GOP 'Fire Pelosi' tour stops in Idaho

BOISE - Republican U.S. hopeful Raul Labrador says if voters in Idaho's 1st Congressional District want to know how he'd represent them if elected, they need only to look at his record in the state Legislature.

Labrador touted his conservative credentials and railed against federal spending at a rally in Caldwell, where the Republican National Committee's "Fire Pelosi" bus tour made a stop Saturday.

The tour is designed to boost prospects for GOP congressional candidates with events aimed at unseating House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after this fall's elections.

The Idaho event targeted Democratic U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick with a rally in support of his 1st District GOP opponent, Labrador, a two-term state lawmaker from Eagle.

"If you want to know how I, as your congressman, will work in Washington, than just remember how I served you in the state Legislature," Labrador told the crowd.

In the state Legislature, he co-sponsored a bill that sought to punish businesses caught knowingly hiring illegal workers. He used a procedural move to block a bill that would have made texting-while-driving an infraction, calling the measure unenforceable. He also tangled with his party's leadership over a plan to raise gas taxes to fund highway repairs.

Labrador was a vocal opponent of Gov. Butch Otter's proposal to raise Idaho's gas tax and vehicle registration fees to fund road work during the 2009 Legislature, calling it a gift to special interest groups.

The two appear to have patched up their differences, at least for political purposes. Otter was among elected officials who flanked Labrador as he spoke to the crowd of about 200.

Labrador highlighted part of the state Legislature's push to challenge Congress on health care reform. If elected, he promised he would work to repeal the health care law.

In a crowd where the names "Barack Obama" and "Nancy Pelosi" were used with heavy disdain, Labrador frequently threw his opponent into the mix as often as possible, declaring that the "Obama-Pelosi-Minnick administration" had not done enough to spur the economy and created new jobs.

"I know what it means to create jobs, to experience both good times and bad," said Labrador, an immigration attorney.

Minnick campaign manager John Foster said Labrador's "so-called business experience" was laughable when compared to Minnick, a former wood-products company executive with "three decades of creating jobs and helping build Idaho's economy."

"Raul has zero qualifications for helping Idaho's economy," Foster said.

On the campaign trail, Minnick has pledged to do all he can to help rebuild the state's fledging economy and picked up endorsements from business groups that typically back Republicans.

Labrador said that if elected, he would make the creation of a stabile business environment his top priority.

"First and foremost, we need to make the Bush tax cuts permanent," he said.

President Barack Obama wants to keep those tax cuts for families and individuals with incomes below $250,000 and impose higher tax rates on everyone else, including the wealthiest Americans.

Republicans want to extend all the Bush-era tax cuts.

"Big businesses are sitting on large amounts of cash because they're expecting more government, more taxation, more spending and more regulation," Labrador said. "... We need new leadership."