Urban areas to hold more sway at Capitol

BOISE – With 15 legislators choosing not to run for re-election in November, rural Idaho is losing some of its strongest advocates.

Leaving after 20 years in the Legislature will be one of the strongest farm boosters in House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, a Republican rancher from Burley who led the fight to divert water from the Snake River to recharge the eastern Idaho aquifer for farmers.

Also, a total of nine committees will likely have new chairmen after the November election, including five of 10 in the Senate and agricultural panels in both chambers.

“Every election cycle, those that live in the more rural areas of the state have more to be concerned about,” said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls.

It’s a trend that’s affecting not just the Capitol but the entire state. In 2004, agriculture and related services made up about 14.5 percent of Idaho’s economy, compared with 29 percent in 1984, according to the state Department of Commerce and Labor.

The population has shifted as well: In 2000, more than two-thirds of Idaho residents lived in urban areas compared with 57.4 percent in 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Gary Moncrief, a political science professor at Boise State University, said there will be some significant leadership shake-ups in November, but real changes will take place after the 2010 Census, when the Treasure Valley’s growth will figure in legislative redistricting.

“Over time the influence of the urban areas and the suburban areas is growing and that will grow even more over the next few years,” Moncrief said.

In the Senate, Davis said the rural parts of the state will likely lose some of their influence with the departure of three powerful legislators: Sen. Skip Brandt, R-Kooskia, Sen. Don Burtenshaw, R-Terreton, and Sen. Stanley Williams, R-Pingree, all committee chairmen.

Williams, the chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, plans to return to his ranch. Williams said a growing number of legislators not only don’t live in rural areas, but didn’t grow up on Idaho farms.

“We are starting to see more legislators without any rural experience at all,” Williams said. “It’ll have an effect on all the agricultural policies and the clout that we have to push certain legislation through.”

For instance, Newcomb spent his final days as a legislator helping hammer out a modest compromise in the eastern Idaho aquifer dispute – after losing a vote on a more expansive plan that was rejected by lawmakers from Idaho’s cities.

Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum and a rancher, said the Legislature’s move from rural to urban will be especially obvious on the Senate Transportation Committee. Chairman Brandt is leaving to run for Congress and is expected to be replaced by Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell.

Brandt’s district covers roughly a fifth of the state, but includes only three stoplights.

McGee, the committee’s vice chair, is from one of the state’s fastest-growing and most densely populated regions.

“If I’m fortunate enough to get the position, you’ll see a person that focuses on all of Idaho and its future,” McGee said.

McGee said one of his main interests is improving the state’s road systems, particularly Interstate 84, which runs through Idaho’s population center in the Treasure Valley.

For now, there will still be many strong agricultural and rural advocates in the Legislature.

Twenty legislators who claim farming and ranching as an occupation plan to return to the Legislature next session.

Rep. Mike Moyle, R-Star, who raises mink, digs gravel and sports Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots on the House floor, is aiming to become majority leader.

And current Majority Leader Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale and a farmer, is campaigning to be Newcomb’s replacement as House speaker.

“I think the rural influence gets less and less each year, but we still have quite the influence here,” Denney said.

But Denney is no shoo-in for the top House job: He’s being challenged by Rep. Bill Deal, a Republican insurance broker from Nampa who grew up in Boise.