Anyone who could seriously entertain the notion that Idaho congressional candidate David Leroy applauds redistribution of wealth should not be taken seriously himself.
That's why it is just as well that Gene Summa dropped out of the running for the Republican nomination to challenge 1st District Democratic incumbent Larry LaRocco. Summa wasn't going anywhere anyway, but the GOP primary is crowded enough without him.
Summa, a political unknown from Boise, says he got out of the race because he saw it narrowing to a contest between Leroy, who has served as Idaho's attorney general and lieutenant governor, and longtime party activist Helen Chenoweth. And after he saw Leroy applaud comments by civil rights worker Julian Bond at Boise State University in support of redistributing wealth, Summa says, he decided to endorse Chenoweth.
That's his right, of course. But it appears his rea
son to support Chenoweth was as weak as his reason to run in the first place. David Leroy has been many things in his career, but a champion of taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor is not one of them.
That is not to say he is closer to the right wing of the party than Chenoweth, however, which probably really explains Summa's endorsement. Chenoweth has all but forfeited the party center to Leroy and former Port of Lewiston Manager Ron McMurray and is pitching her campaign to people more suspicious of government than Leroy, who has spent nearly all his career in public service, or McMurray, whose port budget was half-financed by public dollars.
Considering that division, how long can it be before Summa's fellow non-s
tarter, the gay-bashing Sonny Kinsey of Coeur d'Alene, also withdraws and throws his handful of votes to Chenoweth, as he did to Rachel Gilbert two years ago? J.F.
