'The Craig family'

Senator has transformed ex-aides into GOP leaders

By JOHN MILLER

Associated Press

Charles Dharapak / Associated Press - Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, attends a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on May 25, 2006. If Craig leaves office, it could lead to the dismantling of a political group that forms the behind-the-scenes backbone of Idaho's Republican Party.

If Craig leaves office, it could mean the dismantling of a political machine.

BOISE -- In mid-2006, Sen. Larry Craig strode before a Republican crowd in a hotel banquet hall on the Boise River and asked everybody who had worked in his office or on one of his election campaigns to stand.

Ken Burgess, Craig's former Boise office director, said what he saw was astonishing: Three-quarters of those gathered had risen to their feet. Craig turned to then-Gov. Jim Risch and said, "I did that, Jim, because I want you to see who really runs Idaho."

Craig, 62, is now likely leaving the U.S. Senate prematurely, after his Minnesota airport bathroom sex sting arrest.

Word of his unnatural departure after 27 years in Congress has been lamented by Idaho, in no small part because it means this Western state is losing its senior lawmaker -- and his clout on committees including Appropriations and Veterans Affairs -- in Washington, D.C.

It also means the dismantling of a political machine that, since his 1981 arrival in the U.S. House, has helped transform former aides into a robust class of GOP bureaucrats and leaders. They form the behind-the-scenes backbone of Idaho's Republican Party, in perhaps America's reddest state.

Mike Reynoldson, Craig's former Boise office director and manager of his 1996 Senate re-election campaign, is the top lobbyist for Micron Technology Inc. and a volunteer state GOP official. Norm Semanko, who once ran Craig's northern Idaho offices, heads the Idaho Water Users Association and ran unsuccessfully for Congress last year. Wayne Hammon, Idaho's financial chief under Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, cut his GOP teeth as a Craig aide.

The list of Craig proteges-turned-Republican-ruling-class goes on: Jeff Malmen is Otter's chief of staff; Scott Turlington runs Tamarack Resort's lobbying shop; Brad Hoaglun, a GOP official, was spokesman for Gov. Jim Risch during his 2006 chief executive stint.

"We like to call it 'the Craig family,'" said Burgess, now a lobbyist in Idaho's Statehouse and a state GOP official. "There was the unwritten expectation that being active in the Republican Party was part of our role."

Craig's former aides haven't just kept to state politics.

Mark Rey, Forest Service undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was on Craig's U.S. Senate staff; Kristine Svinicki, a former Craig policy adviser, has been nominated by President Bush to serve on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; Lisa Kidder, a former Craig legislative assistant, now lobbies for the American Hospital Association on Capitol Hill.

By recruiting loyal Republicans, then helping them land jobs in a multitude of layers in government, business and lobbying, Craig created an army of loyal affiliates.

"I'm not sure if it hit him until recent years, when he kind of realized how many people worked for him -- and were still involved in the process of electing Republicans," Micron's Reynoldson said.

The web of connections Craig wove between his offices in Idaho and Washington, D.C., former aides, Republican politics and Idaho industry will be disrupted should Craig be forced to quit by Sept. 30, Idaho Democratic Party Chairman Richard Stallings said.

"Access is no longer going to be a real tool," Stallings said.

Kirk Sullivan, Idaho Republican Party chairman, said Craig's influence has been considerable, but doesn't expect a crisis if he's forced to step aside. A replacement will have their own networks of confidantes, as do other Idaho lawmakers.

"The people who have been active will continue to be active," Sullivan said. "While Craig has been active, and an excellent mentor, all of our elected officials have supported the party, and that will continue to be so with Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson."