One of the Wood River Valley's most well known politicians is considering a November 2006 bid for Idaho's top political office.
Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, said Wednesday he is weighing his options, and will declare in "a couple of months" whether he will run for the office now held by Republican Gov. Dirk Kempthorne. Kempthorne will not seek re-election, but Idaho's 1st District Congressman Butch Otter, a Republican, announced several months ago that he will run.
"It's moved from thinking about it to serious consideration," Stennett said from his Capitol office. "I think it moved from thinking to serious consideration because it is an open seat. It's a non-presidential year and a non-senatorial year. The gubernatorial ticket is the top of the ticket."
Asked how long he has contemplated a bid for governor, the 48-year-old answered that he started working in politics when he was 21.
Idaho, commonly considered the most Republican of all 50 United States, has not elected a Democratic governor since Gov. Cecil Andrus was elected in 1986, who then went on to serve his second set of two terms for a total of 16 years in office. But the governor's office and both houses at the Capitol have been solidly Republican since former Gov. Phil Batt was elected in 1995.
"It's an uphill battle," Stennett said. "It's a steep, uphill battle that is doable."
He said he and several other people are examining numbers from previous elections and from informal polls.
"If it's just flat unassailable, I'm not going to do it, but I don't think that's the case," he said.
An Idaho native, Stennett has been a 25-year resident of the Wood River Valley. He was raised on a dairy farm in the southeast corner of the state, and he graduated from Valley High School in Jerome County. He attended the College of Southern Idaho, where he served as student body president and graduated from Idaho State University with a degree in journalism and a minor in marketing.
After college, he moved to the Wood River Valley in 1979 and managed the Wood River Journal before buying a majority interest in the paper and becoming its president and publisher. He sold the paper in the late-1980s. He later purchased KSKI Radio, and later bought Channel 13 TV, which he owns and operates along with KSVT-TV, KSVX-TV and KTWT-TV.
He is one of the founders of the First Bank of Idaho in Ketchum, and he served as director of the Ketchum-Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce for nine years.
Stennett currently represents the four northern Magic Valley counties, together called District 25, as a senator in the Idaho Legislature. He is in his sixth term.
He and his wife, Michelle, live in Ketchum.
An active outdoorsman, he is an avid fly fisherman, hunter, skier and team roper. He was honored in 1994 by the Idaho Association of Conservation Districts and in 1996 by the Idaho Wildlife Federation as the Legislator of the Year for his work on conservation issues.
He served two terms in the Idaho House of Representatives from 1990 to 1994 prior to election to the Senate.
He currently serves on the Legislative Council and the Senate Resources and Conservation, Agricultural Affairs and State Affairs committees.
Sen. Clint Stennett
