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February 13, 2012 in Idaho
Idaho Rep. Labrador launches re-election bid
Congressman Raul Labrador greets Idaho state Rep. JoAn Wood, R-Rigby, after his election announcement on the Statehouse steps Monday.
(Full-size photo)
BOISE - Idaho Congressman Raul Labrador announced his bid for a second term on the Statehouse steps today, flanked by more than 30 state lawmakers who served with him when he was a state representative and a bevy of the state’s top GOP elected officials.
Labrador said with the economy improving, “The government just simply needs to get out of the way.” He told an appreciative crowd of about 300, “I share your values and your vision for America.”
Idaho Gov. Butch Otter, with whom Labrador clashed as a state lawmaker when Labrador led House opposition to Otter’s proposed gas tax increase, laughingly ordered anyone in the audience who was wearing their red Labrador sticker on the left side to move it to the right. “We’re talking about Raul Labrador here!” he declared.
Labrador is being challenged in his bid for a second House term by Democrat Jimmy Farris, a former NFL football player and Lewiston native who’s making his first run for office.
Otter said, “It’s awfully important that we have a voice in Washington, D.C. that speaks loud and clear about the new Republicanism and the federalism that we believe in in Idaho. And Raul along with the rest of the delegation has been at the forefront for that.”
Labrador spoke proudly of his votes in Congress, including opposing reauthorization of the Patriot Act, supporting repeal of the national health care reform law, voting to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, and opposing the National Defense Reauthorization Act because “it failed to clearly protect U.S. citizens from indefinite detention.”
He also alluded to his recent televised scrap with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder during a congressional hearing over the “Fast and Furious” gun-trafficking investigation. “I don’t think he will ever forget that I am from Idaho,” Labrador said. “And yes, Mr. Holder, to answer your question, that is how we do things in Idaho. We ask direct questions and we get direct answers.”
The immigration attorney and former two-term state lawmaker declared, “Washington has not changed me.”
Some evidence: The freshman congressman hasn’t found himself a home to rent in Washington, D.C. while he’s there - he’s sleeping on his office couch instead, and returning to Idaho and his family each weekend. “I commute every week,” Labrador said. Asked how that’s going, he said, “Planes are not my favorite thing - that’s really the only tough part.”
Labrador is not alone among congressmen in choosing to bunk in his congressional office while in the nation’s capitol. “There’s people who have been doing it for over 10 years,” he said.
Last year, Politico reported that retiring Rep. Pete Hoekstra of Michigan slept on the couch of his Capitol Hill office for 17 years and nine months; he told Politico then, “I always figured I’d lose someday, but it’d never be because I’d gone D.C. and forgotten who I worked for.”
Labrador and his wife, Becca, looked at possible homes in the D.C. area for the family when he first was elected, but decided against getting a place, at least for now. “I have kids in high school,” he said. “I want to make sure they still have those Idaho roots.” Labrador said if re-elected, he’ll continue sleeping on his office couch for the next two years.
Eked-out win teaches Idaho Democrat a lesson 
RedCedar on February 13 at 1:28 p.m.
He’s still a freshman. Opinions are easy and every congresscritter gets to vote. Even if you agree with every vote he’s made, he still has very little pull. Idaho has a very weak congressional delegation currently. The last man with any pull was “wide stance” Larry Craig. There’s nothing a new guy can do about it but figure out how the game is played, work his way up in the power structure, and then convince the voters that his incumbency is a reason to keep him, not a reason to dump him.
meadman on February 13 at 1:58 p.m.
Sleeping in his office – what do you want to bet that he is taking his “housing allowance” $$$ and putting it in his pocket! Someone should check on this
kma on February 13 at 3:33 p.m.
Then Labradoodle boy don’t you and any of your repuks take another dime from the feds. If there is a disaster in Idaho Labradoodle boy, then you can call on all your boys and girls in Idaho that barely make minimum wage to fess up and make it right…yes, that is the way…………….. right, right, right.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ya know, tax them…….tax them…….tax them.
Oh, and sorry you have to FLY IN A JET TO WORK LABRADOODLE BOY. So sorry for you.
Another wingnut repuk……..VOTE THEM ALL OUT OR THEY WILL CONTINUE TO TAKE EVERY DIME YOU MAKE FOR THEMSELVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RedCedar on February 13 at 4:21 p.m.
That’s what campaigns are for, meadman. if Labrador has so much as yelled at is dog or flicked a booger out the window, his opponent will reveal it as a campaign issue. We certainly can’t expect a debate about real issues, especially those that a congressman has the power to do anything about.
Shadedmuse on February 13 at 4:43 p.m.
And Idaho will contiune the road down hill with this tea-bagger in office.
VOTE OUT ALL TEA-BAGGERS in NOVember they are not doing anything but collecting a cheque
RedCedar on February 13 at 5:47 p.m.
Ooops.. I see I inadvertently stumbled into the 6th grade boy’s restroom. Bye.
mrd on February 13 at 6:12 p.m.
I don’t see where labrador has done much for Idaho so I am excited to see what kind of platform a Democrat will offer. I don’t really want to hear what others think he’ll say, I want the candidate to speak about what he has to offer Idaho.
nucumall on February 13 at 7:51 p.m.
Shadedmuse you are referring to Tea Party. Tea bagging is what you lefties do when you finish feltching each other.
Shadedmuse on February 13 at 7:57 p.m.
The Democratic Canidate running in Idaho is a NFLer from lewiston-Clarkston Area.
citizenX on February 16 at 9:30 a.m.
Would not vote for Labrador if his was the only name on the ballot. Just another fat cat, do nothing wing-nut politician. Not everybody in Idaho shares your vision of Federalism or the New Republicism, which looks to me, to simply be political obstructionism. Your brand of representation has been devisive, bad for America, and bad for Idaho.