If he wants to be governor, Labrador should quit Congress

Lewiston Tribune Opinion editor Marty Trillhaase criticized my call for Congressman Raul Labrador to resign his seat while running for governor. In fact, Labrador is stumping for votes today, well outside his 1st Congressional District, in Idaho Falls. In reading Trillhaase's editorial, I was struck by the fact that he and I seem to agree on at least one thing: Labrador's values are bad for Idaho.

Idahoans value hard work, fairness and ethical leadership. In that regard, Trillhaase makes several cogent points. First, Congress will only work 145 days this year (not exactly hard work). The implication is that Labrador has a ton of free time the rest of the year to do whatever he wants. That's not high praise.

Presumably, Labrador would be back in Idaho working for his constituents: meeting with local lawmakers, investigating how federal laws are impacting Idahoans in his district or doing all of the normal things an elected official does when he's not in Washington, D.C.

Not Labrador. After all, he has another office to run for. He has money to raise, ads to produce and polling to do. I imagine the only lawmakers he'll meet with are those he wants an endorsement from.

Perhaps Labrador does have a lot of free time. After all, Trillhaase sagely points out the congressman seemingly has his thumb attached to the "no" button in Congress. When you're simply voting against everything, maybe there's not a lot to follow up on.

Then again, Labrador is pushing legislation on the federal level similar to a bill that even Idaho Republican lawmakers couldn't stomach (because the bill pushes unfair concepts that pit Idahoans against one another).

Labrador's legislation would, among other things, penalize cities that support laborers for essential economic drivers such as dairy production, financially burden state and local police with federal law enforcement responsibilities, and withhold essential resources from jurisdictions that hold the feds accountable for their responsibilities.

It's an awful lot like an "anti-local control" bill introduced this past session by a state lawmaker. It, too, threatened local cops with decreases in funding and threatened the livelihood of Idaho's farmers by vowing to crack down on our migrant workers.

Labrador's bill is probably not a campaign stunt; just look at his awful voting record. It's not like Labrador has ever held the Homeland Security budget hostage to score political points.

Oh, right. He did hold it hostage and then voted against it, putting security at the Port of Lewiston at risk.

Of course, Labrador may welcome his time away from Congress. As pointed out by the Spokesman- Review's "Huckleberries Online" blog, Labrador's office recently filed a complaint with Capitol police in Washington, D.C., against a Lewiston citizen's group "comprised of mostly older residents of the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley" who routinely stop by his office.

Apparently, these "old codgers," as the headline described them, were too much for the congressman to handle. Perhaps they wanted to ask him whether cutting off access to health care actually kills people.

And, as Labrador tours Idaho Falls in search of endorsements, eastern Idaho voters should not forget his past votes to cut millions of dollars from the national nuclear energy research and development budget.

Cutting those funds would eliminate hundreds of jobs at the Idaho National Laboratory and put Idaho at a competitive disadvantage in a cutting-edge field. President Donald Trump's new budget would do the same thing.

Idaho continues to fall behind the rest of the region and nation when it comes to our citizens' livelihood. We are among the poorest states in the nation in terms of median household income (40th) and per capita income (44th). For years, we have been in the top 10 in the percentage of minimum-wage workers.

The key to filling the thousands of high-paying jobs that Idaho leaves on the table every year is education. I'm sorry if Democrats sound like a broken record when it comes to fighting for improved educational opportunities in this state, but that is something every Idahoan values. Forget the fact that virtually every major employer in Idaho says the biggest hurdle to filling those jobs is an educated workforce.

When Labrador voted against the Secure Rural Schools bill, he showed how little he values education. Simply gluing your finger to the "no" button isn't going to achieve much. Perhaps Labrador can ponder that as he campaigns on your dime.

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Erpelding, D-Boise, is the minority leader in the Idaho House of Representatives.