Voters will see through this unsavory switcheroo
It appears Rep. Raul Labrador, despite being a darling of those enamored with the Tea Party wing of the Grand Old Party, missed one of the fundamental principles of the movement encapsulated in the phrase “We don’t like politics as usual.”
This past week Labrador and his fellow Tea Party type, former State Sen. Russ Fulcher, announced one of those cynical “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours” that is a classic form of politics as usual.
After telling many of his supporters that he was not a place-holder for Rep. Labrador, that he was in the governor’s race to stay, he and his friend, Raul, are now in cahoots together trying to pull off a job switcheroo.
Surprise! Fulcher is now running for Labrador’s congressional seat with Labrador’s endorsement. Can you ask “is that a quid pro quo?” You betcha. Fulcher gets the endorsement and Raul has one less conservative to overcome in the primary.
Everybody is happy because the politicians each have something. It’s only the voters who get suckered that get hurt, the people who took Fulcher at his word that he wanted to be governor, and wrote checks because they believed him.
Labrador has to be chuckling to himself all the way to the bank. He thinks it is a no-lose for him, but a little knowledge of Idaho history might have given Labrador at least some pause.
If history is any guide, voters take exception to this kind of cynical game and often to the surprise of those who play the game, the voters do remember and both politicians, if they hold a current political office, get punished.
The most cited example of this form of gamemenship came in November of 1945. On Nov. 10, 1945, Republican U.S. Sen. John Thomas died while holding the Senate seat. Then Idaho Gov. Charles Gossett, a Democrat, must have seen a senator staring back at him in the mirror on Armistice Day morning when he was shaving.
He met with Lt. Gov. Arnold Williams, also a Democrat, and the two cut a deal. Gossett would resign the governorship, which he did on Nov. 17, presumably having waited until Senator Thomas was buried in the Gooding cemetery, and Williams, who had become governor upon the Gossett resignation, named Gossett to fill the vacancy created by Thomas’s passing.
Retribution by the voters was swift and fatal. Voters tossed both out of office: Gossett lost to Rep. Henry Dworshak less than a year later on Nov. 5, 1946, and Williams, despite being the first Mormon in Idaho history to sit in the governor’s chair, was soundly beaten by State Sen. C.A. “Doc” Robins, MD, from St. Maries and the first governor to hail from North Idaho.
The moral of the story is simple: Voters do not like seeing such games being played for it truly does smack of politics as usual. Fulcher and Labrador can deny it until the cows come home but that won’t change how most will view this development.
Lt. Gov. Brad Little should benefit from this move by Labrador for it demonstrates just how political as opposed to principled Labrador is.
Likewise, David Leroy should benefit because he is skilled enough to make sure every voter in the First District understands that Fulcher is an opportunist who just wants a government paycheck and would prefer the anonymity of being one of 450 members of Congress rather than the leader of his state.
In the end the voters do win because they see what chameleons the two men really are.
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Chris Carlson is a longtime Idaho political writer who resides in Medimont.