[Vision2020] In Otter's Idaho, Three DUIs = Success w/ $83, 200 Government Job -- No Degree Needed

[Saundra Lund]

New deputy chief of the Idaho Bureau of Prisons rebounded from three arrests
of his own
Josh Tewalt is Gov. Butch Otter's comeback kid.
BY DAN POPKEY - dpopkey at idahostatesman.com 
Published: 04/15/11


Bad judgment and bad timing might have ended Josh Tewalt's career in
government.

In March 2005, less than a month after another member of Butch Otter's
gubernatorial campaign staff was arrested for DUI and quit, Tewalt wrecked
on Idaho 52 and was charged with driving under the influence.

He had spent four years on Otter's congressional staff, and he immediately
resigned.

"I just didn't want to be a distraction," Tewalt recalled this week. "I
didn't want to be part of that story."

Tewalt's DUI arrest - the second of three between 2002 and 2006 - wasn't
connected to Otter, who won his first term as governor in 2006.

But Tewalt's promising career was in ruins.

"You think it's over, you think you're done," Tewalt said. 

SPARKLING YOUNG MAN

In 1998, Tewalt graduated from Meridian High, where his mom, Connie, is a
secretary. Meridian had the biggest FFA chapter in Idaho and Tewalt became
state president.

A champion in soldering copper pipe, he also raised sheep for show and loved
politics. Though modest in manner, he's 6-foot-1 and a flashy dresser, given
to bright ties and alligator cowboy boots. "I have a membership in the
pastel emporium," he jokes.

Tewalt caught then-Gov. Dirk Kempthorne's eye in 1999, a stroke of luck that
prompted him to abandon his plans to work the graveyard shift and attend
Boise State by day.

Kempthorne was signing an FFA proclamation and asked Tewalt to introduce him
to a crowd so large the event moved from the governor's office to the
rotunda.

"He came in with his blue corduroy jacket and just had a tremendous
presence," Kempthorne remembered. "I thought, boy, here's a young man with a
sparkle in his eye who steps right up and takes charge." 

After receiving a thank-you note from Tewalt, Kempthorne asked for a resume.
Eschewing an offer from Micron, Tewalt joined Kempthorne as an intern at $30
a day. He later became a staff assistant for agriculture and education,
organizing proclamations and doing some writing.

Brian Whitlock, a top Kempthorne staffer, said Tewalt had a knack for
capturing the governor's voice. "I tried to help folks understand that you
could learn a lot by listening. Josh took that counsel to heart."

ON OTTER'S TEAM

In April 2001, Tewalt became Rep. Otter's field representative in Southwest
Idaho for agricultural and natural resources.

He traveled the district with and without Otter and staffed the congressman
on two trips to Cuba.

After hiring Tewalt, Otter discovered Tewalt's maternal grandparents, Merle
and Laverne Hansen, were his boyhood 4-H leaders.

"There's a connection there," Otter said. "He's a farm kid, rural kid, 4-H
kid, works hard."

Otter still belongs to the Maple Grove Grange where Merle Hansen is a
member.

"Josh shined," recalled Otter of Tewalt's work on the congressional staff.
"It had an awful lot to do with his background, his understanding of the
culture I was dealing with."

Yet Tewalt was suffering, fighting personal problems. "I loved my job," he
said, "but everything else was kind of falling down around me."

He got his first DUI in Meridian in 2002. His boss in Otter's office told
him it couldn't happen again. When it did, he knew he had to go.

PAYING THE PRICE

Gem County amended the 2005 charge to inattentive driving. Tewalt spent 20
days in jail, 10 on work-release and 10 picking up roadside trash.

He worked for his dad, Dave, who owns a two-man plumbing outfit, and focused
on raising show sheep at his granddad's 16-acre farm on the south side of
Meridian.

Tewalt got his last DUI in February 2006 in Boise, spending another day in
jail and 14 days collecting trash.

He caught a break a few months later when Lloyd Knight, a friend who ran the
Idaho Cattle Association, hired him. Tewalt later succeeded Knight as
executive vice president and organized the first of what have become annual
trail rides led by Otter.

"You get another shot and you work that much harder," Tewalt said. "In every
one of those instances, I broke confidences, I violated the trust people had
in me. You just have to work that much harder to repair it, to not do it
again."

Tewalt said his breakthrough was owning up. "I quit being a victim: 'They
were mean to me. They really came after me. I'm a good person. Don't they
know I'm a nice guy?'

"I reached the conclusion - with a lot of help - that there wasn't a single
thing that happened to me that I didn't invite."

BACK IN THE FOLD

In 2008, Otter's budget chief, Wayne Hammon, was looking to hire two
analysts. Though Tewalt didn't have a college degree, Hammon liked his
savvy.

"He understands the political process, how committees work, who chairmen are
and what power they have or don't have," Hammon said. "Sometimes, my numbers
people don't get that. Josh understands that logic isn't always necessarily
the trump card."

Hammon didn't hire Tewalt without a talk about alcohol. "He made me a
promise that it wasn't ever going to be a problem again. And I believe him."

Tewalt worked on juvenile and adult corrections, where he quickly impressed
managers by attending regular staff meetings and conveying what might or
might not fly with Otter. 

A PROMOTION 

Department of Correction Director Brent Reinke and Operations Division Chief
Kevin Kempf were so impressed with Tewalt they hired him away. Last week, he
started his new job at $83,200, just before his 31st birthday.

Reinke had attended Tewalt's 2009 wedding to Chanel Wilson, which was
officiated by Otter at the governor's ranch in Star. Reinke admired Tewalt's
work ethic and the chemistry he built with staff. He was looking for an
outsider to sharpen the department. 

"I need change agents that can look at practices and see things that I'm
blind to," Reinke said.

Reinke wasn't put off by Tewalt's lack of a degree; Reinke doesn't have one
either. "We see in him the raw material that we like to bring up and have
him learn our system and challenge our practices."

Tewalt's connection with Otter doesn't hurt.

"It's good to know the governor and it's good to understand his values,"
Reinke said. 

Despite his success, Tewalt would have preferred a more conventional path,
saying, "I don't think I should be celebrated for overcoming obstacles I put
in my own way."

Dan Popkey: 377-6438

Read more:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/04/15/1606309/gov-otters-comeback-kid.htm
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