Politics: Analysts say Craig’s departure from Senate would remove powerful voice for Western state’s constituents

IDAHO — Amid ever-intensifying calls for U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s resignation, local political analysts say that if the senator does step down, Idaho will lose a strong and powerful champion of Western interests.

Craig, 62, has spent much of his life in politics. Born and raised on a ranch in Midvale, Craig later attended the University of Idaho, where he studied political science and served as student body president.

In 1974 Craig was elected to the Idaho State Senate, where he served three terms. In 1980 he was elected to U.S. House of Representatives in Idaho’s First Congressional District. He served as a congressman for 10 years before winning a Senate seat in 1990.

Craig quickly gained influence in the Senate, chairing the Republican Policy Committee in his first term.

He had also been the ranking Republican on the Veterans’ Affairs committee and on the appropriations and energy and natural resources subcommittees before Republican leadership asked him to temporarily give up his posts Wednesday.

But analysts say that if Craig resigns, Idaho’s biggest loss will be his seat on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.

“As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he has been successful in sending federal funds to Idaho” for areas like university research, retired Boise State University political science professor Jim Weatherby said.

Craig has also been a strong proponent of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, Weatherby noted. In 1995, a balanced budget bill sponsored by Craig passed the House but died in the Senate by one vote.

Jasper LiCalzi, professor of political economy at Albertson College of Idaho, said Craig’s specialty has been working behind the scenes on unflashy legislation, like the Craig-Wyden bill, which Craig wrote with Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden to provide stable funding for timber communities.

Though not showy, “being able to get money for these rural school districts is really important,” LiCalzi said.

Craig is a Senate “workhorse,” LiCalzi said, and he’s Idaho’s most influential political figure.

“He’s the top politician in the state right now,” LiCalzi said.

But if Craig resigns, that will change.

Gov. Butch Otter would appoint Craig’s replacement, and both Weatherby and LiCalzi mentioned Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, who had previously expressed interest in Craig’s office if the senator were to retire, and Congressman Mike Simpson as possible replacements.

Whomever Otter would choose would have to be a well-known political figure, analysts said.

“He’s not going to pull someone off the street,” LiCalzi said. “(It’s going to be) someone who the governor believes in, I think, someone he’s worked with before and is comfortable with.”

LiCalzi said Otter could appoint “an elder statesman,” someone who wouldn’t run for the seat in 2008, allowing Idahoans to decide whom to send back to Washington. That kind of appointment would essentially be a placeholder until the 2008 elections, Weatherby said.