<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>Question . . . </div><div><br></div><div>When can the citizens of Moscow expect another postcard?<br><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow.</div><div><br></div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"If not us, who?</div><div>If not now, when?"</div><div><br></div><div>- Unknown</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div><br>On May 10, 2012, at 11:51, Art Deco <<a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<h5 class="details" style="float:right">May 10, 2012</h5>
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<h1>Avista gives cash to oust two N. Idaho incumbents</h1>
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<a href="http://www.spokesman.com/staff/betsy-russell/">Betsy Z. Russell</a><br>
The Spokesman-Review
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<span style="margin-right:3px">Tags:</span><span><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/tags/2012-election">2012 Election</a></span><span><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/tags/avista">Avista</a></span><span><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/tags/campaign-finance">campaign finance</a></span><span><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/tags/george-eskridge">George Eskridge</a></span><span><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/tags/idaho-elections">Idaho elections</a></span><span><a href="http://www.spokesman.com/tags/shawn-keough">Shawn Keough</a></span>
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<p>BOISE – Avista Corp. is spending thousands of dollars trying to
unseat two longtime North Idaho legislators, throwing its support behind
tea party-backed challengers in next week’s Republican primary.</p>
<p style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><b>Being targeted is state Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, who
supported unsuccessful efforts to establish a consumer advocate to
review utility rate requests, and state Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover,
who advocates greater diversity in Idaho’s energy supply. Avista opposed
both proposals.</b></p>
<p>Campaign finance reports filed with the Idaho Secretary of State
show Avista has given each incumbent’s challenger $1,000 and has given
$15,000 to three political action committees that are funneling money
back to the challengers, Danielle Ahrens and Pam Stout. The PACS are
also sponsoring independent mailers and advertisements critical of
Keough and Eskridge.</p>
<p>Neil Colwell, Idaho lobbyist for Avista, acknowledged that while the
utility has supported Keough and Eskridge in the past, it now would
like to see them replaced. But Colwell cautioned against assuming all of
the PAC contributions are being used exclusively to try to unseat them.</p>
<p>“We don’t totally control those PACs or anything,” Colwell said.</p>
<p>But one of the three, the Greater Education Movement, reported
spending money to support only one candidate since Jan. 1: Ahrens.</p>
<p>“We support candidates that are aligned with the interests of our
customers and our company goals,” Colwell said. “And we just think we’re
more in alignment with these challengers than the incumbents.”</p>
<p>The three PACs are run by Lou Esposito, a highly connected GOP
political consultant in Boise who was House Speaker Lawerence Denney’s
pick to serve on Idaho’s legislative redistricting commission last year.</p>
<p>Ahrens and Stout also reported in-kind donations of $1,000 apiece
from Esposito’s consulting firm, Spartac Inc., for management services
and broadcast advertising.</p>
<p>“I’m not managing their campaigns per se, but I helped them out,
gave them some advice, helped get them some mailing lists, those kinds
of issues,” Esposito said. “Building their websites, I gave them some
help with all of that.”</p>
<p>The three PACs, which also include the Idaho Land PAC and the Free
Enterprise PAC, sent $2,500 directly to Ahrens’ campaign and $500 to
Stout’s. They also sponsored various ads and mailers bashing the
two incumbents.</p>
<p>Eskridge, the co-chair of the Legislature’s interim energy
committee, was at the center of a battle between utilities and others
two years ago over tax incentives for renewable energy, and he clashed
with Colwell in the process. “As a constituent, we go to him and explain
our position, and request that he support our request,” Colwell said.
“And instead, he tells us why we should think something different, even
though this is our business, and why we’re wrong.”</p>
<p>Eskridge, a sixth-term lawmaker who retired after 25 years with the
Bonneville Power Administration, including stints as an economist,
marketer and district manager in several districts, said, “If we’re
going to keep our energy prices low, we’ve got to have a diversified
energy supply. We can’t just depend on one supply, like utilities would
like to do.”</p>
<p>Stout, Eskridge’s challenger, has made her opposition to wind power
and other renewables a top campaign issue. “He’s an advocate of the
alternate power, I definitely am not,” she told The Spokesman-Review in
an earlier interview.</p>
<p>Eskridge counters, “I’m supportive of renewable energy only when it’s cheaper than the other alternatives.”</p>
<p>Avista’s beef with Keough is less clear-cut; Colwell cited her
support for a consumer advocate in Idaho’s public utility rate-setting
process. But Keough said, “That bill that I sponsored was over 10 years
ago.” The measure didn’t pass, but the concept has now been raised again
by others; Idaho is one of eight states with no independent utility
consumer advocate, and the only one in the West.</p>
<p>Colwell said, “There was talk of introducing that again this year. …
I believe she said she wouldn’t sponsor that, but we weren’t at all
clear on where she was going to come down.”</p>
<p>Keough said she found Avista’s move “very surprising.” She said,
“We’ve had a great working relationship” and have worked together for
years on issues involving Lake Pend Oreille and Priest Lake.</p>
<p>Idaho limits contributions to candidates to $1,000 per election,
whether they come from an individual, a PAC or a business. But there’s
nothing to stop the same contributor from donating to the candidate and
also to PACs that then funnel money to the candidate, said Deputy Idaho
Secretary of State Tim Hurst.</p>
<p>“A lot of the PACs are doing independent expenditures, and they can
do that,” Hurst said. However, there’s been confusion about reporting
requirements; the PACs have to report specific candidates they’re
targeting or backing, with amounts, and many this year haven’t. Hurst
said the Secretary of State’s office plans to send letters out today to
all PACs clarifying those requirements.</p>
<p>“There’s provisions for fining people, but our goal has never been
to balance the budget – we’re trying to get disclosure,” Hurst said.</p>
<p>The campaign finance reports filed this week are Idaho voters’ only
chance to see who’s funding the various campaigns before Tuesday’s
primary election. Here are highlights of what North Idaho legislative
candidates’ reports showed in contested races in District 1. Coming
tomorrow: Districts 2, 3 and 4.</p>
<h3>District 1</h3>
<p> <strong>Senate</strong> </p>
<p>Keough has raised $34,338 for her campaign since Jan. 1, on top of
the $15,396 she carried over from before, and spent $23,789. She
received 21 donations from named individuals in her district and
received 17 maximum $1,000 donations, including contributions from Idaho
Power, the Idaho Loggers PAC, the Priest Lake State Lessees
Association, and $1,000 each from Jack and Mary Jo Ambrosiani
of Sandpoint.</p>
<p>Ahrens has raised $13,175 for her campaign since Jan. 1 and spent
$6,345. She received seven donations from named individuals in her
district and loaned her campaign $2,000. The $5,000 she raised from
Avista and the three PACs made up almost 40 percent of her campaign
funds. She also received a $250 contribution from state schools
Superintendent Tom Luna, and $1,000 from Rep. Bob Nonini’s PAC, the
Idaho Association for Good Government.</p>
<p> <strong>House Seat A</strong> </p>
<p>Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, has raised $25,033 since Jan. 1,
had $13,067 in the bank before that, spent $17,339 and has $20,762 in
remaining campaign funds. He received donations from 37 named
individuals in his district and received 13 $1,000 contributions,
including from Potlatch Corp., the Idaho Consumer-Owned Utility
Association and House Assistant Majority Leader Scott Bedke.</p>
<p>GOP challenger Donna Capurso raised $5,878, spent $5,384 and had
$494 left at the close of the reporting period. She received donations
from 18 individuals in the district and got $1,000 donations from both
Richard Braun of Moyie Springs and the Charles L. Fox Trust.</p>
<p>GOP challenger Louis Kins raised $500, mostly from three individuals
in his district – Janet Conlin, Marjorie Kinne and Anita Perry – and
spent $852, leaving him $352 in debt.</p>
<p> <strong>House Seat B</strong> </p>
<p>Eskridge has raised $25,218, on top of the $8,368 he carried over;
he spent $11,314. He received 14 contributions from named individuals in
his district and got 14 $1,000 contributions, including from James
Livingston of Sandpoint, the Idaho Forest Group, Idaho Realtors PAC and
the Sandpoint law firm of Elsaesser Jarzabek.</p>
<p>GOP challenger Pam Stout raised $13,125 and spent $8,847. She’s
loaned her campaign $6,380, received donations from five named
individuals in the district and pulled in $1,000 donations from Avista
and Idaho Power and a $400 contribution from Pacificorp. She also
reported $2,000 in in-kind contributions from Lorna Finman of Rathdrum
and Finman’s business, LCF Enterprises.</p>
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</div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a></a><br>
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