Chris Carlson Carlson Chronicles

On occasion, my counsel has been sought by prospective candidates for statewide offices. (By way of credentials, I have been involved in three successful campaigns.)

I ask them the usual questions:

Why do you want the office?

What is your initial base of support?

Is your spouse supportive?

Do you have a budget and a plan for raising the required money?

What is your strategy for winning?

Who are your key helpers and supporters?

Do you understand the commitment it takes?

Will you accept media training, conduct polls, etc.?

Invariably, though, I ask the one question nine out of 10 “wannabes” flunk: Have you met with any member of the “Committee of Nine” and, if not, how do they plan to introduce themselves to the “Committee of Nine”?

The blank stare this question engenders tells me the person isn’t close to being ready to run.

Most readers will ask the same question. You can bet, however, that every successful major Idaho political figure in the last 50 years knows this group and how influential it is behind the scenes. The “Committee of Nine” is the nine water masters of the major Snake River Federal Irrigation Projects in southern Idaho. The members can make or break most major statewide candidates.

Former Idaho Governor and U.S. Senator Len B. Jordan once described the Snake River as a “working river, the lifeblood of Idaho.” Any candidate for major office who does not understand how that river works, the important role the water masters play, especially in times of shortages, and the primacy of upstream water rights is, pardon the expression, “dead in the water.”

Most of these water masters, coincidentally, are members in good standing of the LDS Church. Many are or have been a bishop. While they never presume to tell anyone how to vote, a “testimonial” to a candidate’s understanding of water law and its importance to the state’s economy is listened to and heeded by many.

It is no coincidence, either, that many directors of the Bureau of Reclamation, the dam building and irrigation project agency created by the 1902 Reclamation Act within the Department of the Interior, just happen to have been Mormon. And while every Interior Secretary will swear their selection of a Bureau of Reclamation director never involved asking about his religion, it is no coincidence when some are LDS given the Church’s historic interest in irrigation.

Neither would anyone argue that Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus’ director, R. Keith Higginson, who also had been Idaho’s director of Water Resources, was not eminently qualified to hold the post. He, too, was a member of the LDS Church.

Let’s just say the critical importance of water, its wise application to land, and its allocation based on several basic principles, such as “first in time, first in use” (The primacy of upstream water rights), has always been sacred script to Mormons from the pioneer days on forward.

It is no coincidence either that every major piece of wilderness or national recreation area legislation for Idaho contains “boiler plate” language affirming the new act in no way supersedes or takes precedence over Idaho water law and the primacy of upstream water rights.

The Hells Canyon National Recreation Area legislation in the early 70s almost hit the rocks when one of its key sponsors, Oregon Senator Bob Packwood, initially refused to affirm the primacy of upstream water rights.

It’s not just the role water has played in agriculture either. One cannot truly begin to understand the multiple uses of water unless they have driven beside long stretches of rivers like the Salmon, Payette, Clearwater, St. Joe, Boise, Lochsa, Selway, Portneuf, Lemhi, Priest, or the north and south forks of the Coeur d’Alene .

Better yet, only by floating the wilderness stretches of the Middle Fork of the Salmon, the main Salmon, the Selway, or the Owyhee rivers does one grasp how rivers were the early highways, providing access into and out of almost inaccessible mountainous areas of Idaho. Floating wilderness rivers also introduces one to how vast Idaho is and the impact to Idaho’s economy by the 10,000 people a year who float down the Middle Fork and the Salmon River systems alone.

The result is that there are new interest groups who depend upon other uses of water and the need to protect it, such as the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association and the Idaho Conservation League. None of them yet begin to match the power and influence of the Committee of Nine, however.

All, however, underscore to a political aspirant that before offering one’s services they better damn well understand how important water is and always will be to the political landscape of the state.

A native of Kellogg, a former teacher at Kootenai, and a former journalist, Chris Carlson served as press secretary to former Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus for ten years. He is the founding partner of the Gallatin Group, is now retired and he and his wife, Marcia, reside at Medimont.

Chris Carlson Carlson Chronicles

Former Coeur d’Alene Tribal Chairman and Casino Executive (1994-2006) David Matheson, is back in a seat of prominence, his old job as Casino executive, after five years of acrimonious litigation full of charges and counter-charges the press shouldn’t repeat because there were no verdicts and no real conclusions.

Any observer of Native Americans, or anyone who has business or political dealings with tribes as an entity quickly learns the internal politics of any tribe are as Byzantine and as complex as any politics anywhere. If one has not been raised in that culture one cannot begin to understand the machinations.

Even if one could understand the complexities of the various family and clan relationships, one would need a scorecard to comprehend the inner workings, which family is up and which is down, why some view an education in the college’s of the white conquerors as a negative not a positive, why children can be raised by an entire village successfully, why the native religion can absorb the teachings of the Jesuit missionaries.

Suffice it to say to outward appearances the Matheson family is back in the saddle of real power. Whether that is at the expense of some other powerful family, which is now out, who outside can say? Those that do know won’t say, one can bet on that.

One can also say most Native Americans are acutely aware of public perceptions; more so than other minorities because in many cases they have been victimized by the hokey Indian stereotypes that exist in our culture.

David Matheson has over the years proven to be a savvy operator. He obviously is a survivor and one can wager though outward appearances may be he cares little about public perceptions in fact he is acutely aware of how important they can be.

Matheson, in many respects, is a rarity among Native leaders, but one of those is that he is a Republican. Most Native Americans have tended to identify with Democrats. Indeed, the first Native American ever elected to the Idaho State Senate, a Coeur d’Alene Tribal member by the name of Chief Joseph Garry, was a Democrat.

Matheson, though, aligned with Republicans early in his career. When Ronald Reagan’s vice president, George H. W. Bush, was elected to the Presidency in November of 1988, Matheson headed for D.C. Initially he was appointed as a special assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, Eddie Frank Brown, who soon realized that Matheson had the talent and ability to manage the entire 14,000 employee Bureau of Indian Affairs. Matheson also was obtaining his Masters in Business Administration from the University of Washington (1989).

After 14 months at Interior, Matheson was named by then Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan, in May of 1991, as the Deputy Commissioner of Indian Affairs for Administration, the second most powerful position within Indian Affairs. Almost all accounts give Matheson high marks for his management. No one who has met or dealt with David Matheson questions his intelligence or competency.

For that reason, and because almost all Republicans invoke their sainted Irish president, Ronald Reagan, constantly, we want to remind Matheson that the truest and wisest words the Gipper ever uttered were: “Trust but verify!”

How does that relate to today? Quite easily.

With Matheson having been reappointed to his old job as Casino executive director on August 9th, he has the opportunity to start anew with, as the tribal press release said, a “second chance” to do well by all who depend upon the Casino’s success.

A great start for the casino and the tribe would be embracing true transparency with regard to tribal gaming revenues. Matheson was among those who campaigned hard for the voter initiative expanding Indian gaming to include slot like machines, and he knows one of the keys to the vote was the pledge to return annually five percent of the net revenues to surrounding school districts.

Of late there have been serious questions raised as to whether the tribe was really doing so. And the tribe is taking the position of saying “trust us, we’ve delivered on the pledge.” I’m sorry, my friends, that doesn’t fly anywhere anymore.

To restore both the Tribe’s credibility and his own, Matheson has to put the Casino in the forefront of truth-tellers by hiring independent outside auditors to review the annual gaming receipts, then verify what 5 percent would be, and then the Tribe can distribute it as they see fit, but with full disclosure of the amounts.

There’s a lot more action needed on the “verification” piece of Ronald Reagan’s wise injunction. One hopes Matheson and current Tribal leadership recognize sound advice when it is offered.

A native of Kellogg, a former teacher at Kootenai, and a former journalist, Chris Carlson served as press secretary to former Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus for ten years. He is the founding partner of the Gallatin Group, is now retired and he and his wife, Marcia, reside at Medimont.

Chris Carlson Carlson Chronicles

Look out, Lt. Governor Brad Little (Or substitute Schools Superintendent Tom Luna, or Rep. Raul Labrador—whoever your favorite is). You may think you’re the “crown prince” and next in line to be the Republican dynasty’s governor of Idaho, but the best politician in the state may be maneuvering to snatch that crown from your grasp and place it squarely on his head of distinguished white hair.

He has never held a political office in Idaho, but all the state’s major players know him. He is unquestionably the state’s best fund-raiser. He holds degrees in political science and demonstrates daily that he understands politics, especially the “rule” that perception is reality.

He reads books and can really talk about them. For nine years he has demonstrated mastery of one of the most politicized jobs in any state.

He is of course Bob Kustra, president of Idaho’s largest university, Boise State. He demonstrated again this month that even at age 68 he is on top of his game.

The evidence clearly shows he is a master practitioner of politics which leads one to wonder if his ambition has truly been satisfied? A yearning for high public office may still linger in his breast. It also goes far toward unraveling the mystery of why now he sacked loyal and long-time Athletic Director Gene Bleymaier.

It was as astute a pro-active, pre-emptive political move as any have seen in awhile. Odds are better than even that Kustra already knows or strongly suspects severe sanctions may be coming down for violations of various NCAA rules by not just Boise State’s nationally ranked football team, but in other sports also.

Among Kustra’s duties is that of Mountain West Conference representative on the NCAA Board of Directors. He also is a member of the BCS’s Oversight Committee. Obviously, it would look bad to be sitting in upcoming meetings not having taken action until after sanctions came down.

Far better to act quickly and decisively before any scandal possibly taints him, as well. So the AD walks the plank, perhaps deservedly, but who really knows? Governor Andrus had an expression derived from the English essayist, Samuel Johnson, which covered these situations: “Nothing like a hanging in the morning to focus one’s attention!”

It is easy also to envision Kustra seeing a governor in the mirror each morning. Few folks in Idaho know that Bob Kustra mastered the Byzantine politics of Illinois, serving ten years in the Legislature before being elected Lt. Governor twice serving on a ticket with Governor Jim Edgar, one of the few Illinois governors NOT to be indicted in recent years.

Any one who runs for Lt. Governor thinks he can be governor, but usually has to bide his time under a more popular person. But “lieutenants” are anxious to drop the “LT” in front of their title—just ask Butch Otter, Phil Batt, Jim Risch and John Evans, as well as Brad Little.

Kustra’s “up or out move,” however, came in his 1996 bid for a Senate seat. He lost in the GOP primary to someone named Al Salvi. He resigned the Lt. Governorship a few months later and plunged full-time into buttressing his academic administration credentials by accepting the presidency of Eastern Kentucky University.

In 2003 he was named president of Boise State and the school hasn’t been the same since.. As a savvy politician he understands the importance of perception as well as marketing and planning. The BSU football team was already on the rise but he watched carefully and supported taking it to the next level and the next as a true key to ensuring the school’s status as the major university in the state and its largest population center.

Kustra reportedly drives staff hard, and is a stickler for detail, but he does his homework, knows his game plan and knows how to stay on message. Though some scoff at BSU’s academic pretensions, he has worked to upgrade admission standards and expand research and PhD. Offerings. Make no mistake, if there had not been progress on this front BSU never would have been invited to the Mountain West.

He also settled on tagging BSU (He insists everyone always refer to the school as Boise State University) as a “metropolitan research university of distinction.” The Carnegie Institute, which rates the nation’s schools and colleges has no such category and indeed does not even rank BSU in the top three tiers. Nonetheless, perception is reality, as Kustra knows.

Finally, he is coming off the most successful fund-raising campaign in Idaho history, having raised $175 million in private donations and this is separate from the drive to expand Bronco Stadium. Nothing succeeds like success.

I’m willing to wager that after ten years as Boise State president, there’s an itch in Bob Kustra to heal over by capping his career with the long desired title of Governor, knowing that nothing does quite succeed as well as success. Brad Little just may have a real fight on his hands.

A native of Kellogg, a former teacher at Kootenai, and a former journalist, Chris Carlson served as press secretary to former Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus for ten years. He is the founding partner of the Gallatin Group, is now retired and he and his wife, Marcia, reside at Medimont.