Otter: Republican Party 'family fight'

COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho Gov. Butch Otter was raised in a large Catholic family with nine brothers and sisters.

"There were times when, in that large of a family, we had a difference of opinion on how to execute those values," Otter said Wednesday in an interview with The Press, discussing the state of the Idaho Republican Party. "We always came back together."

He expects his political party's "family fight" to end the same way.

"The Republican Party is a huge family in Idaho," Otter said. "The primary (election in May) was one of those areas where we exposed differences of opinion on how to execute public policy."

Republicans on both sides of the competitive primary share core values such as reduced government and more personal responsibility, he said.

"(Republicans) agree that it's much more dangerous to have the Democrats in charge of Idaho," Otter said.

He said Republicans are working to pick a date to come back and elect a party chairman.

"We want to do that before the national (party) meeting that they're going to have in the early days of August," he said.

The dates of Aug. 2 and Aug. 9 have been chosen for the state meeting.

"I chose, and am choosing, the second of August, because then we can elect a new chairman and he can legitimately go back (to the East Coast) and give Idaho the three votes that we deserve and should have," Otter said. The chair and two other party officials represent Idaho.

If the party waits until Aug. 9, Idaho Republicans will only have two votes at the national meeting, he said.

Otter said he is doing his part to get past hard feelings.

"Whenever anybody has called me and said, 'Hey, can we sit down and talk and get past our differences in the primary?' I have done that," Otter said. "I have done that with the leadership, I have done that with the candidates who supported my opponent and I supported their opponent."

Not all of them, however, "but quite a few of them," the governor said.

He placed much of the blame for the family feud on the fact the party primary and party convention were held too close together. Lt. Gov. Brad Little told The Press the same thing last week.

"I believe if we would have had our Republican convention sometime in July, we probably wouldn't have had nearly the problems that we had," Otter said. "Those feelings were still very tender. They were on the surface."

Looking ahead, he said he won't be supporting a candidate for party chairman, believing a "grassroots" candidate for that position is best.

"Every one of them who called me and asked would I endorse them, I said, 'No, I will not endorse you,'" Otter said. "'But I'll be the first guy on the stage to shake your hand, and the first guy to try and help you be successful with the party.'"

Finally, he said, he believes the party remains strong because the core values of all Republicans are the same.

"I think (the values) meet the overwhelming majority of Idahoans at the same place," Otter said. "That's why the Republican Party has been so successful."