Phil Batt was a REAL Republican

Last week, former Idaho governor Phil Batt died on his 96th birthday. He was a hero and mentor to me.

I met Governor Batt when he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1982. Future US Senator and Governor Dirk Kempthorne was Batt’s campaign manager. During that campaign, Dirk called me to ask if I would run the “Get Out the Vote for Batt” at Boise State University. I met Dirk through my older brothers.

During that election season, I met so many top Republicans manning phone banks, stuffing envelopes, knocking on doors, etc. I learned a lot about Idaho politics and government. The highlight was when Batt would come to the office to chat.

When Batt lost that election by 4,208 votes, I was crushed. It still stings. Both Batt and Kempthorne actually consoled ME! They gave me a lesson about humility, grace and defeat.

Two years later, both Batt and Kempthorne wrote letters of recommendations when I applied to be the Assistant Lobbyist for the Idaho Association of REALTORS®. About a year later, I was promoted and became the CEO of the Realtor’s at 24 years of age. Everyone was shocked that a got the job especially me. I held that job for almost 20 years.

At the same time, Batt kept busy. He returned to the Idaho State Senate and then chairing the Idaho Transportation Board.

In 1990, the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 625, which a 1990 article in the New York Times called “the most restrictive abortion law of any state.” Democrat governor Cecil Andrus vetoed the bill. 

That next election, Democrats, Republicans and independents punished the GOP. After that well-deserved GOP shellacking, Batt was elected to be the chair the Idaho Republican Party.

That job was daunting yet Batt resurrected the Idaho GOP.

As an aside, on the abortion issue, that same thing happened to the national GOP in 2022. There's a popular saying that people who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. As a pro-choice Republican who believes is limited government in the board room and the bedroom, I am now called a “RINO.”

In his career, he created the Idaho Human Rights Commission. That achievement that became more notable when white supremacist groups made northern Idaho a hotbed of hate group activity in the 1980s and 90s.

Ultimately, Batt was elected to be the 29th Governor of Idaho from 1995 to 1999.

When I toured the state with the Realtors® promoting fair housing, I got lots of racist threats. At one point, the State Police cautioned me to be careful. At one meeting with Governor Batt, he told me “Those people are cowards. You are doing the right thing.”

Batt also supported laws guaranteeing a minimum wage for farmworkers. He negotiated a pact limiting nuclear waste storage in Idaho. In 1997, Batt appointed me to an “Affordable Housing Task Force.”

In 2014, Governor Batt took on the fight for gay rights. He wrote, "I would like to have somebody explain to me who is going to be harmed by adding the words to our civil rights statutes prohibiting discrimination in housing and job opportunities for homosexuals. Or, I forgot, that might hurt the feelings of the gay bashers.”

He never shied away from tough jobs. I always tell people that I am a “Phil Batt Republican.”

Speaking of “people who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” it is sad that those demagogues are now running the “official GOP.” People like seditious GOP Chair Dorothy Moon, the Kootenai Republican Central Committee headed by carpet bagger Brent Regan, the insidious Bonneville County Republican Central Committee and the corrupt Idaho Freedom Foundation are abhorrent.

In this new GOP, Phil Batt could not with a race for dog catcher.

Thankfully current Governor Brad Little, Lt. Governor Scott Bedke, Secretary of State Phil McGrane and a host of real Republicans are trying to save the party just like Phil Batt in the 90’s.

Finally, I loved his early Wednesday golf outings when I was lucky enough to learn from the master about policy, history, and his dubious golf scoring. The last time I saw Governor Batt, I was in a title company for some reason. Phil walked in dressed head to toe in white with a baseball cap. It seemed that no one knew who he was. Just an unassuming dapper elderly man.

We chatted for a bit. He said he was headed to play golf on a golf course where the course presented him with a “life-time membership.” Several years later, Phil received an invoice for his annual due’s payment. He laughed and said, “I guess when they gave me the ‘life-time membership’ the course assumed I would not live this long.” He asked me about my strokes and my health. I told him that I cannot golf because of my strokes, and he chuckled saying, “You were never really good anyway.” We joked about old political stories. Then he said, “I need to go. I have a tee-time.”

Governor Brad Little said it the best: “Governor Phil Batt was the epitome of a public servant, having served as Governor, Lt. Governor, and Senator. His legacy is distinguished by his unrelenting human rights leadership, determined fiscal conservatism, and enduring love of Idaho.”

Thank you, Governor Batt, for everything.