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Rep. 'Butch' Otter Wins Idaho GOP Gov. Primary NewsMax.com Wires BOISE, Idaho -- U.S. Rep. C.L. "Butch" Otter, who is vacating his congressional seat to run for governor, easily won a Republican primary and will move on to face newspaper owner Jerry Brady in the fall. Brady, president of the Idaho Falls newspaper the Post Register, won the Democratic primary with nearly 84 percent of the vote, compared with 16 percent for Lee Chaney Sr., who never actively campaigned. "I'm eager to start the main event," Brady said at the Democrats' primary celebration in Boise. Otter was Idaho's lieutenant governor for 14 years before going to Congress. In his first term there, he was one of just three Republicans to vote against the Patriot Act in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Otter had 69 percent of the vote with 582 of 915 precincts reporting. His closest competitor, businessman Dan Adamson, garnered nearly 22 percent of the vote, followed by Jack Johnson with 5 percent and Walt Bayes with 3 percent. The race for the congressional seat being vacated by Otter generated the most interest. One candidate, Canyon County Commissioner Robert Vasquez, once sought to have his county declared a disaster area because of an influx of illegal immigrants. Despite the attention, anti-tax advocate and state Rep. Bill Sali won the Republican nomination. Sali had more than 26 percent of the vote. He will face former business executive Larry Grant, who easily bested Cecil Kelly, a small-business owner in the resort community of Coeur d'Alene. Story Continues Below
In the nation's only other primary, Bill Halter, the deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration under President Clinton, advanced to a runoff for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. But his opponent was uncertain. With 91 percent of 2,515 precincts reporting unofficial results, Halter had 40 percent of the vote, followed by state Sen. Tim Wooldridge with 27 percent and state Rep. Mike Hathorn with 25 percent. Rep. Jay Martin of North Little Rock, who also ran for the nomination, received 9 percent. On the Republican side, state Sen. Jim Holt won at least a runoff spot, and possibly the Republican nomination. He had 56 percent of the vote and said he was ready for the general election, but did not declare victory. Former federal prosecutor Chuck Banks trailed with 24 percent, and state Rep. Doug Matayo had 20 percent. Counties across Arkansas reported delays in tabulating votes, some due to problems with new federally mandated electronic voting equipment. Four of Arkansas' 75 counties were unable to use the touch-screen machines for the primary. Cleburne and Phillips counties reported they did not have the correct computer chip to count votes electronically. Cleburne opted to count by hand Tuesday night while Phillips County said it would tackle the problem Wednesday. In Lawrence County, voters were given ballpoint pens to mark paper ballots where felt tip pens should have been used.
© 2006 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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