McKenzie hits GOP campaign circuit to seek Idaho high court seat

One of the four candidates in a contested, nonpartisan race for the Idaho Supreme Court is taking a different approach to the race, campaigning almost entirely at official Republican Party events and amassing endorsements only from fellow GOP state lawmakers.

Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, a seven-term state senator, also brings some political baggage to the nonpartisan race, including an embarrassing brush with scandal involving his ex-wife and an imprisoned murderer, and ethical questions about his reimbursements from the Legislature for commuting and maintaining a second home in Boise during legislative sessions – first on a couch at his law office, then in a small apartment within his law office.

McKenzie had to repay more than $2,400 to the state in 2011 after news surfaced that he’d been reimbursed for daily mileage between the Capitol and his Nampa home 30 miles away during the 2010 and 2011 legislative sessions – while also collecting $122 per day for maintaining a second residence in Boise during the session. That second residence was the couch in his law office.

McKenzie said he didn’t request the commuting reimbursement, and the Senate administration didn’t notice the duplicate payment. “I didn’t realize it – it just got direct-deposited,” he said.

When the news came out, he promptly repaid the mileage reimbursements. But he continued collecting the second-home payments, which didn’t violate Senate rules; at the time, another Canyon County senator was found to be collecting those payments while sleeping at his parents’ Boise home.

McKenzie has continued collecting the second-home reimbursements through this year. He now has a larger law office that has a small basement apartment. He stays there every other week, and at his Nampa home every other week, as part of a joint-custody arrangement with his ex-wife for their teenage daughter. Though the living arrangement is year-round, he collects the reimbursement during the three-month legislative session.

“If he’s prepared to defend that and people don’t care, OK,” said Aman McLeod, a visiting professor of law at the University of Idaho who does research on judicial elections and politics. “It certainly isn’t unethical. … But I think it does show kind of a lack of sensitivity to appearances – the optics of it are lousy.”

McKenzie’s split with his ex-wife was more the stuff of tabloid scandal; she left him for a notorious, imprisoned murderer, to whom she is now married. She got involved in the murderer’s federal court cases, claiming at first to be acting in her capacity with McKenzie’s law firm, where she worked as a paralegal.

Renee McKenzie Wood has filed a $50 million federal lawsuit against the state, which is ongoing, claiming that the state Department of Correction interfered with her and prisoner Lance Wood’s work on prison reform and their visits and correspondence, and thereby damaged her husband’s personal and Senate reputation to the point that “it may not be recoverable.” Wood made that claim in an affidavit she filed in federal court in March of 2013; the couple divorced in November of 2013.

McKenzie said he has no comment on his ex-wife, her lawsuit, or the impact of any of that on his run for the state’s highest court.

“I’m not going to comment on anything involving that,” he said. “I think people can look at my record of service in the Legislature and in the community, and make their own decisions.”

McLeod said, “I don’t really see how this reflects on his judgment or anything like that. … Although admittedly, having something like that happen publicly, as a public figure, is embarrassing.”

McKenzie, 47, grew up in Maryland, where his dad worked for the National Bureau of Standards. He’d hoped to go to the U.S. Naval Academy, but after not getting in, he chose Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa; all three of his brothers eventually followed suit, and his parents had gone there as well. McKenzie graduated magna cum laude, and after taking a year off mid-way through to return to Maryland to work and save money, had no debt.

He returned to Washington, D.C. to attend Georgetown University School of Law on a full scholarship, where he graduated in the top 10 percent of his class. During law school, he said he sometimes walked over to the nearby U.S. Supreme Court chambers and saw the court in action. “It gave me the dream of one day wanting to be on the judiciary, but at the time it was just a dream – I didn’t think it would be something that I would ever get to fulfill.”

A highlight for him was when the late Justice Antonin Scalia spoke to his constitutional law class. “We had the opportunity to ask him questions,” McKenzie recalled. “I didn’t ask him about constructualism or textualism. I asked him what the difference was between serving on the U.S. Supreme Court, as opposed to the Court of Appeals for D.C. Because in a sense, in the Court of Appeals, you’re either applying precedent or trying to guess what the court over you would rule, whereas on the U.S. Supreme Court you are making that law with each decision.”

“Basically, he kind of had an exasperated look,” McKenzie recalled, “and just said, ‘You can’t re-invent the wheel with every case.’ Which was kind of the way he grilled people when he was on the bench.”

After law school, McKenzie went to work for a Washington, D.C. law firm handling licensing agreements and copyright and trademark cases. Once his first child was born, “I just did not want to raise a family there,” he said, so he returned to Idaho, and went to work for the Ada County prosecutor’s office for a year, then worked six years in the civil litigation group at Stoel Rives in Boise, before starting his own firm.

McKenzie said between his time at the prosecutor’s office and his civil practice, he’s had more than 20 jury trials.

He notes his 14 years in the state Senate, where he chairs the Senate State Affairs Committee; his position as head of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region, a group that works on economic development for northwestern states and Canada; and his service on the boards of two local charities.

“I’ve had civil, criminal, I’ve worked with large law firms all the way down to a sole practice, done civil rights litigation, criminal practice both representing the state and representing individuals, as well as worked on complex civil litigation,” McKenzie said. “I think that’s an important background to have, as well as a history of public service, not just the Legislature but in the community.”

He said he believes his background in the Legislature would serve him well on the state’s highest court. “I won’t try to impose policies that differ from what’s expressed in the plain language in statutes, because in part I’ve got the background,” he said. “I think it’s a useful background to have for someone who goes on the bench.”

McKenzie has campaigned largely by attending Idaho Republican Party county “Lincoln Day” banquets around the state, at which he reported on his campaign Facebook page that he was “speaking to citizens” or “speaking with voters.” He also amassed an array of endorsements from fellow GOP lawmakers in the House and Senate, but none from Democrats.

“I’ve gotten significant support of the people I’ve asked,” he said. He said he sought endorsements from lawmakers “I’ve worked with for a long time and felt comfortable asking them.”

McKenzie also raised eyebrows a few years back when photos surfaced from a physique competition, in which he appeared posing shirtless and wearing board shorts. “It wasn’t body-building,” he said. “It was just to have a goal to work to, when I was working out.”

McKenzie said he’s competed in power lifting competitions and done the Boise Ironman race for similar reasons, but hasn’t considered himself a competitive athlete since his college track days.

“I’d have to believe that probably would end if he’s elected,” McLeod said. “The things that concern me about Sen. McKenzie are his political views – that’s what concerns me. Because I think that has everything to do with how he’s going to be as a judge. All this other stuff kind of makes you go ‘hee hee,’ but I personally don’t see it as relevant.”

Though it might seem “unseemly,” courts have long upheld judges in nonpartisan political races making partisan pitches – even though that’s strongly discouraged by Idaho’s Code of Judicial Conduct. “Tactically, I think it’s a great move,” McLeod said.

He noted that current Justice Daniel Eismann raised eyebrows when he made partisan pitches while challenging then-Justice Cathy Silak in 2000, but he won that race and still serves on the court. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision held that judicial candidates who announce their views on “disputed legal and political issues” are protected under the First Amendment – even if that’s not how Idaho long has envisioned its nonpartisan judicial campaigns working.

“Sen. McKenzie is running a risk,” McLeod said, “but all I can say is it worked for Justice Eismann.”