04 Oct 2010 03:40:42
Even their equestrian prowess has come up during the campaign: In a recent debate, Democrat Keith Allred poked fun at Republican Gov. C.L. Otter's propensity to get thrown off his horse while roping cattle.
The cowboy theme has injected an Old West feel into a governor's race that has been more competitive than originally expected. Otter enjoys widespread popularity in the heavily Republican state and leads in the polls, but Allred has gone toe-to-toe with the incumbent in fundraising.
The candidates hope the cowboy images send powerful messages to voters about their characters: individualism, purpose, common sense — and maybe even spurs to give the tuckered-out economy a little giddy-up.
Never mind that manufacturing of products like semiconductors makes up 10 percent of Idaho's $53 billion economy, about twice agriculture's contribution. In the campaign, it's still cowboys who ride to the rescue.
Allred said there's an important distinction to be made between being a cowboy on the weekends and learning important life lessons while growing up on a ranch.
"Butch Otter and I have done the dress-up stuff, the cutting horses, the rodeo," Allred said. "That's playing cowboy. The part that is a formative part of my life, and really shapes my leadership style, is the experience I had as a kid, when my family's cattle ranch was honestly on the line."
Until 2005, the 68-year-old Otter team-roped cattle on a 40-acre Boise River ranch he owned called "Lonesome Dove," named after the Larry McMurtry Western. His fictional hero: Woodrow Call, the ex-Texas Ranger from the book. When he was young, his family owned a dairy.
He says his cowboy image has helped open doors on trade missions. While Otter was lieutenant governor in 1996, the mayor of Salzburg, Austria, turned down a formal picture of Idaho's second-in-command.
The Austrian instead demanded one with Otter on his trusty cow pony.
While serving three terms in Congress, Otter gussied up his Washington office with photos of rodeo queens and champion bull riders. His Idaho Capitol suite has shots of him on trail rides and at local rodeos.
Otter, a 30-year businessman and politician, ranks getting elected to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame board of directors as his "greatest achievement." He has several enormous belt buckles won in rodeo competitions.
In April, Otter's cowboy cred might have even gotten a boost from a dose of "cowboy crud": He suspects bacteria from manure dust he gulped while branding and castrating calves at Lt. Gov. Brad Little's ranch put him in the hospital.
The cowboy theme has injected an Old West feel into a governor's race that has been more competitive than originally expected. Otter enjoys widespread popularity in the heavily Republican state and leads in the polls, but Allred has gone toe-to-toe with the incumbent in fundraising.
The candidates hope the cowboy images send powerful messages to voters about their characters: individualism, purpose, common sense — and maybe even spurs to give the tuckered-out economy a little giddy-up.
Never mind that manufacturing of products like semiconductors makes up 10 percent of Idaho's $53 billion economy, about twice agriculture's contribution. In the campaign, it's still cowboys who ride to the rescue.
Allred said there's an important distinction to be made between being a cowboy on the weekends and learning important life lessons while growing up on a ranch.
"Butch Otter and I have done the dress-up stuff, the cutting horses, the rodeo," Allred said. "That's playing cowboy. The part that is a formative part of my life, and really shapes my leadership style, is the experience I had as a kid, when my family's cattle ranch was honestly on the line."
Until 2005, the 68-year-old Otter team-roped cattle on a 40-acre Boise River ranch he owned called "Lonesome Dove," named after the Larry McMurtry Western. His fictional hero: Woodrow Call, the ex-Texas Ranger from the book. When he was young, his family owned a dairy.
He says his cowboy image has helped open doors on trade missions. While Otter was lieutenant governor in 1996, the mayor of Salzburg, Austria, turned down a formal picture of Idaho's second-in-command.
The Austrian instead demanded one with Otter on his trusty cow pony.
While serving three terms in Congress, Otter gussied up his Washington office with photos of rodeo queens and champion bull riders. His Idaho Capitol suite has shots of him on trail rides and at local rodeos.
Otter, a 30-year businessman and politician, ranks getting elected to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame board of directors as his "greatest achievement." He has several enormous belt buckles won in rodeo competitions.
In April, Otter's cowboy cred might have even gotten a boost from a dose of "cowboy crud": He suspects bacteria from manure dust he gulped while branding and castrating calves at Lt. Gov. Brad Little's ranch put him in the hospital.
