Typically quiet Idaho treasurer race heats up

BOISE - Idaho's normally quiet race for state treasurer is heating up during the last leg of the midterm election as four-term incumbent Ron Crane faces off against political newcomer Deborah Silver.

Republican Crane has held the office since 1998 with few viable Democratic opponents.

However, this year he's defending his 16 years in office after a recent legislative audit claimed he mismanaged funds - resulting in a multi-million dollar loss for taxpayers.

In January, legislative auditors reported that Crane's office inappropriately transferred investments in 2009. The auditors said the transfers cost taxpayers at least $10 million and could result in a total loss of $27 million.

Crane, who has been criticized by auditors in the past, disputes the report's findings. He has maintained that the auditors came to that conclusion only with "the lens of hindsight." Several other audits have been released since then reporting no new problems inside Crane's office.

Democratic candidate Deborah Silver of Twin Falls is a former auditor for a national accounting firm in Boise and used to teach accounting at the College of Southern Idaho. She and her husband own a Twin Falls accounting firm.

Silver has said she entered the race because she was alarmed at the legislative reports critiquing Crane's office.

The treasurer serves as Idaho's chief financial officer and manages $2.7 billion of state investments. The treasurer is also in charge of investing idle state funds and acts as the custodian for worker's compensation insurance securities and the Endowment Public School Income Fund.

Crane won the post in 1998 after defeating two candidates in the GOP primary election. He then won the general election against a third-party candidate with 75 percent of the vote. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2006 - winning more than 60 percent of the vote in both general elections - and ran unopposed for his fourth term in 2010.