Fulcher focuses on education, health care, public lands

COEUR d'ALENE - State Sen. Russ Fulcher primarily wants a chance to be Idaho's governor for three reasons.

First, the Meridian Republican opposes the state health insurance exchange, which current Republican Gov. Butch Otter supports.

"It was, in my view, completely the wrong direction," Fulcher, 52, told The Press on Monday.

He said Idaho shouldn't have joined Democratic states in participating in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

"We need a free-market alternative to the Affordable Care Act exchange," he said.

Second, he wants to bring more of Idaho's federal public lands under state control. He said the lands can be better managed by those who live near them.

"We've got incredible wealth in this state," Fulcher said.

There's timber to be logged, natural gas to be tapped and minerals to be mined, he said.

"Being relegated away from tapping into it is just wrong," he said.

He said it would be a boon to the state's economy.

"The private sector is most often the best solution to economic prosperity," Fulcher said.

Right now, he said, Idaho is tops in the nation, with Mississippi, for the number of minimum wage jobs.

"We're not healthy as an economy," he said.

Finally, he said, he wants teachers, parents and others in Idaho to be in charge of education in the state.

He promised to end "a one-size-fits-all approach to education."

He promised to be a champion of school choice, and opposes Common Core education standards.

Fulcher said he spent 24 years traveling around the world, working in sales and marketing for two Boise-based companies, Micron Technology and Preco Electronics, both based in Boise.

"Our markets were not in Idaho, but all over the world," he said.

He spent 15 years working for Micron and nine years for Preco.

"I had a number of different roles," Fulcher said.

Working outside Idaho, he said, he learned a lot about what works and what doesn't in business.

Also, he said, "I realized how special we have it here."

Fulcher grew up on a dairy farm in Meridan.

He has spent 10 years in the state Senate, and is currently the majority caucus chairman. He serves on the Senate Education and State Affairs committees.

He said he is proud that his colleagues have chosen him as a party leader.

He said he is a Republican because of his belief that individuals have control over the government, not the other way around.

Right now, though, the government has too much control.

Currently, more than one-third of the state budget is funded with federal dollars, he said.

"There is too much dependence on a broken system," he said. "We can break the addiction to federal money."

On Monday, Fulcher received the endorsement of Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador.

Fulcher earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from Boise State University.

He and his wife, Kara, have three adult children.