Adamson challenges Otter
CHUBBUCK, Idaho – A Chubbuck businessman who ran for Congress twice in the 1980s is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Butch Otter to be the next governor of Idaho.
Dan Adamson announced Friday that he’ll be seeking the Republican nomination for governor, the Idaho State Journal newspaper in Pocatello reported.
Adamson, who contends the state needs more visionary thinkers, offered a few of his own, such as shipping Idaho inmates overseas and creating four tax-exempt business zones.
“We’re talking about some things that would really shock the state,” he said at a news conference. “My ideas that aren’t possible are really quite doable.”
Otter is considered the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, but Adamson said he isn’t intimidated.
“Butch is a nice guy … but he hasn’t had an original thought since he made the decision to marry Gay” Simplot, he said. “Butch Otter has never had runaway election results, ever.”
As for the financial aspects of his challenge, Adamson said he will raise campaign money through his Web site, www.myidahorocks.com.
Adamson, a native Idahoan and graduate of the Brigham Young University Law School, is the CEO of Northwest Bec-Corp., a company that manages nursing homes in Idaho, California and Oregon. According to his Web site, Adamson has also owned two law firms and several agribusiness corporations.
With his “Idaho for Idahoans” campaign, he said he wants to take advantage of outsourcing to spur Idaho’s economy and raise money for education.
One of his ideas is to establish tax exempt free-enterprise zones in the state. The 1,280-acre zones, theoretically located in Bannock, Elmore, Canyon and Nez Perce counties, would be exempt from federal and state income taxes for seven years.
“It’s being done all over the world as jobs are being taken from the U.S.,” Adamson said. “In my mind, it will not be long when there are many, many, many economic free-enterprise zones established in this country.”
Adamson said he can also save the state about $50 million by shipping Idaho’s growing inmate population overseas and leasing space in Idaho prisons to house federal inmates.