GOP U.S. Senate candidate Rammell to run as Independent

During Friday's Lincoln Day Dinner in Bonners Ferry, Rep. Rex Rammell, who is running for Larry Craig's seat, told The Herald he would not run on the GOP ticket for the May 27 primary.

Rammell, an Eastern Idaho elk rancher who last summer made headlines after then-Gov. Jim Risch made an emergency executive order to shoot his escaped elk, instead will run as an Independent for Nov. 4 election.

“The Republican party is more moderate than conservative,” Rammell said about his decision.

Risch, now Idaho's lieutenant governor, is also running against Rammell on the Republican ticket in the primary. Other announced Republicans vying for Craig's seat are Iraq War Veteran Col. Scott Syme, Coeur d'Alene businessman Richard Phenneger and machinist Brian Hefner.

Larry LaRocca, a former representative and army veteran, is running for the Democrats.

Rammell believes he's got a good shot at becoming the first in the nation to be elected to the U.S. Senate as an Independent.

“I think my chances are very good,” the 46-year-old veterinarian said.

That's because assuming Risch gets the Republican nomination and LaRocca gets the bid from Democrats, it will be a repeat of 2006 when both ran for the U.S. Senate. According to a poll, only 21 percent of the the people favor another race between Risch and LaRocca, Rammell said.

He also believes voters are tired of Republican scandals, including one involving Craig, who last year pled guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct after an arrest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Rammell in November told The Herald his bid for the Senate was not a vendetta against Risch.

Without any elk left, Rammell said he has sold his ranch and needs a new job.

Last August, a bear-dug hole allowed his 100 farm-raised elk to flee the private hunting reserve. Twenty of the elk were found dead a month later — shot on sight under the emergency order from Risch. About 40 were recaptured and another 40 were left roaming the fields and forest slopes outside Yellowstone National Park — home to the nation's largest herd of wild elk.

Risch ordered the Idaho Department of Fish and Game to kill the elk to prevent the possible spread of disease and weak genes to the state's wild elk population.

Rammell was arrested and acquitted for fighting with state wildlife officials and hunters after the order. He sold his ranch and filed a $1.3 million lawsuit against the state for the way it handled the case.

Rammell in July announced his intentions to run for the Senate.