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Keith Roark elected as new IDP Chairman

Contact:  Chuck Oxley   (208) 871-4976 (office)  

BOISE, Idaho – Members of the Idaho Democratic Party’s Central Committee voted Friday to elect attorney Keith Roark as their new chairman.

Roark, a central Idaho resident, was last seen in politics in 2002, when he ran for Idaho Attorney General against Republican Lawrence Wasden, although defeated at the polls, Roark won the endorsements of many newspaper editorial boards and even some high-profile Republicans.

Roark’s comments following the vote Friday appear below:

“It is time for Idaho Democrats to take a cold, hard look at some rather dismal facts.  In the general elections of 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006, Idaho Democrats have lost twenty four of the twenty eight races for statewide office.  Today, not one statewide elected official is a Democrat.  We have not won a U.S. Senate race since 1974 and have lost every race for the U.S. House of Representatives since 1992.

“Unfortunately for all Idahoans, Democrats, Republicans and independents alike, at the statewide level, Idaho no longer has a two party system.  As a result, there is no accountability for our top elected officials.  Idaho currently has a United States Senator who has disgraced our state and placed his own petty interests above the good of the public.  We have a United States Representative whose comments about Islam show not only ignorance of the United States Constitution but a total lack of common decency.  We have a Governor who never holds a press conference and disdains the very notion of public access to elected officials.  Where there is no effective, two party system there is no accountability.  Where there is no accountability there is no responsibility.  Elected officials, under such circumstances, eventually ignore not just those who did not vote for them but those who did as well.

“Today, I feel the first, faint rumblings of a still distant earthquake that will eventually restore integrity, fair play and openness in Idaho government. The special interests, in the absence of a two party system, have come closer each year to replacing the power of the ballot with the raw and merciless power of the almighty dollar.  But Idahoans, like Americans everywhere, eventually come back to an understanding of just how important a vibrant two party system is to liberty, justice and good government. When that happens, as it must, the lobbyists will lose their place in the halls of government.

“I am a realist.  The one party system is firmly entrenched in this state and will not be overcome in a single election year.  The road ahead is long and hard.  We are going to be patient, persistent, and tenacious.  We are going to rebuild our party from the ground up.  Seizing upon the winds of change that are clearly blowing across this nation, we will build momentum, not just over the coming months but over the coming years.  We will build precinct by precinct, county by county, district by district, election by election.  

“I am not naïve enough to believe that, ten years from now, the people of this state will say ‘2008 was the year Idaho Democrats made their comeback.’  But they will say that 2008 was the year the great comeback of the Idaho Democratic Party began.”

Idaho Democratic Party Vice Chairwoman Jeanne Buell said she expects Roark to quickly energize and mobilize the rank-and-file. 

“I know Keith will take the reins of the Idaho Democratic Party immediately to ramp up fundraising and recruit great candidates,” said Buell, who has been serving as interim chairwoman since the resignation of former chairman Richard Stallings last Nov. 20.  

Roark’s first big task will be to oversee efforts that will ensure the party is ready for the next statewide Democratic event – the Feb. 5 Idaho Presidential Caucus. Like the Iowa Caucus of Jan. 3, the caucus system is a grand tradition yet a somewhat complicated process.  

Roark defeated on other candidate for the job in Friday’s vote. Jerry Brady, candidate for Idaho governor in 2006, also vied for the job but Roark handily won the secret ballot.