for almost a decade and I recently became an author, published by Simon and Schuster and Endurance Press.

As a political consultant I lobbied for the Realtors, was the founding executive director of the Building Industry Association (BIA) of Palm Springs, CA and for a decade I founded and ran the Idaho Family forum - a pro-family public policy think-tank that educated and lobbied under IRS code 501 (c) 3 sub chapter (h), working in association with Focus on the Family and the Family Research council.

My experience also involved helping men and women run for office in the California's Assembly, US Congress and US Senate along with Idaho's House and Senate. A partial list of the GOP campaigns I've served/supported includes:

Howard Jarvis/Paul Gann/Proposition 13 ('78 cycle)
Ronald Reagan's PAC, Citizens for the Republic - ('78 cycle)
David Dreier for US Congress ('78 cycle)
Reagan/Bush ('80 cycle in CA)
John Paul Stark for US Congress ('80, '82 and '84 cycles)
Fund-raising for Steve Symms for US Senate, Idaho ('84 cycle)
Robert Henley for CA Assembly ('84 cycle) & US Congress ('86 cycle)
Reagan/Bush('84 cycle in CA)
Roger Madsen for ID State Senate ('92 cycle)
Dave Baumann for ID House ('92 cycle)
Bill Sali for ID House ('92, '94 cycle)
Helen Chenoweth for US Congress ('94 Primary cycle)
Dole/Kemp ('96 cycle)
Gary Bauer for President (2000 Primary cycle)
Bill Sali for US Congress ('06 Cycle)
Raul Labrador for US Congress ('10 Primary cycle)

I hope my credentials speak for themselves.

Not a person among this list would be considered moderate or liberal.

I'm proud of those past credentials - of my business background and my political involvement - and yet I'm cautious of what I'm now seeing in the philosophical break-down within the GOP over this recent budget stalemate. Something deep down is wrong...

I think the Republican Party is lost in the woods - state by state and nationally.

The compass that directed them in the past has lost its true north: the founding document of our Republic, the US Constitution.

In 1980 the GOP used that compass and crafted its national party platform as a reflection of that truth.

Americans came forward because they longed to be involved. Citizens within the republic who had never been involved, became involved. Conservative evangelical christians, economic conservatives, constitutionalists, moms and dads...and then, in recent years, Tea Party members.

The tent was big, the issues were focused.

Not now. The compass still works, it's just been set aside, it seems... (more…)

DENNIS MANSFIELD

Welcoming the first of occasional columns by Dennis Mansfield, a veteran of Idaho Republican politics. His book "Beautiful Nate" will be published next month.

America’s future is found in its children, the saying goes. We must center our lives on them. All children must be allowed to succeed. And if we truly love our children, such individualized formula will work, the saying continues. Each of us feels this to one degree or another. As parents, Americans have ensured the success of their progeny via a highly controlled environment and well executed plans.

What if we’re all wrong?

In my own case, as evangelicals my wife and I raised our oldest son, Nate, in an atmosphere of faith-based formulae. Cocooning is too strong a phrase, but not by much. And it didn’t work. In time, he became a drug addict; arrested several times, placed in jail and ultimately he went to prison. His drug of choice was oxycodone and other prescription opiates, until they ran out and then heroin became the suitable substitute.

The result for a family, steeped in formulaic fear-based living, is often that we’re surprised and shocked by the teen that emerges.

It should all work, right?

But again, what if we’re wrong? Apollo 13’s famed comment that “failure is not an option” may in fact be incorrect. Learning from failure changes all of our lives. Why would we exclude our own children from that truth?

When something jars us from our formula and the unthinkable happens – our child gets high, she crashes a car, he physically hurts people, they rob a store, he escalates his drug of choice, becoming an addict.

Or as in the case of my son Nate, he dies from his involvement in drugs.

The child-centeredness of a fear-based parenting model can create the exact opposite of what we wanted, of what we planned for. My reliance on formulae was convenient, but invalid. Rather than the joyful smile of our little 4th grader at the table we began to stare into the surly, self-focused, uncaring and arrogant face of our young adult.

You too? And at twenty, or thirty-something, many adult-sized children still demanding the keys to the family’s car.

What in the world happened? (more…)