Democratic convention; Greenfield, Stimpson nab national spots

BOISE -- Dottie Stimpson of Boise defeated Sandra Wolf of Sun Valley on Sunday for a four-year term as Idaho's Democratic national committeewoman.

Delegates favored Stimpson in an election winding up the Democrats' four-day state convention in Boise.

Despite battles over how to word Democrats' declaration of opposition to Gov. Phil Batt's nuclear waste agreement, party leaders called the convention a success and the first step on the comeback from disastrous 1994 election defeats.

"The delegates are saying it was the best convention for years," said state Chairman Bill Mauk. "The level of energy couldn't be higher.

"It's clear these people all are going to go back and work," he said.

Stimpson will succeed Diane Josephy Peavey, who has been Idaho's delegate to the Democratic National Committee for the past 12 years. However, Peavey will serve as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention next month, since the new terms don't start until after the national convention.

Stimpson was opposed by Sun Valley writer Susan Wolf. State Sen. Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, praised Wolf's work supporting and raising money for a number of Democratic candidates.

Boise lawyer John Greenfield, Democratic national committeeman for the past eight years, won another four-year term over a challenge from Marty Hand of Boise, an employee of Micron Technology.

Saturday night, delegates to the convention continued a youth movement which has been evident throughout by electing Trevor Thompson, a 21-year-old Boise State student, as a national convention delegate.

At a later meeting of the delegates, Thompson was elected Idaho's only member of the Credentials Committee. Greenfield will serve on the Rules Committee and Josephy Peavey on the Platform Committee.

Bethine Church, widow of former Sen. Frank Church, took part in a tribute to her husband at Saturday night's banquet, along with Boise lawyer Carl Burke, who was Church's lifelong friend and campaign manager.

Church, the last Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate in Idaho, retired after his 1980 defeat by Republican Steve Symms and died of cancer four years later.

Democrats battled for two days over a platform plank expressing opposition to the nuclear waste agreement negotiated by Batt last fall, containing a promise from the federal government that stored nuclear waste would be removed from the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory over the next 40 years.

Some delegates warned that the original plank, simply saying Democrats were against the plank because it was not in the best interest of the people of Idaho, would be deadly for Democratic candidates in eastern Idaho.

Eventually the plank was amended to list a number of reasons why Democrats oppose the contract. They include a lack of enforceability, too few new projects and jobs for INEL and no way to adjust fines for inflation.

Delegates argued that the fines, which could range up to $100,000 if the government doesn't meet deadlines, would lose much of their value in the next 40 years unless adjusted for inflation.