One more reason to vote on May 17

Some prominent incumbents may have bigger fights in their re-election bids than they’d bargained for this year.

U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador and state Rep. Kathy Sims are facing competent, determined adversaries — Labrador in the general election and Sims in next month’s primary. The two are directly connected.

Labrador recently endorsed Sims for re-election, which would be no big shocker except that he endorsed her over another Republican in the primary. A sitting Republican member of Congress, expressing strong favoritism for one Republican legislative candidate over another? If that’s not unique, it’s at least highly unusual. And questionable. It hints at two things: Labrador owing Sims a favor, and Sims feeling uneasy about her chances against a smart young candidate who represents rational approaches to common problems, rather than Tea Party politics at any cost.

We’ll see on May 17 and then again in November how that strategy works out for both Labrador and Sims. The power of incumbency, in this case with multiple terms in both Sims’ and Labrador’s back pockets, is difficult to overcome. But Labrador, who is both admired and resented for stances that are frequently perceived as obstructionist, and Sims, who has painted herself into a corner of ultra-conservatism that she now shares with only a few other legislators, could be susceptible.

Labrador’s most likely opponent in November is another lawyer, James Piotrowski. In a meeting Thursday with The Press editorial board, Piotrowski clearly enunciated why he’s so different from Labrador: While Labrador battles with members of his own party as well as Democrats, Piotrowski has spent the last couple decades helping individuals and groups with opposing interests leave the negotiating table with equitable agreements in hand.

“Everybody has to come away with something,” he said. “If everybody’s a little bit unhappy, you’ve probably got a pretty good deal.”

In Paul Amador, Sims is facing a Republican with outstanding academic credentials, a deep understanding of issues based on his own research rather than someone else’s political persuasiveness, and a strong desire to bring out the best for all of Idaho, and not just one faction of the Republican Party. Because the Republican primary is essentially rigged to favor the most conservative candidates, Sims has a huge head start. But nobody should be counting out Amador.

The Labrador-Piotrowski race would be bolstered by strong turnout as our nation selects its next president. We submit that locally, the Sims-Amador race alone should be enough to get District 4 Republicans off the couch and into the voting booth on May 17.