The devils we know

In just 13 days the State of Idaho will hold its primary election.

It's an important election because, in Idaho, the general election is usually a foregone conclusion. The Republican will win.

So whoever wins in the May 27 primary, on the Republican ballot at least, is a whisker away from being crowned as our next elected official for that particular office. No question about it, in Idaho, the Republican primary is more important than the general election.

Over the last few months we've slowly played out stories about those candidates who've bothered to come in and present their positions to us. A lot haven't.

For that matter, a lot of the candidates haven't done much in the way of advertising or any other method of getting their message to the public. Yet they expect us to make good choices based on little information.

There is, for example, a glut of candidates seeking to replace the disgraced Sen. Larry Craig. If you can name all nine of them off the top of your head we'd be surprised.

We'd like to encourage you to learn as much as possible about the various candidates, but frankly, there is so many, scattered over so many races, with so little information put out other than the odd (and in some cases very odd) websites, that it's pretty difficult to do it -- and we don't have the space or staff to track them all, either.

Frankly, a lot of these people have no business running for office. They just don't have a clue what the jobs they're seeking are really about. That means a lot of incumbents are starting to look like the best candidates, if for no other reason than they're the "devil we know."

Still, do your best, and good luck. The primary really is important.