Some people in politics remake the political reality around them. Others jump into the whitewater and run with it, sometimes rapidly, and sometimes successfully.
Steve Symms, one of the central figures in the premier Idaho political contest of the last century, who served in Congress from Idaho for two decades and who died in Virginia on August 8, falls clearly into the second category.
It might not obviously seem that way at first, to look at the effect his rise had.
His political ascent in Idaho was quick, stunning and impactful.
Symm’s first candidacy was for the U.S. House - he didn’t work his way up the steps like fellow Republican Jim McClure, who started as a small-county prosecutor and state senator - and the effect of his races and time in the House was to secure the Idaho first district as solidly Republican. On the front end of his time in the House, the district was plausibly competitive and had a somewhat centrist-right feel. Afterward and since (and despite three Democratic wins there in the last half-century), it has become not just Republican but fiercely so. His successor in the House, Larry Craig, had sounded like a centrist during his time as an Idaho legislator; from his 1980 race to follow Symms he read almost identically from the same script.
In Idaho politics Symms today may be best known as the Republican who finally defeated four-term Democratic Senator Frank Church, a major figure in the state and in the nation too: A candidate for president just four years earlier. Since that election, no Democrat has won a Senate seat from Idaho. The election was a political watershed.
For all that, and for all that individualism was an important part of his ideology, Symms was very much part of the tide and part of his group.
When he first won in 1972, he was part of an emerging collection of Canyon County libertarians (former Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter was in the circle), and seemed at first to enter the race more with the idea of spreading his faction’s free-market and ideological message than with any realistic idea of winning. But Symms turned out to be an excellent retail campaigner, among the best Idaho has seen, and in the primary his Republican opponent had a flawed campaign: The cheerful fresh face won. In the general election he benefited from the strong organizational work McClure, who was also on the ballot for senator, had led over the previous six years. Symms always campaigned energetically, and people liked him, but he broke no real new ground in his eight years. During his time in the House, he even seemed to edge back a bit on some of his earliest stances (on abortion, for example), getting more in line with the Republican caucus.
In 1980, running against Church, Symms had the benefit of an extremely well-run campaign (campaign manager Phil Reberger long has been regarded as one of the best Idaho has seen). But that wasn’t all: National conservative groups weighed in too, scorching the earth against Church long before Symms formally even announced as a candidate.
And not only that: This was the year of the Reagan Revolution, led by the soon to be president whose popularity approached godhood in Idaho. Symms was very much swimming with the tide. This is clearer in hindsight than it was at the time, because Church was widely popular in Idaho; had won decisive re-elections in 1974 against one of Symms’ closest political allies (Bob Smith) and in 1968 against another sitting U.S. representative, George Hansen, who like Symms was a terrific retail campaigner.
A less talented candidate couldn’t have beaten Church, but Symms’ political strength was limited. Six years later, as an incumbent, Symms nearly lost his re-election to Democratic Governor John Evans. And, after personal issues emerged into public view, he opted not to run again in 1992.
Right time, right place.