As Gov. Butch Otter and Democratic challenger A.J. Balukoff took the stage in at the City Club of Idaho Falls today, Otter was directed to the podium at stage left. “I should be on the right,” Otter said, prompting moderator David Adler to comment, “I have to say, governor, I’ve never known you to be to my left. It’s an interesting moment.”

The debate in Idaho Falls began with a four-minute opening statement from each of the two candidates. Balukoff hit hard at Otter’s record on education, the economy and prison privatization, and said if he’d been governor and the state treasurer had overridden internal controls and made an inappropriate transfer of funds that cost the taxpayers money, he’d have asked for his resignation. “If Gov. Otter’s record on jobs was made into a movie, it’d have to be called, ‘Honey, I shrunk the economy,” he said. Otter focused his statement on eastern Idaho issues, including the growth of the Idaho National Laboratory and nuclear research. “Just drive down University Boulevard,” he said. “Ten years ago those buildings weren’t even there, 10 years ago those buildings weren’t even contemplated.”