Rammell banking on conservative support

SANDPOINT — As Idaho Republicans converge on Sandpoint for the GOP convention, one outsider is hot on their heels, giving headaches to a handful of party leaders.

Rex Rammell, a veterinarian and former Elk Rancher from Rexburg, is crisscrossing the state campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho.

Rammell originally hoped to be the Republican nominee for the seat, but has since left the party to run as an Independent. An Independent with an asterisk, according to Rammell.

The asterisk comes from the idea that Rammell is not an Independent in the traditional sense, but rather a Republican who feels the party left him behind.

“I didn’t leave the Republican party. It left me and it left millions of others like me,” Rammell said.

With staunch conservative values and a bank account that will allow him to put together a legitimate campaign, Rammell believes he can peel off enough support from his chief rival, Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, to win the election.

Even if he doesn’t win, Rammell is confident he will steal enough votes to hand the race to Democratic nominee, Larry LaRocco.

“I’ve done the math and I don’t see how Risch can win with me in the race,” Rammell said.

The Republican establishment is undoubtedly calling him a spoiler, but Rammell sees nothing wrong with keeping Risch out of the senate, even if it means handing the seat to a Democrat.

“(LaRocco and Risch) are the status quo. They’re part of the problem,” Rammell said. “Those two optimize politics today. You can take either one of them — they’re two peas in a pod in my mind. One’s a little more liberal than the other, but not by much.”

The only solution, as far as Rammell is concerned, is for Idaho Republicans to abandon their anointed leader and throw their support behind him in the November general election. The way he sees it, there are Republicans so entrenched in party politics that they will never vote for an outsider, but Rammell thinks that brand of Republican represents a sliver of Idaho’s vast conservative base.

“The establishment Republicans — the hard liners — will go with Risch. They would go with Satan if he was the their nominee,” Rammell said.

Because Risch has more money, name recognition and the support of virtually every major figure in the Idaho GOP, Rammell knows he has his work cut out for him, but he is confident that if he can get his message to the masses he will earn their support. Hence the trip to Sandpoint to attend the Republican convention.

The Idaho GOP is in the middle of a nasty struggle over the future of the party, and Rammell sees this as his opening.

“What I’m expecting (at the convention) is a war, and the conservatives will get ticked off and when they walk out of that building they’re going to see my RV and they’re going to say, ‘There’s the answer to our problems,’” Rammell said.

Part of Rammell’s pitch to disenfranchised Republicans is that he — not Risch — is the true conservative with a platform much closer to the GOP’s than any of his competitors.

Rammell strenuously argues against those who say he is an extremist or a radical, and says he is not anti-government, but anti-big government.

Evoking the most revered Republican of the last half century, Rammell said, “Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.”