James Risch

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, was forced to address a question no other Idaho senator has faced before:

Would he take advantage of an obscure 1917 Idaho law that would allow him to resign 30 days before the Nov. 3 election, thereby canceling the senatorial campaign and enabling Gov. Brad Little to appoint a successor for the next two years?

“This has bubbled up recently. I don’t know if you guys have seen this,” said McKay Cunningham, a director of the master applied public policy at the College of Idaho, during a recent candidate forum that Risch skipped. “Is this conspiracy theory? ... What is the likelihood of this sort of thing happening? Maybe you haven’t heard of it, but I’d like to get the candidates’ impression on this question.”

In response, Risch’s campaign manager Marc Kilmer informed the Idaho Capital Sun’s Laura Guido: “This rumor is completely false. ... Jim Risch is leading in the polls. He is running an aggressive campaign. He will be victorious on November 3. This conspiracy theory is being perpetrated by our desperate opponent to take attention away from his liberal record. The only people who gamed the system this election were our opponent’s supporters who coerced Democrat David Roth to drop out and clear the field for Todd Achilles.”

The vitriol aside, you have to wonder why something first mused by columnist Marc Johnson seven months ago all of a sudden is plausible enough to justify the Risch campaign’s strongly worded denial.

Was it because, as Johnson noted in March, that Risch’s Republican colleague from Montana, Steve Daines, employed shenanigans of the same sort by waiting until the last possible moment to quit his reelection campaign, thereby steering the Republican nomination to U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme? By staying in the race until the 30-day window opened, Risch could block the same kind of divisive GOP primary fight that Daines’ maneuver avoided.

Could it be a reflection of the lethargic campaign Risch has waged? There have been no debates, no open forums and few probing interviews. From the war in Iran to fuel prices, from President Donald Trump’s inflationary trade wars to the Epstein files, from the dubious Trump cabinet picks to the Elon Musk DOGE debacle, from the massive and violent immigration raids to Trump’s self-enrichment, Risch finds himself on the defensive. And the senator with a job approval rating reportedly in the high 30s remembers what it’s like to be rejected by the voters.

How about the prospect of a blue wave handing Senate control to the Democrats? Why would Risch want to remain in office after forfeiting his Foreign Relations Committee chairpersonship?

It couldn’t be Risch’s age, could it? At 83, he’s the fourth oldest member of the Senate behind retiring Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, 84, Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., 85, and Chuck Grassley, R–Iowa, 93. Even if the profile doesn’t spell Risch’s exit from the current campaign, the same questions about a vacancy in office during the next six years — because of health, personal desires or even a looming appointment in the Trump administration — remain.

Or it could just be the theory is credible because Risch is not above doing something so tawdry.

Remember when Risch brought the U.S. Senate — and the federal government — to a standstill in 2018? His temper tantrum over a measure renaming the White Clouds Wilderness in honor of the late former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus almost derailed a must-pass $1.3 trillion spending package.

Before Risch relented, then-Sen. Clare McCaskill, D-Mo., said: “It’s almost like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit.”

The Lewiston Tribune headlined the story: “Risch picks fight with dead man, loses.”

Or how about the incident five years later when Risch disregarded the mayor of Boise, the Boise airport, the Federal Aviation Administration and persuaded Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to insert within the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act a provision diverting aircraft headed to and from Boise’s airport from flying over his 44-acre Ada County ranch? He preferred that planes be rerouted toward Meridian and Nampa — which would have been less safe and less efficient. Once exposed, Risch backed off.

It’s ancient history now, but former Idaho Attorney General Jim Jones remembers when Risch — then president pro tem of the Idaho Senate — sided with his client, Idaho Power Co., in 1984 against the state’s water users and communities.

“At the time, he was on a lucrative retainer agreement with Idaho Power,” Jones wrote. “It was an obvious conflict of interest between his legislative duties and his pocketbook.”

Don’t forget Risch sabotaging Gov. Dirk Kempthorne’s 2001 gaming compact with the northern Idaho Indian tribes because he was miffed at the governor passing over him and naming then-Sen. Jack Riggs, R-Coeur d’Alene, as the state’s new lieutenant governor.

It’s not so much Risch’s denial about applying the 1917 law that’s revealing about his character.

It’s the fact that he was even asked. — M.T