Just One Of The Boise

Alan Blinken knows he has his work cut out for him. The former Clinton appointee is running for the Senate as a Democrat against a very popular incumbent in the Republican stronghold of Idaho. But Blinken says if anyone can unseat Sen. Larry Craig in November, he can.

Blinken is a fairly nouveau Idahoan; he and his wife moved to the state in 1996. He served as ambassador to Belgium from 1993 to 1997, sworn in by then-Vice President Al Gore. Blinken was also one of Gore's top fund-raisers in his 2000 presidential bid, and did substantial fund raising for Bill Clinton in 1992.

Though his political resume seems more suited to New York than Idaho, Blinken knows what plays in his adopted state. His campaign Web site designates him an avid hunter, complete with the obligatory shot of a grinning Blinken looming triumphantly over a dead deer – a deer that presumably met his end with some help from Blinken.

Blinken has gone out of his way to paint himself as anything but what he is: a former New York City investment banker and Harvard grad with a seven to eight-figure net worth who lives in Sun Valley, one of Idaho's wealthiest towns and a mecca for well-heeled city folk who crave a simulacrum of a rugged, Eddie Bauer-esque lifestyle, but still want to be a stone's throw from Starbucks.

Skeptics – including Democratic primary opponent, Boise real estate agent Dave Sneddon – sneer at Blinken's Idahoan bona fides. Sneddon campaigned as an anti-Clinton Democrat, running on what he called his "Western heritage," a not-so-subtle way of pointing out Blinken's Clinton ties and New York background. Blinken still beat Sneddon handily, which seems to indicate that his Idaho-come lately status may not be an issue, at least among the few Democratic voters in the state.

Blinken is certainly the underdog running as a Democrat in Idaho, the most one-sidedly Republican state in the union. In 2000, George W. Bush won the state by 31 points, his third-biggest margin in the country. He lost only Blaine County, Blinken's home base, and by only 220 votes.

So what can a former Clinton appointee do in a state where Clinton-bashing seems to trail only hunting as the sport of choice? Blinken shrugs off the Clinton connection, saying both he and his campaign will defy easy labels.

"I'm a conservative businessman," Blinken told the Idaho State Journal. "And I'm a huge supporter of the Second Amendment. That's part of the reason we chose to come to Idaho five years ago: the shooting and the fishing. I'm generally a conservative who looks at jobs as the biggest challenge facing Idaho right now. That's what I want to talk about – investment in Idaho and the creation of jobs. "

Indeed, jobs are what Blinken is talking about, to the point that it has almost become a mantra. There is one message, and one message only, in Blinken's campaign: the need to bring good-paying jobs to the state. Craig, he says, has been derelict on the jobs issue. Blinken went on the air last month with an ad touting his record as ambassador to Belgium. During his four-year ambassadorship, Blinken says, he convinced hundreds of European companies to set up shop in the United States. He pledges to use all his business connections to bring the same results to Idaho.

Still, Chuck Todd, editor-in-chief of The Hotline, predicts Blinken has "zero chance" of winning against Craig, even with Blinken's laser-like focus on job creation.

"[The Democrats] ran a legitimate candidate in 1996, who was actually from Idaho, had a lot of money, and he still barely cracked 40," said Todd, referring to Walt Minnick, a building materials millionaire who spent almost $945,000 of his own money but still lost to Craig in the last election.

University of Idaho political scientist Florence Heffron agrees that the odds are stacked against Blinken. She says his jobs strategy is a "very good" one that will likely play well with the "lunch-bucket" wing of the Democratic Party. But, she adds, echoing the sentiments of Todd and most political observers, "I would still be willing to put a lot of money on Larry Craig."