Three for GOP

COEUR d’ALENE — The top three candidates for Idaho’s open governor seat in next year’s election came racing out of the blocks Friday night.

Well, let’s say they were trotting.

U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador, Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little and Boise physician-businessman Tommy Ahlquist were given an easy warm-up at the Best Western Plus Coeur d’Alene Inn.

The format for the Idaho GOP’s summer meeting was set by the Idaho Employer Alliance — a group of businessmen who agreed that questions for the candidates should focus on hiring a CEO to run the state.

There was nothing wrong with that premise, but the full-house audience spent a lot of time sitting quietly because the questions were identical for all three candidates, none came from the audience and there was no interaction allowed among the candidates.

The result was that all three tended to agree — at least generally — on most issues, and the only real shot across anyone’s bow came during Labrador’s closing statement.

Ahlquist, the non-politician, had been surprisingly forceful and had engaged the crowd with a bundle of ideas and plans for “action based on a lifetime of medicine and business.”

Perhaps grasping that Ahlquist had scored plenty of points even in this friendly environment, Labrador was almost finished for the night when he said: “Government is not a business. You need to understand the legislative process.”

That final exchange summed up the night.

Labrador and Ahlquist were the most animated, while the easy-going Little stayed in character — generally reminding people how he’d traveled to every corner of Idaho and understood the system as the lieutenant governor.

“I think I know the pulse of this state,” Little said.

All three were happy to say the state’s tax code was too high to entice businesses into the state, and again they echoed each other about the need for improvement in education.

“We have to define what our goals are,” Ahlquist said. “We talk about keeping Idaho kids at home for Idaho jobs, but we need to create a clear line of sight so that students can see how achievement leads to careers.”

Little agreed, more or less, by drawing a straight line between education and business.

“It’s all workforce-based,” he said. “Our education has to lead to talent. We need young people with skills to compete in the marketplace.”

As for taxes and bringing new business into the state — which all agreed was tied to education — Little described his view of a new tax code as “fair, simple and predictable.”

Ahlquist and Labrador agreed that taxes were too high to lure businesses.

“We don’t have enough competition,” Labrador said. “It’s the same with health care. We need more hospitals, more doctors.

“Issue after issue, you’ll see we need competition and transparency.”

However helpful the idea of new businesses might seem, though, each candidate dismissed the notion of various incentives to lure companies to Idaho.

“We can’t give out incentives and ignore current businesses that are struggling to survive,” Ahlquist said. “That’s not fair, and it’s not the way to solve anything.”

Labrador agreed, with an interesting twist.

“Our job is to get out of the way,” he said. “We’re not here to pick winners and losers by helping one business and not another one. Let them win and lose on their own.”

As the evening wore on, the candidates tweaked their viewpoints slightly, but they spent most of the time agreeing on questions to which there was only one right answer for someone hoping to be a Republican governor.

They were asked if President Donald Trump was doing a good job (yes, across the board), and whether the national opiate epidemic was dangerous for Idaho (yes, again).

On that issue, there was a follow-up question that might have drawn some discussion, but…

Asked if they would support funding faith-based rehab programs, all three said yes immediately — and Ahlquist added he had a relative who had been helped by just such a program.

More generally, Ahlquist brought up an interesting analogy he insisted gave Idaho an advantage over both the federal government and most other states.

“I’ve talked about action,” he said. “Well, we can attack things like health care issues and other problems in ways that others can’t.

“We’re small, but nimble because of it. This is a state where things can get done.”