Gov. Otter: Idaho is reddest state in nation

Idaho is in great shape because the voters have entrusted it to Republican leadership, Gov. Butch Otter said in his keynote address during the annual Lincoln Day Banquet last Thursday at War Memorial Hall in Mountain Home.

Speaking to a near-capacity crowd of GOP faithful as part of the party's annual effort to rally local Republicans, Otter noted that during last fall's election Idaho bucked the national trend of shifting toward the Democratic party, and instead installed an all-Republican slate of state constitutional officers, the first time since 1926 that had happened.

"We are the reddest of the red states," in the nation, the newly elected governor said, praising the local party workers for the effort they put in during last year's election.

"But," he said, "we still have more work to do. We had some soft spots in Idaho in the Republican ranks. We need to make sure people here have much stronger support to offset those soft spots."

The strength of the party, Otter said, is its emphasis on core principles. "We recognize the importance of limited, small government. We think counties and cities are what government is for, as our founders did," and that government should encourage more personal freedom, more personal responsibility, and greater local autonomy.

As the nation approaches the 200th birthday of the founder of the Republican Party, Otter reminded the crowd at the Legion Hall that "he believed in the strength of the individual, he believed in the power of the individual... and that one man can make a difference."

All the Republican principles, he said, "point to one goal, to make government the servant, not the master."

Although not as "star-studded" as some Lincoln Day banquets held in recent years, in large part because it isn't an election year, last Thursday's event featured Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, State Controller Donna Jones, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, Treasurer Ron Crane, Secretary of State Ben Ysursa and paarty chairman Curt Sullivan, as well as state representatives Pete Nielsen and Rich Wills, county commissioner Arlie Shaw, county clerk Marsa Grimmett, Sheriff Rick Layher, city councilman Tim Rist and police chief Tom Berry, as well as Mayor Joe B. McNeal, a Democrat, who offered the invocation preceding the luncheon.