Otter wins 3rd term as Governor

Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter has won a rare third term leading the state.

Otter, a longtime politician who served in both the state Legislature and Congress before he first won the governor’s post in 2006, faced a difficult race against his Democratic challenger, Boise businessman A.J. Balukoff.

Another challenger, Libertarian attorney John Bujak, threatened to siphon votes from the right, along with a handful of lesser-known independent and third-party candidates.

But Otter’s cowboy charm and political experience prevailed with voters in one of the most Republican states in the nation. That makes Otter the second governor in Idaho history to be elected to a third consecutive four-year term, along with Robert Smylie, who served from 1955 to 1967.

Balukoff had fought against the incumbent by spending more than $3.2 million of his money on campaign advertisements blasting Otter’s failures during his eight-year tenure.

Primarily, Balukoff focused on the 2013 private-prison scandal with the Corrections Corporation of America.

In 2013, an Associated Press investigation revealed that CCA wrongly told the state that guards were working shifts that were actually left vacant. CCA later announced it would pull out of Idaho, and Otter’s top staff became involved in finishing a $1 million settlement with the company.

Balukoff called the settlement Otter’s staff made with CCA inappropriate because the federal investigation into the scandal is ongoing.

Otter responded that he recused himself from the situation. Otter also said he had successfully led Idaho out of the Great Recession while keeping the state attractive to new businesses and unemployment rates low.