Libertarian Bujak’s candidacy could be trouble for Otter
BOISE – A disillusioned former Republican with an unusual story could affect the Idaho governor’s race this year.
If Libertarian candidate John Bujak succeeds in his bid to appeal to disaffected Republicans who voted against Gov. Butch Otter in the GOP primary, he still might not win, but he could pull enough votes from Otter to give Democrat A.J. Balukoff a chance.
Bujak, the former GOP Canyon County prosecutor, made headlines in recent years for his own legal troubles: He represented himself in five criminal trials in the past three years and was acquitted in every one.
“After what the party did to me in Canyon County, I didn’t trust a lot of the leadership – certainly after seeing the way that Republicans run politics behind the scenes here in Idaho,” Bujak said. “They surround themselves with their buddies, they give deals to their buddies, they give contracts to their buddies, and when something happens that is unethical, they all just look the other way.”
Bujak has a law degree from Gonzaga University, he’s a Navy veteran, and he’s been a deputy attorney general for the state Human Rights Commission and a lawyer in private practice. But he says when he went into politics, serving as the elected prosecutor in Canyon County, “I hit a brick wall in the form of what I would call the ‘good old boys.’ ”
He clashed with the county’s power structure over reopening a notorious attempted murder case in which the Idaho Innocence Project had unearthed evidence that a young woman may have been wrongfully convicted, a victim of mistaken identity. That young woman, Sarah Pearce, is free now, though her conviction stood.
Bujak found more and more issues on which to disagree with other county officials and ultimately had to resign.
In one matter, he was charged with misuse of public funds for setting up a contract to handle prosecutions for the city of Nampa. He personally profited from the arrangement.
“It’s clear that the law allows a prosecutor to take on these contracts,” he said. “It was good for everybody until it became unpopular politically, and then they threw me under the bus.”
He resigned during the case, filed for bankrupcty and got divorced.
And in the midst of all that, he was charged with theft of a former client’s funds; he says that was just a “disgruntled client.”
Bujak also was charged with falsifying evidence in the misuse of public funds case. On that charge, too, he was cleared. And then his ex-wife accused him of hiding a Rolex watch from creditors in the bankruptcy case. Again, Bujak was cleared.
Now he’s running for governor, seeking to capitalize on Idaho conservatives’ unease with Otter, who took 51.4 percent of the vote in the primary against tea party-backed GOP state Sen. Russ Fulcher.
No third-party candidate has been elected governor of Idaho. Republicans now hold every statewide elected office. But Democratic challenger A.J. Balukoff, the longtime Boise School Board chairman, is running hard at Otter over dissatisfaction with school funding and the state’s economy.
Two years ago, Balukoff backed the successful referendum that rejected three school reform laws championed by Otter and state schools Superintendent Tom Luna. The vote sent tremors through the state’s GOP establishment.
“If Bujak can make himself seem respectable, that you shouldn’t be embarrassed to vote for him, that’s a big deal,” said Jasper LiCalzi, professor of political economy at the College of Idaho. “I don’t know if he really wants to be governor, but if he could make a black eye for the Republican establishment, I think he’d be ecstatic. He’s a wild card in this.”
Bujak, a soft-spoken 45-year-old with a football player’s build, is the son of a Coeur d’Alene physician.
He is a fiscal conservative who appeals to tea party Republicans for his embrace of small government. And yet his libertarian tenets include keeping government out of people’s personal business, including the right of gays to wed.
“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of folks,” he said.