U.S. Senator

Mike Crapo has long been one of Idaho’s most popular politicians, piling up big victory margins in every election and even running unopposed for re-election in 2004 but for a write-in challenger. His DUI arrest and conviction in 2013 surprised Idahoans who know him as a teetotaling member of the Mormon Church, but Crapo apologized, moved on and ran unopposed for re-election in the GOP primary this year. Jerry Sturgill, his Democratic opponent, has sharply criticized Crapo for the DUI and suggested that it’s a symptom showing that Crapo has changed. He’s also faulted Crapo for his prodigious fundraising from financial interests – Crapo is the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, in line to become its next chairman, and has a campaign warchest of $5.1 million. Crapo, for his part, just completed a two-year marathon of town-hall meetings across the state, hitting every incorporated city; no one at any of those sessions brought up the DUI. His top issue is the federal debt; he’s also active on health, veterans and tax issues.

Crapo’s biggest splash in Washington, D.C., came when he served on the Simpson-Bowles Commission and the bipartisan “Gang of Six” senators pushing a big, tough plan to cut the national debt by cutting spending and raising revenues – a plan that included reforming the tax code, lowering tax rates, and eliminating loopholes and reforming entitlements like Medicare and Social Security.

Sturgill has made public lands, education and the economy his top issues, and he stresses his experience in top business positions. “I’m a businessman who’s run companies,” Sturgill said. “Two things are important to me: integrity and finding solutions.”