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(Boise Mayor's Race) Non-partisan victory Major Win for Idaho Democrats
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| Contributor | Stephen Yellin |
| Last Edited | Stephen Yellin Nov 08, 2003 09:11pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Saturday, November 8, 2003 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | BOISE (AP) -- It may have been a nonpartisan race, but it was probably the biggest victory a besieged Democratic Party has claimed in more than a decade.
Dave Beiter's election as Boise mayor is already energizing his party and intensifying optimism about a return to relevance in Idaho's public policy debate.
"It's the people of Idaho saying, `Whoa, this one-party system doesn't work,"' former Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus said. "We are starting to rebuild the Democratic Party throughout the state of Idaho."
Beiter, a third term state representative, took on top GOP leaders and their candidate, Chuck Winder, and beat them decisively to win a nonpartisan campaign that was anything but in a heavily Republican state.
Beiter did it the way few Democrats have done it in the recent past. He was competitive in money, offered a moderate message and outdid Republicans in what the GOP has been known to excel at -- campaign organization and mechanics.
"We've kind of had a patent on that," former GOP Gov. Phil Batt said. "They've learned something from our play book, and it's not going to be as easy anymore,"
Beiter's grassroots campaigning and corps of hundreds of volunteers produced 52 percent of the vote in Tuesday's municipal election. It doubled Winder's 26 percent and more importantly avoided a December run-off. Longtime Republican Sheriff Vaughn Killeen finished third with 19 percent.
The victory seems part of a trend that begin two years ago when then-state Rep. Roger Chase won the nonpartisan race for mayor of Pocatello to join Idaho Falls Mayor Linda Milam as Democratic city executives. Then last year Democrats doubled their seats in the Legislature, going from three to seven of the 35 Senate seats and from nine to 16 of the 70 House seats.
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