Notes From The Floor

Nicole's Open Letter to Former Colleagues

Friends, Former Colleagues,  

I no longer serve with you, but I’d like to say a few words. You, of the Idaho House and Senate, I think you know in your hearts, you still have work to do.

I never was allowed the privilege of bringing a bill to “add the words” to the floor of the house or senate. I'd like to you to hear what I would have said had i been granted that dignity. I can not do justice to all the lives affected. There is so much you will hear when you finally listen to the stories of gay people, your sons and daughters, nieces, nephews, neighbors, and silent friends.

First, despair takes far too many of young people. It never should. Please consider the loneliness of a young person who has been rejected by their parents, then their church, even their friends. Too many stand over sinks with razors or knives alone, because no one stood to protect them when the world grew cruel.

You may feel this matter is not a place for policy but for church or family. But what of when one or both fail good people? Should any one of God's beautiful young creations feel they are unworthy of life? What if this were your child?

There is sometimes folly in religions when they need to find demons from among us. Every century, every decade has had them. And politics takes them up because what church preaches is powerful. It motivates action and votes. But at the expense of lives? So people we love live in fear of meeting a baseball bat in a parking lot or alley?

I know none of you wish harm on anyone. Tragically though, this legislature’s failure to act is the same as an endorsement of the violence, a nod to the unworthiness people feel when they live in fear and no one will stand for them. In the far, most rural parts of Idaho it can be the hardest. What if this were your child? Your sister or brother?

Politics and political parties are not your highest obligation as law makers or as citizens of this beautiful state. Your highest obligation is to protect lives, to ensure freedom, liberty and life. 

Please. This is so simple. Idaho already has laws that decry cruelty on the basis of chosen religion, race, disability, national origin, age over 40 and gender. Every business in Idaho operates within these laws and has for decades. The laws mediate and protect businesses and as much as alleged victims. They allow penalization only for blatant, intentional, systematic acts of cruelty; the kind trampling of a person’s liberty that we all feel civilized societies can not function with or tolerate. It is very simple to include gay and transgender people, my people, me, within these existing public safety statutes.

Please, understand lives will be lost quietly each year, each month, you do not to act, each day that more of us despair.

Thank you for reading this. Please put conscience before politics. With respect.

…nicole

 

Former Senator Nicole LeFavour
Box 775 Boise, Idaho 83701
208 724-0468 • [email protected]

 

P.S. This bill is so simple. Just insert four words “sexual orientation, gender identity” within the Idaho Human Rights Act which is the state’s existing fair employment, housing and education law.

The Speaker or Pro Tem could request a hearing on the bill and it would, as you all well know, with your help, still have time to pass this year. Please.

 

Photos from the Road

Photos from my 2012 Campaign for U.S. Congress.

500 Volunteers. 10 Staff. 4 field offices. 2000 donors. Over $300,000 raised from regular ordinary Idahoans. 110,000 votes in one of the toughest years to run as a Democrat in Idaho. Over 1/4 million phone calls made. Over 25,000 voters contacted and logged. More votes than any Democrat has gotten in the East half of the state ever.

With my deepest respect & gratitude: Thank you all. With LOVE & hope that we can & will do better. My staff is phenomenal. We would be nothing but 10 people in a cafe without all of YOU who gave time or money to make this happen. We organized half the state in ways that helped other candidates on November 6th. The work you all did will continue to help many in the years ahead.
What will I do next. I don't know. I do know it's not over Idaho.
.. nicole

Stay in touch: http://4idaho.org

What to Celebrate

Eight months ago, standing in the statehouse considering whether to run for Congress, I figured I could run a good campaign. What's amazing is that, together with thousands of you, my team ran the best campaign many have ever seen run in Idaho. Stronger, better organized, more tech savvy, more deeply rooted in communities and more issue-focused than I could have imagined.

NUMBERS

Thirty-five percent of the vote. While that sounds dismal, it still means more than 110,000 voters chose me over Mike Simpson on Tuesday. I think that's ten thousand more votes in the east half of the state than any democrat in any congressional or statewide race has ever gotten. And in spite of how LDS enthusiasm for Mitt Romney made this one of the most difficult possible years to run as a Democrat in Idaho, it appears that our campaign brought in about 25,000 new voters to participate in this election. That's an impressive twenty-five thousand people who did not vote in the 2008 presidential race.

We engaged Idaho's powerful Hispanic community and worked so hard that Mike Simpson gained fewer than 2,000 votes from the Romney tide. In fact thousands of LDS men and women and more than 10,000 Republicans and Independents voted for me. That was the work we all did on the phones and the doors --and it mattered.

CHANGING THE DEBATE

More than anything, you all allowed me to finally have the resources to use TV and direct mail to push back on issues we so rarely get to re-define here in Idaho. I'm proud we exposed the attitudes that have led to Idaho's grim record on fair pay for women and the kind of cowardice that allowed passage of the Luna laws. We also changed the debate on budget cuts by focusing on job loss, and explained who the job creators really are in the economy and why.

And last but not least, we've put to rest the question of whether Idahoans will actually vote for a gay person.

GRATITUDE

I feel profoundly grateful to you all. From the unemployed carpenter who gave me four dollars, to the Republican mothers, fathers and working people who've crossed streets and sent email to tell me they voted for me. From the long hours and tremendous heart, hard work and intelligence of my staff and volunteers, to the sense that so many of you gave your time and money because this work is something you believe in.

This has been the most amazing experience of my life. We've made history. Idaho needs us all to keep talking to neighbors over picket fences in our communities, volunteering to organize other volunteers, raising money or using phone calls to change minds on the issues we care about -- perhaps to strengthen political organizations and non-profits, to run campaigns or, for many of you, to run for office yourselves.

WHAT'S NEXT

I have no idea what I'm doing next but I love this state. Sadly, Idaho has failed so many families who've faced hardship these past years, those who've lost jobs and homes or small businesses; those who've waited so long for respect and dignity or legal status; those who strive for simple security or the tools for independence; those who struggle to pay for a college degree or just to put a meal on the table.

The work is not over. What you all have done is so beautiful. Many of you came to this because you care and believe Idaho and its policy makers can do better. Lives depend on all of us using our skills to motivate friends to challenge our Idaho Congressmen, state lawmakers and local officials when policies become cruel or disrespectful.

For the lives and futures of people we care about, let's carry with us what we did this year and make this congressional campaign not an end, but a beginning.

 

Idaho Needs a Congresswoman Who Will Keep Seniors Secure

Thank you. Idaho, you continue to amaze me.

 

When I filed to run for office in March, I couldn't have imagined what beautiful things I'd see in this state, in its people, in the generosity and passion and kindness so many have shown me. Every day I am humbled by how much people give to this campaign. I am humbled by the words of encouragement from people I pass on the street, by people who open their doors to talk about issues they care about, by students who come and spend spare hours on phones talking to strangers about me and what matters this election.

I'm humbled by those who gave time or any amount of money to keep this campaign strong so that we've been able to open offices across the district in Idaho Falls, Pocatello and Twin Falls. A few days ago we reached an important marking point. We exceeded the amount raised by all the Democratic challengers to Mike Simpson combined. And it will take that and more to win on November 6. But it is an important marking point and it shows why some of us have faith in what's possible in this state. It also shows how serious this campaign is.

We have so much to celebrate today. We have met goals I wasn't sure I'd be able to meet. It will take a few days to count but with the mail, the credit card donations and pledges into our offices, we think we will exceed what we thought possible for yesterdays deadline. Amazing.

I look around and every day I'm astounded by the creativity and hard work of my staff and particularly the field team, and the solid leadership of Ryan Hill, the let's get this done brilliance of Rialin Flores my finance director and the many of you who have talked to others or raised funds for me these past months by hosting house parties or calling and asking friends to give.

We have a month more now to raise what it will take to buy television and the last of our mail. So no, it's not over. I have more weeks of torturing you all with my asks for donations.

But last night proved we can do this. The total fundraising goal of our plan is within reach now. With new donors, more house parties, more generosity and creativity and passion, I know now that I can raise what it takes and run the kind of campaign it will take to win on November 6th -- to become Idaho's next Congresswoman. Thanks to you, I can say I know this now.

To all those willing to work hard for what matters to them, my deepest deepest thanks, You just continue to amaze me. 

Just 5 weeks left. For me, no resting. Back to work. Again, thank you.

...nicole

 

You can buy TV Ads here: https://secure.actblue.com/page/nicole-on-tv

 

 

Congressional Budget Cuts Decimating Jobs

As a member of the House Budget Committee today voting to oppose a continuing resolution to keep from shutting every federal agency and service down, Rep. Mike Simpson does little to offer solutions to the current budget stalemate.

As a state lawmaker who has served for four years balancing Idaho budgets and dealing with fiscal crises, it seems clear to me that those offering a "cuts only" approach to eliminating the deficit and passing a budget, have created not only this impasse but in part also created our nation's continuing economic crisis.

Over the course of the past five years federal budget cuts have eliminated more than 600,000 American jobs. Congress still pays unemployment benefits to a great number of these workers. We have to ask, if job creation is the most critical key to economic recovery, why has congress not restored these jobs so those families again have full income to support their community's small businesses, American manufacturers and our nation's economy?

Like many, I fear Congress these past two years has delayed addressing real economic issues in the interest of keeping the economy down until after the November election. Essentially they have played politics with American lives. This sort of partisanship has decimated jobs, families, security and the values of cooperation and compassion which made this country great.

It is time for Congressman Simpson to do the real work of proposing a budget that takes into account that the problem with our deficit goes beyond simple government spending and has an equal amount to do with fighting two wars and refusing to roll back eight years of tax cuts that have benefited the nation's most wealthy, obviously with no positive economic affect.

Rep. Simpson has voted more than once in favor of the Ryan Budget which further decimates jobs while cutting and essentially privatizing social security and Medicare for future generations of American seniors. Paul Ryan's budget is no solution to our nation's economic problems and is not a proposal any thinking policy maker would seriously consider as a compromise to resolve the current budget impasse.

Yes, it is time for Congress to get to work and to take seriously the affect that repeated cuts have on the economy. It is time for them to look all of us in the eye and ensure for once they are not decimating jobs more quickly than America's private sector can create them.

 

Senator Nicole LeFavour grew up on a ranch in rural Custer County in Central Idaho. She’s well-known across the state as a hard working legislator, respected advocate and teacher. In her eight years in the Idaho legislature, Senator LeFavour built strong relationships with Democratic and Republican colleagues from across the political spectrum. She earned bi-partisan support on her legislation year after year and has been formally recognized for her leadership by local and national organizations.

 

DONATIONS: https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/go-nicole

VOLUNTEER: http://4idaho.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29&Itemid=31

INFO: http://4idaho.org

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: LeFavour announces candidacy for congress

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 10, 2012


Four-term Idaho State Senator Nicole LeFavour announced today she will seek election to the U.S. House of Representatives in Idaho’s second congressional district which encompasses North East Boise, Mountain Home, Twin Falls, Ketchum, Burley, Pocatello and Idaho Falls.

Said LeFavour in a Friday twitter post, “I’m running for Congress because I love Idaho and we can do better.”

Stepping down after eight years serving as one of Idaho’s most passionate voices in the legislature, LeFavour said of her move to run for Congress, “This is a hard time in our nation and sadly I feel Congress is not doing all it could to set our economy right. Idaho families want to feel secure about retirement, about their jobs and the opportunities their children will have. I understand that so well. We have a job to do as a nation and we have no time for partisan struggles.”

“I don’t love political parties but I am a Democrat because Democrats care about working people and families, we believe in communities and that people can pull together to overcome great obstacles. We believe that a strong public education system and a more affordable college education are the foundations of our own American dreams. I’m a democrat because I feel it’s time to recognize that the wealthy do not create jobs, ordinary families create jobs. They create jobs when they can afford their doctor bills and can replace a broken washing machine, buy clothes for their children, eat out at a restaurant, travel, or pay for a college degree.”

LeFavour was not a supporter of the Mitt Romney style health care reform adopted in Federal health reform, “No one should go bankrupt over medical bills or fear that the cost having of insurance is out of their reach. We needed to hold insurance companies accountable, not make them more powerful by mandating that everyone buy coverage and offering no other option.”

Well known statewide for her work opposing Tom Luna’s three bills which cut support for teachers to pay for laptop computers and mandatory on line classes, LeFavour is a former teacher. She grew up in rural Custer County in central Idaho where for seven years she worked in water quality, fire fighting and as a wilderness ranger for the U.S. Forest Service.

“I grew up on a ranch which was once a pretty modest place. We took in guests and raised chickens, milked cows, made butter, bread, bacon and raised a lot of vegetables. My sister waited tables in the restaurant and I worked in the kitchen. I’ve always worked hard.”
 
“Working for the forest service I saw how the federal government works. It creates a lot of important jobs for rural communities protecting our drinking water from pollution, our forests from devastating fires and making sure Idaho still has amazing places to hunt and fish. At the same time government can feel huge and can grow uncaring if we don’t have people representing us who watch out for our communities and our families.”

In the legislature LeFavour served for four years on the powerful Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee while Idaho balanced its budget through some of the worst economic times in the nation’s history. LeFavour was an advocate for Idaho’s schools and reducing prison budgets by increasing funding and access to mental health and substance abuse treatment statewide. “Balancing a budget is about cutting spending and about understanding how cuts will affect jobs, families, the economy and next year’s budget. Some cuts don’t make economic or human sense because we eliminate thousands of jobs, create greater costs in our prisons or in emergency medical care. Congress needs to recognize this.”

LeFavour continued, “We all want our tax dollars to be put to use for the betterment of our country, keeping wages livable, ensuring seniors and people with disabilities stay independent in their homes, making a college degree more meaningful and more affordable, lowering health care costs for small businesses and inspiring American companies to increase their manufacturing and create jobs here in America to make us strong again.”

Senator LeFavour can be reached for comment at208 724-0468

Those wishing to donate, volunteer or help build a base of support across eastern Idaho should contact the campaign at [email protected]

I can now accept checks of $30, $60, $100, $500 or ANY amount up to $5,000 before the Primary May 15 or $2500 after May 15. P.O. Box 775 Boise 83701. The more quickly I get my first $100,000, the more likely I can win Nov. 6!

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: LeFavour will not seek another term

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feburary 24, 2012


Idaho State Senator Nicole LeFavour announced Friday that after eight years serving in the Idaho legislature she will not seek a third term in the Idaho Senate. “It has been such a deep honor to represent the amazing people of Boise’s district 19 where I live. The district has been so good to me and I like to think I’ve been a dedicated voice for those here and for many statewide who otherwise might not have had someone to speak for them.”

In her four terms in the legislature LeFavour was well known for her work on tax policy, prison sentencing reform and improving Idaho’s treatment and support for those facing mental health or substance abuse issues. She also has advocated for adequate services to keep Idahoans with disabilities independent and healthy in their homes and communities.

“It is with the deepest sense of regret and sorrow that I leave the legislature, a place that has taught me so much about politics, policy, process and people. Idaho is a tough place to be in the minority. I took very, very seriously my duty to speak for those who were to be harmed by the policy we passed. That’s not a popular role to play and one simply can’t do it forever. It is especially hard knowing that speaking up for a wrong about to be done was so often not enough to change the outcome. You hope for the best in people and I always have hoped my colleagues would rise to that. Last year was tough and I left the session knowing this would be my last.”

In the legislature, LeFavour served for four years on the powerful Joint Finance and Appropriations committee, for six years on the Judiciary & Rules Committees of the House and Senate and for four years on the Senate Education Committee where she led efforts to oppose Tom Luna’s 2011 Education reform bills which make it law that the state would increase public school class sizes by using drastic cuts in funding for teaching positions to pay for new lap tops and mandatory on line courses.

LeFavour was elected by her peers in the House and Senate three times to serve on Legislative Council. For more than four years she served on the Commission on Hispanic Affairs. All eight of her years in the legislature she served on the Joint Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee where for five out of the seven years she had the closest year end revenue estimate of any legislator on the committee.

First elected in 2004, LeFavour was Idaho’s first openly gay elected official and the only openly gay person elected to Idaho’s legislature.

“The four or so months of the legislative session are hard on family. My partner Carol has put up with a lot of stress and has stood by me as I dealt with a lot of loss. She’s so smart and keeps me laughing through the hardest times but you can only ask that of someone for so long.”

LeFavour hopes her district will work to make sure that she is replaced in the legislature by another openly gay member.

“It is so critical that the house and senate have openly gay members. If I weren’t here there are times I’m certain that some in this Capitol would say they didn’t know anyone gay. And then how would they ever know that they cared about what happens to gay people in our state?”

LeFavour says she’s seen progress,  “After all these years, finally this body of 105 people is beginning to see that people do still discriminate and do intentional harm to gay and transgender people in our state. I know for a fact that a majority of my colleagues also finally feel that doing intentional harm to gay people is wrong. In a civil society it is our duty to say this is wrong. If we don’t, we might as well be saying that we condone the harm and don’t care about the lives of good people who lose their jobs, housing or educational opportunities for no other reason than that they are gay.”

“I began this session knowing I would not be returning and had one of the most amazing experiences of my legislative career. In August I began working with a group of people who became known as Add the Words, Idaho. Many, gave their every spare hour over the last five months strategizing and organizing to help the Idaho legislature see that Idahoans believe it is time to include gay and transgender people in our existing human rights act. I love the group of people I’ve gotten to know these past months. I think they’ve changed history on this issue. For the first time in all my years working on this issue I have two votes shy of a majority supporting the bill in both the house and senate with at least three maybes and several I’ve not talked to yet. That alone keeps me hopeful about what may still be possible this year.”

“I leave the legislature knowing I did everything I could last year to try to stop the cuts to education and the radical change in priorities from teachers to technology. I put my whole heart into stopping the cuts to Medicaid and to mental health treatment therapy and to services that keep people with disabilities independent in their homes. This year I will continue to do everything I can to get my politically fearful colleagues to acknowledge that this may be the only year in the next ten years that we have such a clear opportunity to pass legislation to include gay people in Idaho’s human rights act. I hope it weighs heavy on their consciences that in history they have the choice to do that now or to continue to allow good people across the state to live in fear every day.”


Senator LeFavour can be reached for comment at208 724-0468
Texting is an efficient way to reach her as well.

If it Doesn't Work

Off through the dark tonight the stathouse grounds are cold and snowless. When the gavel falls and the 2012 session begins on January 9th, I will begin my 8th year serving in the Idaho legislature. After what seem like so many years, I still come to the work with the expectation that what lies ahead holds some promise of hope. I work hard to hold onto that.

Each year is different. That is comforting. It could be better.

But going into this session I hear far too many whisperings of Republican colleagues setting their agendas and limiting the range of legislation they will support based on what they think the extreme of their party demands. This will be an eleaction year. New closed Republican primaries are unknown enough to strike fear into every moderate heart.

Tonight as vapor clings in frozen patterns on windsheids and cold cuts deep into every stone, I have a caution for my colleagues: You give them this power. With their threats will they now get everything they want? While perfectly reasonable people elected you, often by overwealming margins, will you none the less vote in the interest of the few in your districts who wish you ill and in May will seek to drive you from office regardless of how you answer their threats?

And what if you wake up tomorrow and those who elected you for your intelligence and integrity grow disgusted? What if those who purposely elected you as a moderate, a reasonable person, what if they abandon you and stay home on election day or vote for Democrats because of the compormises you made out of fear of the central committee lynch mobs down the street?

What if standing for what you believe in your heart inspires others to do the same? What if it inspires people at home in their houses to work for you, to grow passionate in their support?

Which will you really choose?

Don't bother telling me you have no choice. I see those conversations coming. Do you really think that voting the way they want will make them easier on you? Sadly, I suspect no matter how you vote those cross hairs will still be leveled at your heart.

Primary Transgression

On the floor of the Senate in afternoon session. The sun shines down from above through the frosted sky lights and we Democrats are posing a long series of questions to Brent Hill, the Senator charged with carrying the Republican Party's closed primary bill.

The bill gets personal to me. As you dig through the layers you find that not only does it allow Republicans to do as they have long wished to and close their primary races off to Democrats or even independent voters, but in fact it forces counties all over the state to reveal publicly which ballot an independent or unaffiliated voter chooses when they come to vote in any primary election -- even a Democratic primary that our party will keep open to anyone.

Even worse, this choice of chosen primary ballot by an unaffiliated or independent voter will become an assigned party affiliation for that voter if they choose to vote in a primary that is closed by a party like the Republican Party. And it will not be easy for voters under this legislation to get your names again unaffiliated and  your selves once again unassociated with a political party if you perhaps don't live and die by political parties and you want instead to vote for the candidate of your choice without having a Political Party listed by your name.

But today the debate is unlike any I've seen. Many Republicans in this room smile at our questions, nod and many even laughed when Diane Bilyeu asked Senator Hill to explain why the Republican Party brought the lawsuit that forced the state to pass legislation changing its primary elections. It was a bold question and Senator Hill answered that he could not explain that.

But Senator Siddoway just now stood, clearly shaken, he broke ranks and debated how the Republican Party has forced its way into the Capitol "into our house" to make him and others pass this legislation. In the gallery, Rod Beck, former Republican Party Chair sat watching. Siddoway concluded his debate against the bill telling Senators to vote yes. Many laughed. His statement obviously adhered to whatever agreement was reached on this bill in the closed Republican caucus meeting held yesterday upstairs in the grand room facing West.

Like Senator Siddoway, I grew up in the small town wilds of rural East central Idaho where privacy is precious. This bill did not have to trample on Idaho's privacy. No court or judge or constitution dictated that it do that -- but sadly that is exactly what the Republican Party has chosen that it will do, that the state will do and that we all must suffer with as this bill flies through the statehouse to become law.

Hope and Referendum

I feel my breath in my lungs oddly. Closing debate about to melt into the roll call where one at a time we say "aye" or "nay."  Tom Luna's final bill S1184 YES: 20   NO: 15

I have to whisper "I'm sorry" a thousand times into the air and shift my mind now to those preparing to gather signatures once the legislature adjourns. I remind myself: the 15 of us who voted no are not alone.

NO Votes: Andreason, Bilyeu, Bock, Broadsword, Cameron, Corder, Davis, Darrington, Keough, LeFavour, Malepeai (McWilliams as substitute), Schmidt, Stegner, Stennett, Werk.

Thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands outside this strange marble dome know well what these bills will do to our schools and they are ready to take up a special part of Democracy and work for repeal of all three of Luna's bills by referendum.

We have told teachers a horrible lie in these three bills. We promise "pay for performance" bonuses but we pay for the bonuses by cutting teacher's salaries. Five years from now we will have cut salaries more than we pay out in bonuses. The bonuses are a smoke screen for how radically the bills cut education, how drasically unequal schools will be in their ability to afford to keep teachers employed, expensive experienced teachers who are the anchor of schools, who make education something worthwhile for tens of thousands of Idaho kids. Twenty Republican Senators voted yes.

YES Votes: Bair, Bracket, Fulcher, Goedde, Hammond, Heider, Hill, Lodge, McGee, McKeague, McKenzie, Mortimer, Nuxoll, Pearce, Siddoway, Smyser, Tippets, Toryanski, Vick, Winder.

There will be a narrow window for gathering signatures but as soon as they're gathered an injunction stops implementation and we start working at getting those who care to go to the polls to vote. We have a lot of work to do changing this legislature and electing one with priorities that resemble those I've seen in the past two months in Idaho. Idahoans care about their schools, class sizes and teachers. These bills do not. To think we can stop them in spite of how out of touch this body seems to be.

That gives me hope.

.......................................

Scroll down and sign up on the email list of Parents and Teachers to find out about volunteering to gather signatures once the Referendum signature gathering begins. http://idahoparentsandteachers.com/

In Silence We Risk All

My office lies in an alcove off the long marble hallway that leads from the underground wings into the depths of the Capitol. Two freshmen Republican Senators share this suite with four of us Democrats. Across the bright stone passage, Republican offices circle another suite, and, down the steps behind the committee rooms, a long dark hall lit by skylights hides the offices of the Republican Committee Chairs for nine of the Senate's ten committees.

In the evening, some law makers stay late sorting and answering email, others have given up. The voices flow like bitter sounds that only rarely fall to whisper. The building has riled a sea of discontent. Oddly for all the voices I fear few are listening.

Still, crisis unfolds far away on littered beaches seeming not yet to soften this hard determination of newly elected men to hate the collective expression of America we call government, taxation, regulation and welfare. If compassion is an anthem to some of us, to others it remains a sign of weakness and pitiful need.

It is as if, divided into camps of those who fear and those who hold out a hand in offering, our nation and state have both split themselves into parties, factions, armies of America.

In times of world crisis can we afford these lines we draw? These tendencies to label groups of the unknown into good and evil. Is not the essence of humanity, patriotism, and our constitution that all are created equal and that we exist to express our will with free voices that honor the opinions of the minority whether those voices are ours or those of others, also American, also patriots for expressing an opinion about the nature of their duty in government.

But sacred is the obligation of the majority not to trespass or violate the outnumbered. Serious are the obligations of those who govern to not only hear but to heed those most vulnerable with whom we together constitute our union, our state, our country and nation.

But our nation is none other than an island to which the disparate have come seeking refuge, each of us claiming bits of its land as our home. Yet we should know there's nothing permanent in history but change and the rising and falling of nations, governments, kingdoms, empires and tribes.

If today in our fear of discomfort, our fear of giving up time or troubling with those we don't agree with, if in this fear we fail to rise when others fall, when the strong step hard upon the vulnerable; if too few stand, then all may be lost, not just the perpetuity of our wealth or safety, but eventually the very land and government upon which all order relies.

So, if participation is politics seems inconvenient, think how difficult is the consequence of disengagement. Not always will there be others to stand when we do not. And sadly it is not until it is too late that we will ever know that others did not stand. And then where shall we be but lost in a shaken tide of regret; landless and anchorless without a nation to recognize because, for us, standing up when all might be lost, was more than we were willing to do.

So stand now, in the midst of our state's determination to suffocate its tradition of decency toward those with disabilities, teachers, children and those who may wish never to have to carry a gun. It's not too late to stand now, even though the ground shakes. Single voices make a difference. Single acts of courage and leadership against a tide can turn that tide, bend history toward compassion.

Indeed something must move us to common action in this tiny red corner of our bleeding nation. We are not yet lost as other nations are. Our buildings tower still above our minds. For the sake of those that come after us, we can not let slip the beauty of a better nature, the heart of our uncommon good. We are more than greed, more than soft silent masses.

Where are our voices Americans? What will be left for the generations to come if we don't stand up and speak now?

Thirty Percent

Last night as all unfolded here in Idaho, I had to breathe in, look around the old ballroom decorated to feel cheery and know in my gut that I represent a tough state. Candidates who poured their lives into races hoping to make a difference in protecting their schools or creating jobs or public transportation, go home now to surreally quiet homes.

Idaho. We Democrats serve in politics here knowing we are the minority. Democracy doesn't work if someone isn't up to the challenge of representing the 30% of the state that clearly prefers not to have public schools decimated by budget cuts. The 30% that will willingly pay taxes so that neighbors don't go without food, housing or medical care. The 30% that worry how expensive it is to lives and budgets when we cut mental health and substance abuse treatment, driving people and their families into desperation and cirsis.

To the other 70% of the state, I say this: what is invisible to you, the bridges, the police cars, the prison walls, the detox rooms, the teachers reading essays into the late dark of night, the prison guards, the parole officers, the social workers making sure someone takes their medication, the program that pays an 88 year old woman's electric bill, the agency that inspects day care centers: these things break down when you starve state government, when you cut it again and again and again.

Idaho, I will always see the best in you. I still hope we will pull together in crisis, look inside classrooms at the beauty and loss there, see our neighbors as people and rise above this as a state.

 

Closing Day

Friday at 5 pm the candidate filing closes. Last chance. Outside Boise many races have no challengers still.

Many of the candidates do file on the last day. It is the big surprise day. I know of two more great candidates about to file in District 19. Other places I don't know about so I worry. I figure it is better when a seat is vacant to have too many people jump in and to sort it out later rather than to have no Democrats run because everyone is waiting politely, afraid someone better wants the seat.

We need willing people, problem solvers and passionate people. We need those brave enough to stand in front of the train with us, to stand up with school kids, the lowest paid state workers, teachers, counselors, people with disabilities, the state's Hispanic communities, the elderly, those literally dying for substance abuse treatment, those who have lost jobs, run out of unemployment, those who need a state legislature that does more than pretend to balance a budget to look good in an election year.

Money will literally run out in several state budgets right after the elections. Some will run into the red sooner. We know that now yet here this week we push those budgets to the floor and into law. Some seem to feel that the bigger the train wreck we create this year, the easier it will be for them to raise taxes next year.

We are talking about people's lives here. If you all plan to raise taxes, be honest and do it this year before schools lose their best teachers, before kids sit in crowded classrooms slowly falling behind, and before people with chronic illnesses run out of their medications and end up in the hospital. I wish we would all just be honest, not hurt people to justify what we know must do to fix the hole we blew in the state budget with all the corporate and special interest taxes we have cut this past decade.

So tomorrow is closing day and I know my speech here is not uplifting, it is damn depressing, but if it makes you mad and makes you want to do something about it  then look at the filings and if no one is running, put your name in. The Idaho Secretary of state has the forms on line. You can get them notarized and faxed back by 5 pm. Burley to Eagle, Twin Falls to Coeur d'Alene, we need you in here.

I stay in here and serve because I care. I need to say too what an honor it is. It is hard but it is an honor to serve doing what I think is right, standing up for those in the state with so little voice in here. This place can only get better if more people run. We have to keep the debate going, it makes the policy better when races are challenged, even if you don't win the first time.

Someone winning one new seat in the house can change everything, get Democrats more seats on committees, give us a larger voice, more energy and momentum. To me, the party is the people who do these basic critical things like run and volunteer and get the work done. We make the party what we want it to be. If you think something can be better, it can. That's your job and mine. I choose to make this party a party that cares, cares deeply and with that I try with all my might to make a difference.

Choosing Not to Leave

I have a huge black and white framed photograph of U.S. Senator Frank Church in my office leaning against a desk. He is sitting on a wagon on the front lawn of the ranch in Custer County where I spent many years growing up. Frank is smiling, his sleeves rolled up, thick hair brushed to the side. He looks kind and warm. I've not yet hung this photo on the wall of my office. I've not hung any photos. It is time to. I'm staying here in the Senate, not risking leaving JFAC where there is so much work to do next year rebuilding the lifelines, health programs and schools we have torn down this year.

So I will stay here, voters willing. Our seven Senate Democrats make for a small caucus but we must be mighty. Our four budget committee Democrats, Wendy Jaquet, Diane Bliyeu, Shirley Ringo & I, are settling in together too, getting a feel for each other and how our skills and personalities complement one another. Shirley is brilliant and funny.I have sat next to her morning after morning all year. Sometimes she leans over and makes some wise crack in the midst of something tense. She is like my amazing partner Carol who keeps my spirits up through the hardest of things. Humor is a gift I only wish I had like they do.

This morning JFAC finished setting budgets and we disbanded for now until called back by the Chairs. Now each of the agency spending packages, each harsh plan with its job cuts, furloughs, fragile operations and bandaged programs will now make its way into yellow and blue folders bound for the House and Senate floors. These have to pass both bodies now; huge cuts made while we left over $70 million in millennium funds and $35 million in grocery credit saving unused. Some budgets, like the one for Medicaid, have problems. They are not plans but cobbled together statements of desperation.

Below is intent language we passed this morning. Essentially it tells the Governor and his agencies "Good luck, you figure it out now."

"The appropriation provided in this act and the provisions of this paragraph shall take precedence over any Idaho Statute that is in conflict for fiscal year 2011."

It is not a stretch to suspect that there are constitutional issues with writing this sort of broad authority into the intent language of a budget bill and with allowing the Department of Health & Welfare to ignore any Idaho law they want as we tell them to figure out how to absorb $100 million in budget cuts while still providing medical services to Idaho's most vulnerable children, people with disabilities and those with chronic, life threatening illnesses like cystic fibrosis.

I also guess in all this that Governor Otter will not take kindly to being saddled with this job in an election year.

So this is a first but perhaps this is what happens when a powerful majority votes to gut budgets but doesn't want to be the ones who decide who lives and who dies.

Going Home

Alright so a few people noticed that Anne Pasley Stuart filed papers to run for the Senate seat I now fill. It is a slightly long story but the gist of it is this: I miss the House. Anne said she was going to retire from her house seat and the legislature so I thought wow, I miss that larger more chaotic, wild and humorous body, I could go back there. Why not?

I figure if you are going to stand in front of the train day after day you need someone there to keep you smiling when you scrape yourself back up off those tracks. So yes, I'm planning to go back to the House. I hoped Brian Cronin would fill my Senate seat. But now that's where it got complicated. I will miss many of my Republican colleagues in the Senate, especially the four Republican leaders I've come to be quite fond of. Some of the best law makers there just hide that humor and others do what is brave now and then when they can, though not as often as I wish.

The friends I left in the house in both parties will keep me going for the long haul so I can stand up between the marble walls day after day to say what needs to be said when it needs to be said. And I miss the policy work of Revenue & Taxation and Judiciary & Rules. I loved those committees. But really we need more reinforcements, we need folks to understand that we need help in here. From one end of the state to the other we need you all to do the hard thing and run for the legislature, run to stand up with us when all this is so wrong. We need you teachers and students, nurses and parents... in Canyon County and West Boise, in Eagle and Coeur d'Alene, Moscow and Twin Falls, Emmett and Idaho Falls. This is not a presidential election year so the attentive and policy oriented tend to be the ones who vote. This leads to more rational outcomes. That is good for Democrats and moderate Republicans.

Next year in the House and Senate we could be a larger minority, stronger, more able to work with the more reasonable factions to get things done, to stop the worst of what is killing our economy and decimating more and more jobs. Until then we just have to tell it how it is and make sure voters understand that gutting education was a choice and that if we all get involved this year it doesn't have to be this way.

Hoarse but Smiling

Never in my life have I felt so compelled to wave an American flag, so compelled to hug people, grin from ear to ear and just stare up marveling at all those tens of thousands smiling, waving flags singing and stomping their feet on the Denver Bronco stadium stands. Image after image is painted of the nation we can have offering us a simple choice. Tonight we feel what we as a nation could be. The path there is clear and is two months to its start. Not an easy path but one that is right before us and around us and here in our flying hands.

So I'm horse from shouting and doing the wave and laughing. After this night comes the hard work as the Republican Convention begins and Carl Rove (who is here in a back room somewhere) and his machine grinds up to frenzy and spends the next two months trying to rip Senator Obama and our nation's hope to tatters.

But we are durable people -- those millions of us who can not wait for equality or help with medical bills or jobs that don't vanish over seas simply so some company can make more profit for stockholders or escape the accountability of American health, environmental or worker standards.

Tomorrow the work begins all over for every American who is unwilling to risk losing the hope we have for the better nation that is in our grasp. But tonight I'll dance and sing to Bruce Springsteen. I'll go more hoarse and laugh and sing (even though I can't sing) because tonight Barack Obama accepts my vote and our nomination of him as our candidate for president.

Senator Obama is coming out now and I have chanting and stomping to do.

Remembering America Better

The primary election was hard on my feelings for Bill Clinton. Here tonight watching Bill Clinton through the waving flags I was impressed with the genuine tone in his voice, his words which redeemed him maybe to others besides me, maybe even to some who did not ever see his accomplishments. Living all the way in Idaho where our news sources were very limited, he and his administration was an obsession of talk radio. Bill Clinton did not in my memory come to speak to us. He was abstract. For any who were too young or too far away or might listen tonight from deep skepticism, Bill Clinton wove images of so much impressive policy and strong leadership, images of such stark contrast with the Bush administration, that even for someone decidedly not a Bill Clinton fan, I felt nostalgic.
 

Calling Home

You get in the middle of this ocean of politics and home gets swallowed in the blue lights and sea of faces. But I've been calling my dad at certain moments, like when I saw Randy Newman sing at the New Orleans tribute and when Michelle Obama spoke to the convention floor. My dad can be counted on to be watching what ever political thing I'm involved in. He made phone calls to voters during my first campaign in May of 2004 and was already marveling at the Obama Campaign in Idaho in the summer of last year, watching the Logo debate in LA when I traveled there for the campaign to cheer on Senator Obama as he debated 4 primary opponents in a TV studio there.

My dad seems to know more about what is going on here than I do. It is understandable since getting around here is a major undertaking involving many city blocks, shuttles, light rail and buses. At the same time the media is everywhere at once and viewers can float this whole place from caucus to floor session to issue session with the touch of a remote control.

My dad's partner, Faith Echtermyer, is a photographer. She has been making hand-made political signs and posting them at the end of their driveway. Her enthusiasm and anxious desire to see the primary behind us is surprising and cool.

My mom called me today from Challis. She and her partner are so far from all this and yet she asked me how I was doing and if I was having fun before she told me that doctors found a melanoma on her arm. She has to get it operated on next week to get it removed and see if it is OK.

So as this ocean churns and rises in the midst of the Clinton nominating speeches, I rise out of it and think of my mom, gun owner, horse lover and wonderful character. I wish her well.

Tense Moments

Senator Clinton is meeting with her 1700 plus delegates today. We are told it is so that she can release them. I hope she successfully does that because last night, as the white "Hillary" signs were passed out to the entire crowd (just as the Kenedy signs were the night before) it was hard not to feel like this primary will never be over and behind us.

In February the caucus floor in Boise was tense but light hearted as we worked to persuade Democratic caucus goers to choose Senator Obama over Senator Clinton. Last night here in Denver in the sea of respectful Hillary signs, there were tense moments. I couldn't help feeling how the room had over 1700 Clinton Delegates, many of whom are now happily Obama supporters, but others for whom that process of shifting their focus and support has not yet happened.

Our delegation has seemed to move gracefully in this but those divided states feed each other's frustrations I'm sure the more time they spend feeling again like there is any glimmer of hope that supper delegates could come over or something could happen to sink Senator Obama and let Hillary ride into the general election victorious. But this morning we Obama delegates signed over our votes to Senator Obama. They will be reported from a microphone and lap top console on the floor of the convention  tonight. The Hillary delegates are saving their votes until later, after their meeting with her.

Last night I felt at moments that she was still campaigning. One of the threads in her speech asked whether her supporters were in this for the people affected by the issues. She asked again and again were they in it for this or that. But the end of what she was saying trailed off, seemed almost grammatically to be missing as if she left a line out of her speech. The set of questions to her supporters reached no conclusion. That conclusion seems as if it should have been then to say "Well then Barack Obama is your President." It didn't happen though and the series of questions trailed off. I'm sure it is so hard after all she has done to run for this office.

She did make some strong statements about our need to have Senator Obama in the white house. And finally the white signs were replaced with the tall blue "Obama UNITY" & "Hillary UNITY" signs. The feeling that she was campaigning faded a bit and people streamed out into the night, Obama delegates carrying a few Hillary signs and some Hillary supporters carrying Obama signs. May we be done tonight after the vote. Finally done and on to talking to voters about the differences between Senator Obama and John McCain.

Hillary Healing

I missed seeing Hillary Clinton speak earlier today. She will speak soon here on the convention floor and Texas next to us is going mad. Unlike Idaho, Texas was split 50-50 in the primary. Ceding the race has been harder there I'm sure. Tonight is supposed to be part of that healing process. I'm hoping for a warm and genuine endorsement from Senator Clinton with no barbs that suggest doubts.

Michelle Obama came to the Gay & Lesbian Victory fund brunch today. She just showed up and spoke so very passionately about LGBT equality to that room full of many Clinton devotees. She carried Senator Obama's devotion to equality so well in that room of delegates and community members. No first lady, perhaps not even Hillary Clinton all those years ago has given a speech like that to TV cameras in the midst of a presidential election.

We have come so far. I marvel at people like Tim Gill who lives here in Denver and basically funded Democrats take over of Colorado a few years ago.

Michelle Obama just came out in a cream colored dress with Joe Biden to sit on the floor in a press box a ways away in the arena. That means Hillary is coming out now. Like most of you I'll watch and listen.

One of Idaho's three Clinton delegates, Jeanette Wolfley on the floor of the convention with a roll out sign given to her by the Texas Delegation.

Too Exuberant

Canyon County Commission Candidate, Estella Zamora, stands the feet of the elaborate convention stage where the Delaware delegation now sits.

Democratic Party Chair Keith Roark and State Obama Director Kassie Cerami stand at the command center for Idaho's delegation to the National convention, high up above the stage.

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NOTE: Due to technical difficulties (no wireless, not even expensive wireless) I could not post this or anything from the floor of the convention. I'll try to use my PDA from here on to send photos and shorter posts and will try to catch up each morning. Thanks for reading, sorry not to be timely!
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Streaming toward the first floor session. Inside we find speeches underway, platform committee reports (a historic platform but that work is behind our party. This is not a place to discuss and debate.) Many of the seats are still empty, people visiting and getting to know each other. And there is Delaware down there front and center (literally) near where we would have been. Really up here in the stands is where we'd expect to be.

Slowly it is all starting to warm up and gel. People are listening to the speakers more, finding the rows of seats that will be home for the next three days. The seats are not where many are staying though. The glittery lights go up and down. People wander a lot, a crowd too exuberant to sit still or quietly.

It feels like a concert except that watching the crowd and the media is what most people are doing now. There are too many speeches to really absorb. Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama come out soon.

These are the "Credentials" which are our passes to the floor and our official Delegate papers. They have some sort of electronic chip in them that the security scans as we enter.

Denver's Pulse

Late night. A day of wandering the streets of downtown Denver with thousands of slackjawed visitors also trying to find the pulse of this place. It is a city this week with too many arteries for a single pulse. All you get is the staccato of millions of us pushing together to move our nation on past this disastrous period in our country's history. We all mutter quietly, "May we please end the era when we whisper our nationality in foreign countries, where we know so much of our soul has been sold to the highest bidder and where we have grown so soft and unambitious as to our role in the world." As if our entire foreign policy for the past eight years had been crafted by Texans and tank makers just trying to figure out how much they theoretically could make if they completely had their way with federal regulations and our nation's use of military might. If.

But Denver is where we all look ahead. You do feel the heavy hearts of those who have not let go of having Hillary as the next president of the united states. The endless booths of buttons and t-shirts and stuff with Senator Obama's beautiful face on it must feel like a slap to some of them. But we will work to heal that. They themselves seem to be working to heal that. There will always be fanatics. That's OK. It happens. Hopefully we all know what is worth stressing about and what is not. Some people's minds you can not change. You thank them kindly and move on. You leave them in peace.

And one can not leave this evening without note of the number of police here on the streets of downtown. In riot gear. Mostly directing traffic and, by their own account, finding even the most "frightening" protests pretty tame so far. Carol and I have even been amused to see how often the black clad helmeted ones end up giving directions to those of us lost or searching for some event venue. They answer from behind the plexiglass shields, from horses backs or bikes or motorcycles. We thank them smiling.

What of the pulse? Rapid. It is easy to miss even knowing what you have missed. People walk about with their "credentials" on around their necks, announcing they are delegates. We moved quietly from street to street, Carol and I happily incognito. We found it nice to go and seek out gay people at receptions and fundraisers to visit with. This is a place where anyone political from anywhere will be gathering this week and talking strategy for elections or policy. The word "change" is a big one for gay people. We have much to change. We have a long list of what needs to happen before we find equality under our nation's laws-- just to provide for our families, raise our children in peace, plan for emergencies, care for sick loved ones and die knowing our partners will be respected along with our wishes after deaths. That's a good little set of policies to change. But if anyone can do these hard things, if anyone can get our nation there, it is the man whose face stares out from every corner and street vendor stall. Who else is eloquent and persuasive enough to bring a nation to understand why gay people matter, how regardless of race or income, citizenship or marital status, we are all part of America? We belong. We are ready to dig in and help solve the problems of a nation in crisis, if we are only given a place at the table.

So Denver beats with a million footfalls and fingers tapping. Tomorrow we begin. 7:30 AM breakfast meetings with our state groups clustered around conference tables in hotel meeting rooms. Idaho is out here 45 minutes from downtown with Guam and Indiana. At 3PM we find out where we have been moved to since Joe Biden's little state bumped us from our nifty spot on the convention room floor. We are humble and don't expect too much. Swing states will be up front. Texas moaned about our being closer than them. It isn't flattering to moan. We will smile and wave from where ever we are. We have mighty delegation in ways you will soon learn.

Under the Huge Sky

We are driving across Western Wyoming, huge and dry, like an immense extension of Southern Idaho without the Snake River. It is spectacular in how much of it there is. It does make me appreciate our fortune in Idaho. That big, slow river flowing through our dry parts.  

That this year’s convention is in the West means more than shorter drives and non-stop flights for Western Delegates. For many of us I’m sure it is a bit more of an acknowledgement that we count. We certainly did push Senator Obama across that delegate finish line. In the general our states are more in play than in year’s past and to convene here feels good. The familiarity of the food and the clothes and the air and light and big expanses is like home. Funny it is a little like the odd experience I had at the LDS temple in Salt Lake where I found myself for the first time in my life standing in a religious monument filled with symbols of the intermountain West. The seagull next to the sage brush, the smells so formative rather than foreign. I’ve been to temples and spiritual sites from Thailand to Alaska, Samoa to Prague, Nepal to the Ucatan. With all their majesty or simple beauty and deep history, none struck cords of home like that little courtyard at the carefully lit hub of Salt Lake’s city streets.

So to choose our Democratic nominee for president in a place with granite mountains and air that is dry and western, feels comfortable and somewhat profound. We are included, these Western States, crimson to blue, purple to chameleon.

On the Road to Denver

Carol and I packed our little blue car last night. We’re headed for Denver. I spent most of the first 10 or so years of my life in Colorado. Denver was the big city and seemed far away even though it was less than two hours from Woody Creek where we lived over a red stone creek bottom, between sage brush and pine mountain sides. My sister and I walked an irrigation ditch to school and our family left for Idaho when it all got too big and crazy in the 70s.

Not only have I never been a delegate, I’ve never been to a National Convention before. My clearest images of political conventions come from brief TV glimpses featuring oceans of signs and placards. Hunter S. Thompson’s dispatches covering one particular Republican National Convention liven up several still photos of Idaho delegates, including fellow 2008 national delegate, TJ Thomson as a very young man in a silly hat with Senator Malepeai smiling behind him in a stadium seat under bright lights..

I actually watched parts of the 2004 Democratic Convention including Senator Obama’s very moving address, the one where, for the first time I heard a national political leader so successfully transcend traditional political division and still genuinely include gay people like Carol and I in his vision of America. We both cried watching and I’m sure we were not alone.

But really, I knew nothing of Political Conventions until I ran for delegate this year. I know that is true of more than a thousand of us nationwide. And today we are streaming by car and plane and bus across the West to converge on Denver.

Running For Senate

PRESS RELEASE     March 8th 2008     Information: Nicole LeFavour 724-0468

LEFAVOUR TO RUN FOR STATE SENATE

Following Senator Mike Burkett's announcement that he will be retiring as State Senator from District 19, Representative Nicole LeFavour announced Saturday her intent to run for Legislative District 19's State Senate seat.

LeFavour was elected in 2004 and has served two terms in the district. She has been a visible member of the House Revenue and Taxation committee where she has led efforts to stop shifts in taxation from Idaho's largest businesses to Idaho families and small businesses. She has also worked for greater tax accountability for economic development incentives to ensure that Idaho does not give away tax dollars to corporations without some guarantee of state economic gain from strong jobs with good wages and health care benefits.

An educator who for seven years taught writing to at risk sixth graders and teens in Boise public schools, in 2007 LeFavour successfully led efforts to pass legislation offering teen mental health and substance abuse specialist to Idaho's rural high schools and Jr. highs to help parents address teen suicide, alcohol use, depression, addiction and other urgent issues faced by Idaho teens.

In 2005, in LeFavour's first term in the legislature, she was a key member of a small bipartisan group which, after almost a decade of previous efforts, successfully passed legislation which included mental heath coverage in health care coverage for State Employees. The 2005 mental health parity bill created a pilot project to look at the cost and benefits of requiring Mental Health coverage as part of health insurance statewide. In 2008 she received Idaho State Planning Council on Mental Health legislative leader award in recognition of her work on mental health issues, including her work as part of Governor Kempthorn's Transformational Working Group on Mental Health in 2006.

LeFavour is well known for her work on prison sentencing issues and her role on the Judiciary and Rules committee where this year she led a bi partisan group of moderate and conservative legislators in efforts to address public safety and prison over crowding by creating a treatment focused alternative to mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

LeFavour has also worked this session with Senator David Langhorst to try to introduce legislative revisions of Idaho's land use planning act to improve Idaho's impact fee statutes to lower property taxes by making it easier for local governments to make growth pay for itself.

LeFavour's long history of Human Rights work in the legislature included co-sponsorship of legislation affecting people with disabilities; efforts at requiring Idaho's Public Employee Retriremnt System to divest from Darfur; and this year's introduction of legislation to add gays and lesbians to Idaho's Human Rights act provisions to end discrimination in employment, housing and education.  LeFavour also serves as a member of the Commission on Hispanic Affairs and has been an out spoken advocate for respect for Idaho's Latino and Hispanic community.

In 2006 LeFavour was chosen, with 50 other legislators across the nation to attend the University of Virginia's Darden Emerging Leaders program.

Said LeFavour Saturday, "I will be sad to leave behind so many friends in the House. It is an intense place where we bond often while looking for lighter moments; across party lines, ages and ideologies. But I will say that I look forward to new experiences and to joining some close friends and frequent co-sponsors from both parties in the Senate. In the House I leave behind much work I have begun with members of three fantastic committees. I will especially miss the Revenue and Taxation Committee because I feel that the work there is so vital to ensuring fairness in the lives of Idaho families. My colleagues know me and know I will be hard at it, continuing to work with Republican and Democratic Senators to make positive improvements to legislation affecting the taxes paid by middle class people and small businesses all across Idaho."

Texas

Obama Office in Austin. That's a large black dog sleeping contently wearing a T-shirt that reads: Really Big Dogs for Obama.

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This morning I flew to Texas to canvas and help with an event for Senator Obama. I fly back to Boise Monday morning. Tuesday is the primary here. It is a primary and caucus in the same day and much rest on the numbers that come out of this race in these remaining big states. Texas is one heck of a big state and the Senators visit here last week drew over 30,000 to an outdoor moonlit rally in front of the state Capitol.

Texas is warm and awash in people flowing in, phone lines buzzing and paper flying to doorsteps in the moist hands of breathless volunteers.

The office in Austin is an exhausted second floor fabulous rabbit warren with computers and buttons and cell phones and carefully printed sheets of white paper on much of the floor.

Volunteers are adorned with colorful images of the senator and deeper and deeper into the halls you find  media and strategy whirring. No one is pausing to feel confident or celebrate the records set for turnout at rallies, numbers of organizers, doors knocked, calls made. Everyone is just running, from task to task, list to list.

At the doors in the neigborhoods there is a mix of those who did not register and maybe wish they did, those who have been called and knocked already and those still swaying...

I got one swaying today. I got decideds and doors already knocked with people still up beat and kind in response to my smile and Obama button.

Missing days in the legislature is something I've only ever done once in my four years in office and I had a substitute, Amy Herzfeld, to sit in and vote for me. I have missed a single or partial floor session or two over the past four years to be at a hearing in the Senate. This will be the first day this year I will miss and fortunately it is a day with a long list of early Senate bills, mostly non-controversial. I will watch the debate on the live streaming and instant message with a few of my caucus members just in case.

I have also left pairs slips, bright pink sheets where we sign and are able to seek out another legislator voting the opposite way so that our vote can be counted in our absence. Of course if no one is going to vote "no" on a bill, there is no way to pair. Interestingly in 2006 when Bill Sali was running for Congress, Tom Loercher voted no on bill after bill to allow Bill a pair so it looked like he missed very few floor votes while he still served a state representative.

Texas neighborhood.

Election Whispers

Whispers. Lots of them. Who is running for what, challenging whom, giving up the ghost, moving to the Senate, finding family again, sauntering off into the sun set. Sometimes we legislators save these tidbits of information for the last moment, seconds before 5 PM on the day of the filing deadline, the 21st of March.
    "What is he going to run for?" "Is she retiring?" "Will someone file against me?"
    It is the eve of election season and the hour of speculation.
    I know well that there will be some surprises out there and some which are probably no longer surprises. We will lose some good people, a few to higher office, maybe gain some harder working or younger legislators, maybe lose some friends in both parties, maybe see some who have earned a challenge get challenged. While many of the seasoned ranks serve in here quietly and comfortably for years or even decades, there can come a time when even the kindest or hardest working have to look over their shoulders at the secretary of state's web site come filing time. For those less diligent that day may come sooner. For Republican feather rufflers and outliers sooner yet. There will be primaries we all know. But some of the less than warm and fuzzy of the 105 of us seem to stand the test of elections again and again, often to the dismay of colleagues and the policy we long for.
    This year there will be some shifting around within the body, even within Boise districts. The Senate I suspect will gain some Democratic seats. It could be a good year for Democrats there if voters steel themselves and stay engaged through all the swiftboating and low partisan slander that's sure to come. We have to remember that there are humans behind those faces on the TV screen.
    In Idaho, if you are a watcher of politics, March 10th is the day to put the secretary of state's web site in your browser book marks... and watch races begin to unfold here from the Tetons to the Owyhees and all the way up the rivers to the deep lakes south of Canada.
    Thirty five districts each representing almost 37,000 people. Your state legislature taking shape. Think you can do a better job than some of us? Chances are you can. That's what we wish of democracy. We are a citizen legislature. There is not a lot of glory, but guaranteed a lot of work. Ordinary folks: farmworkers, soccer moms, teachers, small business owners, social workers, artists, farmers, assembly line workers, waitresses and college students. At its best this place should look like Idaho. We can do better at looking like Idaho. I know we can.

http://www.idsos.state.id.us/elect/eleindex.htm

Obama in Idaho

The Line Stretches Across Campus

The Green Room with Super Delegates and Dignitaries

Senator Obama Arrives

The Senator speaks of a united America, health care specifics and Idaho's hopes

Senator Stennett Looking Good After Surgery with Chief of Senate Democratic Staff Marie Hattaway

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Electric. Amazing. Who believed there were so many Democratic inspired people in Idaho. Thousands had to be turned away because the place was filled to the rafters. What a powerful, genuine man. He looks in your eyes and seems to reserve nothing. I thought, meeting him in person for the second time, how real he is. So many people laud his intelligence, his ability to articulate what our nation is missing and what we need. I see in his eyes a President I trust to be true to his words.

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Carol & I woke at 4 AM and lay in bed a bit before deciding just to get dressed and drive down to BSU and the arena. There were very few cars stirring at 6 AM but here and there you could see people in neighborhoods scraping off ice, headed down the dark streets to hear Senator Obama speak. We walked through the snow with people cheerful and still warm from their cars. At the gates, some had clearly been there waiting at the arena for hours already..... for more of this story go to More on Senator Obama

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Senator Barack Obama is giving voice to something so many of us feel. We tire of so much of the same leaders who look and sound and limit themselves to what they have grown accustomed to limiting our nation to. We can be more than a nation which promises prosperity and equality. We can inspire change in a nation, ask ourselves to give a little more to make this place grow closer to the dreams those leaders generations ago had for us. Why would we give up on hope for that? Compromise is an option after all else fails, but where lives are at stake, no other skill is as valuable as rolling up our sleeves to persuade, bending down to listen and ask for consensus, knowing how to look into the eyes of others to change minds and change what is broken in health care, in energy production, in poverty, in overcrowded classrooms, in our bullying relationships with other nations and our wordless relations with each other. We don't ask enough of ourselves in terms of what we can give others in need. If we did, what might we accomplish as a nation? What might we finally be?