Risch, Mitchell vie for U.S. Senate in Idaho

BOISE – When he was Idaho’s governor for a scant seven months, Jim Risch was a whirlwind of activity, writing an unprecedented management plan for roadless areas, reforming the state Department of Health and Welfare and nursing education programs, and calling a special session of the Legislature to enact a sweeping and controversial shift of the state’s school funding system.

But in the past six years serving as Idaho’s junior senator in Washington, D.C., Risch’s legislative accomplishments have been slim. According to the official records of Congress, he’s been the lead sponsor on 11 bills, just two of which have become law, both dealing with specific, small water projects in Southern Idaho. In the current Congress, he’s co-sponsored 188 bills, with the largest group aimed at reducing environmental regulations. In the 90 votes he has cast in the Senate since June, he voted “no” nearly two-thirds of the time.

Risch says it’s no surprise that as a conservative Republican in a Senate controlled by Democrats, his proposals don’t move forward. “Those of us that are on the conservative side of the ledger never get bills on the floor for a vote,” he said. “When you’re in the minority, the job is different. … The minority is the opposition, that’s what they do – they oppose.”

Risch, who is facing a challenge from Boise attorney Nels Mitchell, said that in his six-year term “my expectations were exceeded by what I am able to accomplish with constituent services and in nonlegislative matters.”

Mitchell, a Democrat, sees it differently.

“It’s an absence of a record,” Mitchell said. “He has done virtually nothing in his six years back in Washington. … I haven’t seen anything of any substance that he has initiated.”

Mitchell said effective senators work across the aisle to craft solutions to problems.

“Voting ‘no’ perhaps makes the job easy, but that’s not why we elect senators,” Mitchell said.

Risch has been rated as the most conservative member of the Senate three times by the National Journal, which also noted that his ranking was a surprise as he’s so little-known. GovTrack, which tracks the records of members of Congress, rated him a “lonely far-right Republican follower.”

“I’ve delivered what I believe is a solidly reliable conservative vote every time they call my name on the floor of the U.S. Senate.” Risch said. “In most instances a ‘yes’ vote is for ‘business as usual.’ I did not go back to Washington, D.C., to do ‘business as usual.’ ”

Risch, 71, who serves on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees along with the Energy and Small Business panels, flies home to Idaho with wife Vicki each weekend and keeps a frenetic weekday schedule that runs to 12-hour days. But he said he likes the job. After years of serving in the Idaho state Senate and as the state’s lieutenant governor and, briefly, governor, he said, “This job fits. And I think I’m doing a pretty decent job of it. The polling would indicate that.”

The latest poll by CBS News, the New York Times and research firm YouGov put Risch at 64 percent to Mitchell’s 27 percent, with 8 percent “not sure” and a 5 percent margin of error.

Risch co-sponsored four constitutional amendments

In the current Congress, Risch has co-sponsored 291 measures, including amendments to the United States Constitution to require a balanced budget; to ban desecration of the flag; to guarantee parental rights except when a child would die as a result; and to prohibit any law that imposes a tax on a failure to buy goods or services, a measure aimed at the national health care law commonly called Obamacare. None passed.

Risch said he co-sponsored those amendments “because they reflect the issues and Idaho values on which I receive the most input.” He called a balanced budget amendment “absolutely necessary” but declined to discuss the other measures.

Among the bills he co-sponsored, after reducing environmental regulations, the most common topics were energy; repeal of all or part of Obamacare; and measures to alter Senate rules or budgeting processes. Tied for third-most common topics were international relations; banking and finance; and restricting abortion. “The topics on which I chose to co-sponsor bills reflects the input I receive from Idahoans regarding their priorities for reining in the federal government and its excesses,” Risch said.

When Risch launched his general election campaign for the Senate seat in 2008, he said Idaho needed to have two matching votes to strengthen the state’s voice, rather than two senators whose votes would cancel each other out. Yet Risch voted against major legislation championed by fellow Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act last year. Crapo called the bill, which passed with strong bipartisan support, a “bright spot in a divided Congress” and said the law “will help save countless lives.”

The law, first enacted in 1994, increased prosecutions of domestic violence cases, strengthened federal laws protecting victims, and funded grant programs for prosecution, treatment, prevention and more. The 2013 bill, which reduced funding levels by 17 percent, also included the funding through 2018 for the Court Appointed Special Advocate program, which provides trained volunteers to help abused and neglected children in court. It had 62 co-sponsors among the 100 senators; Risch cast one of 22 votes against it.

Risch, a former county prosecutor who brought charges in domestic violence cases, said, “I do not believe the federal government has jurisdiction in this area. … It is a state responsibility.”

Mitchell noted that one of the full-time prosecutors in Shoshone County is funded by the Violence Against Women Act.

“Idaho directly benefits,” he said.

Accomplishment took place behind closed doors

Risch considers his greatest accomplishment as a senator to be one that didn’t relate to legislation. In August 2013, he says, he was part of a bipartisan group of senators who, after a classified briefing, persuaded the Obama administration not to immediately bomb Syria after a major chemical weapons attack there.

“We got it done, we got it stopped,” he said. “That thing would have been in my judgment an unmitigated disaster. … That could’ve had catastrophic consequences.”

Risch said he made a difference in that situation through “simple persuasion,” adding, “I’ve done a number of other things like that, but they are of less importance.”

He said his other greatest accomplishment in office has been handling constituent-service requests from Idahoans who have problems with federal agencies or programs. That’s the focus of most of his staff, he said.

“I don’t have policy advisers. I know policy, I understand policy,” Risch said. “But what we have done is we have a cadre and a great team of people who actually do constituent service.”

Mitchell, 60, has promised to serve only one six-year term if elected, saying that would free him to focus on policy rather than fundraising and the next election.

Risch, in contrast, says he’d like to serve in the Senate for “a long, long time,” as long as voters agree.

“Right now I enjoy doing this and intend to continue doing it,” Risch said.