Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Nels Mitchell, who today launched his campaign against GOP Sen. Jim Risch. Mitchell said he’d make jobs his top priority, and pledged if elected to serve only one six-year term. “I am not a politician. I have had a successful career, and it is now my turn to step up.” He also said he’d work with Idaho GOP Rep. Mike Simpson on his wilderness proposal for the Boulder-White Clouds mountains, which Risch has opposed; and said like GOP Sen. Mike Crapo, he’d have co-sponsored the reauthorization of the two-decade-old Violence Against Women Act, which Risch voted against last February.

Former U.S. Attorney for Idaho Betty Richardson said she first met Mitchell in high school. He was the student body president at Boise High School and was running for a statewide student leadership position; she was a Lewiston High School student who was running his opponent’s successful campaign. “He impressed me then,” said Richardson, a Democratic activist who’s played a key role in recruiting candidates for the state’s minority party. “I just couldn’t see Risch running unopposed, and I didn’t want to recruit a token candidate,” she said. “Nels came to mind, and fortunately he said ‘yes.’”