The field has narrowed in the race against freshman GOP Rep. Bill “Brain Fade” Sali:
Former Micron executive Larry Grant said Thursday morning that he will not run for the U.S. House in Idaho’s 1st congressional district.
Instead, Grant endorsed Walt Minnick, a former timber executive who ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996. […]
Grant lost to Republican Bill Sali in the 2006 election and was under pressure from some in the Idaho Democratic Party to drop out this time.
Grant appeared at a news conference in Boise with Minnick and Democratic former Gov. Cecil Andrus.
This isn’t very surprising. Grant has had very little fundraising success in his second kick at the can (just $60K raised last year), while Minnick’s been posting huge numbers (over $400K raised in the 4th quarter).
It’s going to be a lot tougher to beat Sali this time, but hopefully Minnick’s large cash reserves should make this nutter sweat.
I like Grant better but we needed to unify.
Hopefully Minnick can take out Sali.
If Minnick’s the only one running, then I’m going to go ahead and issue an endorsement of him immediately.
Larry Grant ran a good race in ’06 (I donated early, in June IIRC) when people said, “Not a chance in Idaho.” He made it a race and we appreciate his efforts.
But I don’t mind seeing someone else try things a little differently this time around. And I really didn’t have any appetite for seeing two Democrats burn money in a primary. Larry LaRocco needs any spare money in Idaho.
“Walt Minnick, a former timber executive…”