Congressional candidates face off
By MEGAN THOMAS
Express Staff Writer
Eastern Idaho voters will cast ballots Nov. 2 for candidates seeking two national-level offices.
Republican Rep. Mike Simpson faces Democratic challenger Lin Whitworth in a race for Idaho?s Second Congressional District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Republican Sen. Mike Crapo is challenged by official write-in candidate and Democrat Scott McClure.
Simpson is serving his third term in the House. A dentist from Blackfoot, he served in the Idaho House from 1984 to 1998, as Majority Caucus chairman, assistant majority leader and speaker of the House.
Simpson recently introduced the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act in Congress. The bill proposes protecting nearly 300,000 acres of the Boulder and White Cloud mountains as wilderness, combined with an economic-development package, primarily benefiting Custer County, and designation of trails for motorized or non-motorized use.
On other issues, Simpson supported the ?No Child Left Behind? legislation, but emphasizes the need to secure flexibility for state and local control of education. His record includes voting ?yes? to a bill banning partial-birth abortion.
Whitworth, a resident of Inkom, served four terms from 1994 to 2001 in the Idaho Senate serving as assistant minority leader and Democratic Caucus chair. In 2001, he resigned from the state senate midterm, citing frustration with moving a bill through the Republican dominated body.
?I had to get the attention of the voters. That?s why I resigned,? he said.
Whitworth is now running for Congress as the ?working man,? a slogan he draws from his work as a Union Pacific Railroad employee, construction worker and farmer.
In regards to the issues facing Idaho, Whitworth has stated he opposes Simpson?s Wilderness bill as currently drafted, pointing fault at its cost.
Whitworth also opposes the war in Iraq. He is pro-choice and also stands as a supporter of education and the re-importation of drugs from Canada.
Crapo is challenged by write-in candidate, McClure for the seat as U.S. senator. Crapo, an Idaho Falls attorney, served as a state senator from Bonneville County for eight years. While he was in the Idaho Senate, he served as president pro tem. In 1992, he was elected to Congress, where he served three terms, representing Idaho?s Second Congressional District.
Crapo is a member of the Senate Budget Committee, Agriculture Committee, Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee, Environment and Public Works Committee and the Small Business Committee.
Crapo opposes abortion and gun control. He supports fair agricultural trade.
McClure is a democrat from Jerome.
