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Former senator banned from Senate

by DAVE GOINS/Press correspondent
| March 20, 2014 9:00 PM

BOISE - A gay rights activist and former senator was banned Wednesday from the 2014 Legislature for hiding in a closet.

A Senate motion passed 28-6 to deny former Sen. Nicole LeFavour visiting privileges to the Senate for the rest of the 2014 legislative session.

LeFavour, a Boise Democrat, admitted she hid in a closeted "storage room," adjacent to the Senate floor for five to six hours on Tuesday before being found out, said Senate President Pro Tempore Brent Hill, R-Rexburg.

"I'll not speculate on her motives, but from where she was hiding, she was able to eavesdrop on private discussions, and telephone conversations, in this room behind the chamber," Hill said.

"She has demonstrated disregard for the law, resulting in multiple arrests this session. We cannot have anyone abusing their privileges in the Senate."

LeFavour has been arrested during gay rights protests at the Capitol building. She and other "Add the 4 Words Idaho," proponents - prodding state lawmakers to add "sexual orientation," and "gender identity" in the Idaho Human Rights Act discrimination safeguards - say they have been silenced by the Senate this year by not being granted a committee hearing.

Two North Idaho legislators, Sens. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow, and Dan Johnson, R-Lewiston, were among those opposing the motion.

Schmidt was the only senator to debate against Hill's motion to suspend a Senate rule allowing former senators to visit - with the revocation singling out LeFavour.

"I reluctantly will oppose this motion," Schmidt said in debate. "I feel I can understand the behaviors that we have seen, which I don't condone and I'm not going to support. But I believe this is the wrong response."

Schmidt said he later learned that LeFavour didn't look favorably on his no vote.

"Sen. LeFavour has subsequently written that she wished all (Democratic) senators had voted to exclude her, but I did not know this at the time of my vote," Schmidt wrote in an email. "I don't know that it would have changed my vote."

LeFavour did not return a telephone call from a reporter on Wednesday.

LeFavour, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Congress in 2012 as she closed out four terms in the Legislature, has been at the forefront of the "Add the Words" campaign.

In an interview, Schmidt said he "didn't feel threatened by her (LeFavour's) behavior."

"I didn't feel like we needed to take that step," he added.

Asked to elaborate on what different response the Senate might have made regarding LeFavour's action, Schmidt stated in the email: "I believe listening to a person, hearing them, and working to address their concerns, even if the answer may be unwelcome, is the respectful way to treat people. If this has been done, then I could support a motion to promote the decorum (of the Senate) and the people's business. I hope such was done, but I have not spoken with Sen. LeFavour myself, so I cannot attest to this, and the maker of the motion did not signify this."

In addition to Schmidt, four other Senate Democrats opposed the successful motion to ban LeFavour from visiting for the balance of this year's legislative session. Legislative leaders have set Friday as the goal for concluding this year's session of the Legislature.