Nesse runs for District 4 seat

COEUR d'ALENE - Anne Nesse announced she is running for a seat in the Idaho House of Representatives in District 4.

Nesse, a Coeur d'Alene Democrat, said she is running because current representatives haven't done much to help Coeur d'Alene and the surrounding area.

"Our median wages are the lowest in the nation," Nesse said. "Our high cost of living in relation to income and low investment in education for jobs puts us at the bottom of all the U.S."

Nesse is a former registered nurse, teacher, and businesswoman.

She is married to Dr. Rolf Nesse, a family physician, and has three grown children.

She wants to work for greater investment in education and jobs of the future.

In 2013 and this year, Nesse wrote a potential new labor law which helped generate more open discussion of low wages in Idaho.

She has been working to help create nurse practitioner residencies in Idaho to better train primary care providers at that level, creating more jobs in the process and providing a higher quality of health care.

Nesse said she met with the director of behavioral health at Kootenai Health to discuss a much-needed mental health care center.

"The funding for this center was appropriated by our Legislature, but my opponent didn't work to locate this center in Coeur d'Alene," Nesse said.

Nesse is running against Republican incumbent Kathy Sims, of Coeur d'Alene.

"Treatment and job educational investment is key to helping struggling individuals avoid drug addiction and imprisonment," Nesse said. "All these kind of problems that end up being very costly to our community."

Nesse has pledged to give a portion of her legislative salary to kick-start qualified local businesses.