Butch Otter
Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter (born May 3, 1942, Caldwell, Idaho) has been Governor of Idaho since January 2007. Otter previously represented the state's First Congressional District.
He was also the lieutenant governor from 1987-2001. He is the first Idahoan since statehood to win elections as both congressman and governor.
Otter is the third Catholic to serve as governor of Idaho, and the first to win election as governor since James H. Hawley in 1910.
Early life and career
Butch Otter was born into a large family of limited means. His father was a journeyman electrician and the family lived in many rural locations in the midwest & western U.S. during his youth, attending 15 different schools. He graduated from St. Teresa's Academy (now Bishop Kelly High School) in Boise in 1962. Otter was 20 when he graduated from high school – a childhood accident involving gasoline badly burned his younger brother and forced Otter to take a year off. Throughout high school he worked – janitor, theater ticket taker, lawn boy. He never got good grades, and, even though Otter wanted to be educated, he didn’t believe he’d amount to anything beyond blue-collar work. “My dad graduated from high school. My expectations weren’t built beyond being a good electrician or carpenter.”
He briefly attended St. Martin's Abbey in Lacey, Washington, with aims on becoming a priest. In truth, he attended the abbey only because of his father’s opinion that “unless you were going to be a priest, you didn’t need to go beyond high school.” [1]
Not ready for the rigid lifestyle, Otter returned to Idaho and attended Boise Junior College, then earned his B.A. in political science from the College of Idaho in 1967. He was the only member of his family to graduate from college, and made the dean’s list in his last term. He served the Idaho Army National Guard's 116th Armored Cavalry from 1968-73. He received specialized training at Fort Knox.
Otter's business experience includes 30 years with Simplot International, a leading agribusiness corporation. He started at a low level position and eventually rose to the company's presidency.
In 1964, Otter married Gay Simplot, daughter of his longtime employer, J. R. Simplot. After 28 years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1992.
Otter's first bid for elective office was in 1972 when he was elected a member of the Idaho State House of Representatives from Canyon County. In 1978 Otter ran for Governor of Idaho, but was defeated in the Republican primary by Allan Larsen. Afterwards Otter remained active in the Idaho Republican Party, holding several state and county positions.
Lieutenant Governor
In 1986, Butch Otter returned to politics and was elected Lieutenant Governor of Idaho. He was reelected in 1990, 1994 and 1998. He served under three different governors, Democrat Cecil Andrus, and Republicans Phil Batt and Dirk Kempthorne. In 1991, when the Idaho Senate was evenly divided between 21 Republicans and 21 Democrats, Otter's tie-breaking votes kept the body under Republican control. Otter left the post midway through his fourth term in 2001 to take his Congressional seat. He is the longest-serving lieutenant governor in Idaho history.
Congressman
First District Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth-Hage had promised to serve only three terms in the House when first elected in the Republican wave of 1994, and kept that pledge in 2000 even after calling term limits bad policy. Otter entered the Republican primary, and immediately became the favorite due to his name recognition as lieutenant governor. He won handily, and breezed to victory in November. He was re-elected in 2002 and 2004 with no substantive opposition.
In Congress, Otter was largely conservative with a slight libertarian streak, as reflected in his opposition to the Patriot Act. He was one of three Republicans (along with Bob Ney of Ohio and Ron Paul of Texas) to vote against the act in 2001. He has since changed his views on the Patriot Act, and now believes that "much of the USA PATRIOT Act is needed to help protect us in a dangerous age of stateless zealots and mindless violence."
Otter was also very critical of the Bush Administration's domestic spying efforts. He served as a deputy majority whip for most of his time in Congress despite his opposition to many key Bush Administration policies.
2006 election
On December 15 Otter announced his candidacy for the gubernatorial seat in 2006. Otter defeated three opponents in the May 23 Republican primary and faced Democrat Jerry Brady in the November 6 general election. Brady, the former publisher of The Post Register in Idaho Falls, had run for governor in 2002, losing to incumbent Dirk Kempthorne.
Otter was initially considered an overwhelming favorite, given his popularity and Idaho's strong Republican lean. However, the race was far closer than expected in the last weeks of the campaign. A poll conducted for the Idaho Statesman and Boise ABC affiliate KIVI showed Otter ahead of Brady by only a single point – a statistical dead heat. According to the Statesman, it was the first time in over a decade that the governor's race has not already been decided 10 days prior to the election. State Republican Party chairman Kirk Sullivan told the paper that the race appeared to be closer than normal because of a strong national trend against the Republicans. [2] The Democrats have not held the governorship since 1995, and since 1998 it was usually a foregone conclusion that the Republicans would win.
The Statesman/KIVI poll proved inaccurate, and Otter won the election 52-44% – the closest gubernatorial race since 1995.
Position on gray wolves
Otter's position on Idaho's endangered gray wolves has generally unnerved environmentalists. He wants to eradicate wolves from his state.
On January 11, 2007, Otter announced his support for a "gray wolf kill," in which all but 100 of Idaho's recently-recovered population would be eradicated, pending the forthcoming U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removal of the wolves' federal protections under the Endangered Species Act. At the rally with about 300 hunters, Otter said, "I'm prepared to bid for that first ticket to shoot a wolf myself," and complained that wolves are rapidly killing elk and other animals essential to Idaho's multimillion-dollar hunting industry.
Suzanne Stone, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife in Boise, said that Otter's proposal confirmed her organization's worst fears: that the governor's move was political and contrary to the principles of biological management[3].
Personal
On August 18, 2006, Otter married his longtime girlfriend Lori Easley in Meridian.[1] The two met in 1991 when Easley was Miss Idaho USA. Butch Otter's first marriage was later annulled by the Catholic Church so that he could marry Easley, who is 25 years his junior. Otter had come under fire for this from some social conservatives, including Mark Ricks, a former Republican state senator and lieutenant governor.
Controversy
In 1992 Otter was pulled over on the Interstate-84 outside of Meridian, Idaho for driving under the influence. He claimed the arresting officer saw him swerving as he was reaching for his cowboy hat, which had been blown off by the wind in his open car.
Otter offered many excuses for failing the field sobriety test including: his stocking feet were stung by weeds and gravel, he ran eight miles and his knees hurt, he was hungry, and that he soaked his chewing tobacco in Jack Daniels.
A jury convicted Otter in 1993. He was sentenced to 72 hours of community service and 16 hours of alcohol treatment program. This incident allegedly forced Otter to abandon an anticipated run for governor in 1994 and instead seek re-election for lieutenant governor.
Otter on the Issues
Otter's evaluations by these groups are fairly typical of conservative Republicans:
Rated 17% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 11% by APHA, indicating an anti-public health voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 10% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 5% by the LCV, indicating anti-environmentalist votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 33% by SANE, indicating a mixed record on military issues. (Dec 2003)
Rated 20% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-ACLU voting record. (Dec 2002)
Rated 0% by NARAL, indicating a pro-life voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 67% by CATO, indicating a pro-free trade voting record. (Dec 2002)
Rated 71% by NTU, indicating "Satisfactory" on tax votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 0% by the AFL-CIO, indicating an anti-labor union voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 100% by FAIR, indicating a voting record restricting immigration. (Dec 2003)
Rated 97% by the US COC, indicating a pro-business voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 92% by the Christian Coalition, indicating a pro-life, anti-gay marriage voting record. (Dec 2003)
(source: http://www.issues2000.org/)
Electoral History
| Idaho Gubernatorial Election, 2006 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Republican | C.L. Otter | 237,437 | 52.7 | ||
| Democratic | Jerry Brady | 198,845 | 44.1 | ||
References
- ^ Associated Press. Otter and Easley Exchange Vows. August 18, 2006
External links
- Idaho.gov - Governor C. L. “Butch” Otter
- National Governors Association - NGA.org] – Idaho Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter - biography
- Follow the Money – C L (Butch) Otter 2004 campaign contributions
- On the Issues – Butch Otter issue positions and quotes
- Project Vote Smart – Governor Clement Leroy 'Butch' Otter (ID) profile
- The Hill.com - Butch Otter - 06-April-2005
U.S. Representative 2001–2007
- Butch Otter at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Washington Post – Congress Votes Database: Butch Otter voting record 2001–2007
Articles
- Governor demonstrates the possibilities--and limits--of libertarian politics in the Republican Party David Weigel, Reason Magazine, November, 2006
- From 'Mr. Tight Jeans' to gubernatorial hopeful Betsy Rothstein, The Hill, April 6, 2005
- Arrest of manager casts pall over Otter campaign Idaho Statesman, February 16, 2005
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by David H. Leroy |
Lieutenant Governor of Idaho January 5, 1987–January 3, 2001 |
Succeeded by Jack Riggs |
| Preceded by Jim Risch |
Governor of Idaho January 1, 2007– |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
| United States House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by Helen Chenoweth-Hage |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Idaho's 1st congressional district January 3, 2001 – January 1, 2007 |
Succeeded by Bill Sali |
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