IdahoReporter.com

Since Idaho became a state in 1890, voters have looked for one common characteristic of the men they’ve chosen to fill the top executive position within the government: experience.

Republican Gov. Butch Otter is up for re-election in November and he continuously knocks his challenger, Democrat Keith Allred, as inexperienced, someone who thinks he can govern in theory, but a person who hasn’t had to make tough decisions of elected office.

Maybe Otter knows something everyone else doesn’t.  Since 1890, with a few exceptions, every man chosen to lead the state has had some form of experience in elected office.  Several – Republicans and Democrats – took different routes to the state’s top spot, but each man has background from some type of elected office prior to winning the gubernatorial nod from voters.  Only three men – John T. Morrison, Frank W. Hunt, and Frank Steunenberg - were elected with no prior work in public office.  Voters haven’t given a politician without prior experience in elected office the OK for governor since Morrison’s time in office, 1903 until 1905.

Ryan Panitz, spokesman for Otter’s campaign, said Allred’s lack of a record in public service should be concerning to voters.  “It shows the major contrast between Gov. Otter and Allred,” said Panitz.  “Gov. Otter governs based on experience whereas our opponent just has his theories.”  Panitz also pointed out that Allred’s lack of experience hurt his prospects in the business of government.  “No company worth a billion dollars or more would ever hire a CEO that had zero experience in a leadership position and little experience in the company’s core business competencies,” concluded Panitz.

Though devoid of a record of public service, Allred isn’t a newcomer to the political game.  For the past five years, he has served at the president for The Common Interest, a public policy group he founded. On the campaign trail, the Democratic challenger often boasts of his accomplishments in the group, including helping to defeat gas tax increase proposals pitched by Otter during the 2009 legislative session.

Allred is experienced in other ways, too.  He taught courses on government and mediation at Harvard and Columbia.  During his 10-year stint at Harvard, he taught three different courses: two on mediation and one called “Conflict Business and Government Systems for Resolving.”  During his time with The Common Interest, Allred produced several videos, published on YouTube, in which he talked about the successes of the interest group in the Idaho Legislature, as well as the work of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Though he may lack a resume filled with elected positions, it may not even bother Allred.  He went toe-to-toe with Otter at a debate in Idaho Falls two weeks ago in which he called the governor “a career politician” and bashed him for listening only to special interests.  “My track record is different,” Allred said at the debate. “I haven’t been a career politician. I’ve been a citizens’ advocate.”

Allred’s spokesman, Shea Andersen, says that his boss has worked for the betterment of Idaho outside of elected office.  “Keith Allred has always focused on positive, practical results for Idahoans, and that resonates with people more than Butch Otter’s three decades of politicking,” said Andersen.  Instead of a career politician, Anderson explained, Idahoans want a public-minded servant in Idaho’s top office.

“Idahoans have never been so frustrated as they are now by politics that is more about special interests and partisan politics, not results,” said Andersen.  “As the polls and fundraising numbers show, people are responding to a citizen’s advocate who isn’t a career politician, but who knows how to find solutions to problems instead of political posturing.”

Otter still leads in the polling, but his lead has slipped from 22 to 17 points in recent months.  As of June 4, however, Allred had the lead in the money race.  The Democrat had $189,000 in his campaign coffers, compared to $161,000 for Otter.

Voters might not be hesitant to give the unproven Allred a chance in 2010.  The Wall Street Journal recently took notice of the Idaho gubernatorial contest, suggesting that it might be in play in the fall.  The writer, Eric Carlton, implied that Otter might fall victim to the anti-incumbent sentiment Carlton believes exists in this electoral cycle. “Thanks in part to anti-incumbent sentiment, Democratic challenger Keith Allred has been steadily chipping away at Otter’s wide lead in the polls,” wrote Carlton.

Allred wouldn’t be the first non-experienced, former professor to take the post if elected in the fall.  Morrison, Idaho’s sixth governor, helped found the College of Idaho, an institution at which he taught English and history.  He also served as a member of the school’s board of trustees for several years.  Like Allred, Morrison wasn’t a newcomer to politics when he decided to run for governor in 1902.  From 1897 until 1900, Morrison served as chair of the Republican Central Committee.

At least one fact from the history of Idaho’s highest job might serve Allred well: a good majority of Idaho’s governors, like Allred, weren’t born in Idaho.  Only five of the 32 men tapped for the job called Idaho their birthplace.  Otter is one of the five.

Another statistic not in Allred’s favor is the party split of the governor’s office.  Since 1890, some 20 Republicans have held the job, compared to 12 Democrats.  The first man to hold the job in Idaho’s statehood, George L. Shoup, was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1890.  Though Idaho Republicans boast that voters in the state haven’t elected a Democrat as governor in the last 20 years, Democrat Cecil Andrus, who served a combined 14 years in the top job, is still the longest-serving executive in Idaho’s 120-year history.