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North Idaho Democrats can’t get out from under the big Republican elephant that’s keeping them down.

And they aren’t alone under there. All of Idaho fervently voted Republican on Tuesday, squashing the Democrats’ hopes of gaining more seats in the Idaho Legislature.

Idaho Democrats lost three seats in the state House, but kept even with seven seats in the state Senate. Two of the lost seats were in North Idaho, which just 15 years ago was largely Democrat.

“It was a grand victory for the Republicans,” said a jubilant Lt. Gov. Jim Risch. “We’re already the most Republican state in the union, but I guess now we’re really, really the most Republican state.”

Democrats were disappointed with their showing, but said it was to be expected in a presidential year.

“The Bush win had pretty large coattails,” said state Democratic Party Chairwoman Carolyn Boyce. “2000 was really much more devastating … and we picked ourselves up, we found great candidates, and we doubled our numbers in 2002. We seem to have two steps forward, one step back, but as long as we have those two steps forward, we’ll keep slowly building.”

One of the lost Democratic seats is in Coeur d’Alene, where voters opted for Republican Marge Chadderdon, a longtime party activist, over Democrat Mike Gridley, Coeur d’Alene city attorney.

Chadderdon, who got 54 percent of the vote, kept an edge over Gridley all night. She said that support from the national and state party helped secure the win, taking back a seat that is currently held by Democrat Rep. Bonnie Douglas. Gridley beat Douglas in the May primary.

“The Republican Party was with me all the way,” said Chadderdon who appeared on campaign fliers with both U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo and U.S. Rep. Butch Otter. “They needed to be there.”

Gridley agrees that those GOP endorsements helped Chadderdon, along with Bush’s victory.

“I don’t know another explanation,” said Gridley, who had lots of money, even a few endorsements by local Republicans, and spent months door-knocking.

The other Democratic seat lost in North Idaho was to Sagle Republican Joyce Broadsword who beat out Sen. Marti Calabretta, D-Osburn. Calabretta was the only Senate incumbent to lose on Tuesday.

Calabretta’s legislative District 2 went heavily for President Bush. Bush won 70 percent of the vote in Benewah County, 55 percent in Shoshone County, 60 percent in Bonner County and 66 percent in Kootenai County. The district includes all of Benewah and Shoshone, plus slices of Bonner and Kootenai.

Democrats did win two new Senate seats in Boise, but those gains were offset by Calabretta’s loss and by Republican Tim Corder winning the seat held by retiring Sen. Fred Kennedy, D-Mountain Home.

Also in District 2, Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, turned back a challenge from Democrat George Currier, a longtime St. Maries city councilman and former campaign manager for local power broker Jack Buell, a Democratic county commissioner. Harwood, owner of a local cleaning service, has been a controversial two-term legislator known for clashing with the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, whose reservation lies within the district.

Currier said Republicans have been gaining strength in the area, and Harwood fits the trend.

“His positions strike a chord with the people,” Currier said. “He represents them, and even though he may put his foot in his mouth sometimes, the people that elected him say, ‘Amen, you’re saying what we want you to say.’ “

Currier said he thought his more conciliatory approach to dealing with the tribe cost him votes in Benewah County. “My point would’ve been, ‘Let’s find the common ground and let’s build on it,’ ” he said.

House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet said she thought the presidential race was the main factor that swept Harwood into a third term in District 2, just as it acted in reverse to help defeat a Republican in her home district in Blaine County.

“The Bush landslide went one way,” Jaquet said. But in Blaine County, the only county in the state that went to Sen. John Kerry instead of President Bush, there was a huge turnout of more than 87 percent. That helped push Democratic challenger Donna Pence to victory over Republican Tim Ridinger, a five-term incumbent.

Pence’s win was coupled with four Democratic seats lost in the House to give Democrats a net loss of three seats in the House.In District 1, which includes Bonner and Boundary counties, Republican Eric Anderson defeated Democrat Steve Elgar and Libertarian Frank Reichert. The win came despite Elgar’s large war chest that totaled more than $63,000, which was about $36,000 more than Anderson.

Anderson said he was able to win because voters were more interested in his message, such as proper forest management, than his GOP affiliation.

Post Falls Democrats were at a loss Wednesday for how to ever get more than about 30 percent in District 5, in which the two House seats and one Senate seat all went to Republicans.

No matter the money, the door knocking or caliber of candidate, local Democrats said it appears voters only look at the Republican label.

“It looks like people just went to polls and hit Rs all the way or Ds all the way,” said Democrat David Larsen who lost to Republican Bob Nonini. “There were no crossover votes.”

The only Democrats to win legislative seats in the six northern counties were incumbents George Sayler, Mary Lou Shepherd and Shirley Ringo.

“It’s a bad day for Democrats,” said Ron Johnson, the Kootenai County Democrat Club president. “We put an awful lot of effort in and ran extremely good candidates but (voters) didn’t listen. They just ignored us.”

The election results move Idaho’s Legislature from 78 percent Republican to 81 percent. But that’s still not as overwhelming as 2000, when Republicans captured 89 percent of the seats in the Legislature and held Democrats to just three seats in the Senate.