BOISE, Idaho, Sept. 1 — Before Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho signaled that he would resign today over allegations that he solicited sex in an airport bathroom, a fellow Republican from the same remote ranchlands where Mr. Craig was born explained what the state and the senator faced if Mr. Craig resisted calls from national party leaders for him to step down.
“It’s just going to get worse for a long time,” said Lawerence E. Denney, the speaker of the Idaho State House of Representatives and a resident of Midvale, the closest real town on the map to the land Mr. Craig’s grandfather first homesteaded in 1899.
By late Friday, at the end of a stunning week in which he fell from senior senator to party outcast, Mr. Craig concluded that his political future was over, even as Mr. Denney and many other prominent state Republicans said they were in disbelief at the turn of events. They expressed sympathy and gratitude for a powerful senator who had supported their campaigns and brought millions of dollars in federal money to Idaho.
“We’re all human,” Mr. Denney said.
Yet for all the upheaval, the prospect of political change also brought focus to state Republicans.
Before Monday, when news of his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in a men’s room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport became public, Mr. Craig had been a senator on August recess. Now Gov. C. L. Otter, known as Butch, will decide who to send to Washington to represent the state when Mr. Craig’s resignation becomes effective on Sept. 30. The new senator would complete Mr. Craig’s current term, which ends in January 2009.
Although Mr. Otter, a Republican with a tendency to defy expectations, refused to discuss who he might appoint, by early today he was widely believed to be leaning toward selecting the lieutenant governor, James E. Risch. Mr. Risch, a Republican first elected lieutenant governor in 2002, served as interim governor for seven months last year after President Bush named Gov. Dirk A. Kempthorne as Interior Secretary. Last year, rather than run for a full term, he deferred to Mr. Otter, a congressman who had announced his intentions to run for governor if Mr. Kempthorne stepped aside.
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“It’s just going to get worse for a long time,” said Lawerence E. Denney, the speaker of the Idaho State House of Representatives and a resident of Midvale, the closest real town on the map to the land Mr. Craig’s grandfather first homesteaded in 1899.
By late Friday, at the end of a stunning week in which he fell from senior senator to party outcast, Mr. Craig concluded that his political future was over, even as Mr. Denney and many other prominent state Republicans said they were in disbelief at the turn of events. They expressed sympathy and gratitude for a powerful senator who had supported their campaigns and brought millions of dollars in federal money to Idaho.
“We’re all human,” Mr. Denney said.
Yet for all the upheaval, the prospect of political change also brought focus to state Republicans.
Before Monday, when news of his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in a men’s room at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport became public, Mr. Craig had been a senator on August recess. Now Gov. C. L. Otter, known as Butch, will decide who to send to Washington to represent the state when Mr. Craig’s resignation becomes effective on Sept. 30. The new senator would complete Mr. Craig’s current term, which ends in January 2009.
Although Mr. Otter, a Republican with a tendency to defy expectations, refused to discuss who he might appoint, by early today he was widely believed to be leaning toward selecting the lieutenant governor, James E. Risch. Mr. Risch, a Republican first elected lieutenant governor in 2002, served as interim governor for seven months last year after President Bush named Gov. Dirk A. Kempthorne as Interior Secretary. Last year, rather than run for a full term, he deferred to Mr. Otter, a congressman who had announced his intentions to run for governor if Mr. Kempthorne stepped aside.
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