James Risch, who has been Idaho’s lieutenant governor and governor, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008. During his first year in the Senate, he kept at the entrance to his Washington office a large plaque identifying him not as a senator but as governor, and his wife as first lady. He succeeded Republican Sen. Larry Craig, who declined to seek re-election after he was arrested the previous year in a solicitation-for-sex sting. Risch (RISH, like wish) grew up in Wisconsin and moved to the West to study forestry. He earned a law degree at the University of Idaho. In 1970, at age 27, Risch was elected Ada County prosecutor—a high-profile position in the state’s capital and largest city, Boise. He went after the illicit drug trade so aggressively that his enemies tried to plant a bomb in his car. After that incident, Risch and his wife and political confidant, Vicki, put a piece of tape on the hood of their car every night so they could detect any tampering. In 1974, Risch was elected to the state Senate, where he served longer than anyone else in Idaho history. He earned a reputation as an ambitious and determined legislator. He always carried an index card in his back pocket, one side listing bills that he wanted to pass and the other listing bills he was determined to kill. Immediately gunning for a leadership position, he became majority leader after the 1976 election, defeating a young colleague named Larry Craig for the position. Although popular with some of his colleagues, Risch was known as a bully to a number of the younger senators whom he pressured to vote his way. Read More

James Risch, who has been Idaho’s lieutenant governor and governor, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2008. During his first year in the Senate, he kept at the entrance to his Washington office a large plaque identifying him not as a senator but as governor, and his wife as first lady. He succeeded Republican Sen. Larry Craig, who declined to seek re-election after he was arrested the previous year in a solicitation-for-sex sting. Risch (RISH, like wish) grew up in Wisconsin and moved to the West to study forestry. He earned a law degree at the University of Idaho. In 1970, at age 27, Risch was elected Ada County prosecutor—a high-profile position in the state’s capital and largest city, Boise. He went after the illicit drug trade so aggressively that his enemies tried to plant a bomb in his car. After that incident, Risch and his wife and political confidant, Vicki, put a piece of tape on the hood of their car every night so they could detect any tampering. In 1974, Risch was elected to the state Senate, where he served longer than anyone else in Idaho history. He earned a reputation as an ambitious and determined legislator. He always carried an index card in his back pocket, one side listing bills that he wanted to pass and the other listing bills he was determined to kill. Immediately gunning for a leadership position, he became majority leader after the 1976 election, defeating a young colleague named Larry Craig for the position. Although popular with some of his colleagues, Risch was known as a bully to a number of the younger senators whom he pressured to vote his way.

He was brought back down to earth by a Democratic challenger who beat him in the 1988 election. He ran again in 1990, but this time he was defeated in the GOP primary. Five years later, he was appointed to fill a state Senate vacancy. Less confrontational this time around, Risch moved back into the ranks of leadership as assistant Republican floor leader. He became one of the driving forces in the Idaho Republican Party even as the state elected a string of Democratic governors. In 2002, Risch ran for lieutenant governor and won by a comfortable margin. He served in the shadow of Republican Gov. Dirk Kempthorne for three years and finally assumed the top job when Kempthorne became President George W. Bush’s Interior secretary.

Risch had just seven months in what he considered his dream job, and he was determined to make the most of it. Within two weeks of taking office, Gov. Risch ordered a reorganization of Idaho’s Health and Welfare Department. He created the position of state drug czar to counter the growth in the illicit methamphetamine market in the state. Displeased that the legislature failed to provide property tax relief in its regular session, he called the first special session in 14 years. One day in August, the heavily Republican legislature obediently passed bills cutting local property taxes by $260 million, raising the sales tax from 5% to 6% (which generated $219 million), and cutting state spending by $50 million. The voters approved the tax changes 72%-28%. After wide consultation, he prepared a roadless-areas plan for 9 million acres of national forest that was approved by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns and was generally accepted by environmental groups. Risch moved to protect the Boulder-White Clouds and Owyhee Canyonlands wilderness areas. To prevent mercury contamination, he effectively barred construction of pulverized coal plants in the state.

When November rolled around, Risch beat former Democratic Rep. Larry LaRocco for lieutenant governor 58%-39%. But another goal beckoned: the U.S. Senate seat first won by his old rival Craig in 1990. Craig was arrested in a Minneapolis airport men’s room in 2007 for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. Craig resisted immense pressure from his Senate colleagues to resign immediately, but then decided against seeking re-election in 2008. Risch announced his intention to run.

He had little competition for the Republican nomination. His Democratic opponent was, once again, LaRocco, who had been elected to the House in 1990 and 1992, but was defeated in the Republican sweep of 1994. Another opponent was Democrat Rex Rammell, a rancher who had lost 160 of his elk herd after they escaped from his land and were ordered shot by then-Gov. Risch. Rammell ran as an independent. Risch raised more than twice as much money as LaRocco, and the national Democratic Party never targeted the race. He won the election 58%-34%, with 5% for Rammell.

Risch entered the Senate at age 65, after an extensive political career as well as years in business as owner of a trailer company and property management firm, which made him one of the Senate’s wealthiest members. After spending decades in control in Republican-dominated Idaho, he joined a relatively powerless minority in the Senate. He immediately became an aggressive conservative ally of his more mild-mannered Idaho Senate colleague Mike Crapo. During the 2009 debate over President Obama’s economic stimulus bill, Risch accused Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of taking $50 million from the bill to save a species of mouse found only in her district, a claim that turned out to be wrong. He opposed most of Obama’s spending initiatives, including a Senate-passed, $35 billion jobs bill in February 2010 that he complained cost too much. “I ran for this office as a deficit hawk, and now that I am here I have moved even further in that direction,” he told The Idaho Statesman. On the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, he worked to add provisions increasing the roles for biomass and geothermal energy in the 2009 energy bill. He wound up voting against the final bill because, he said, it didn’t go far enough to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and did too little to encourage expansion of nuclear power.

Risch also decided to try his hand at national security and foreign policy matters, joining the Foreign Relations and Select Intelligence committees. He complained to Defense Secretary Robert Gates in December 2009 about the lack of “a sense of urgency” in Afghanistan. When the Foreign Relations panel sought to take up the New START arms control treaty with Russia in September 2010, Risch tried to stop the vote, citing new intelligence that he said he couldn’t reveal in open session that led him to question Russia’s intentions. And when the full Senate took up the pact in December 2010, he again unsuccessfully demanded a delay, noting that Russian troops reportedly had stolen five U.S. Humvees used in military exercises. “They are serial cheaters,” he said.