Every Rose Garden has its Kempthorne

U.S. President George W. Bush has made a wise decision by nominating the seasoned Republican governor of Idaho, Dirk Kempthorne, to be the nation’s next secretary of the interior. Kempthorne would replace Gale Norton, who resigned March 10, after five years in the position.

As the principal conservation agency of the U.S., the Department of the Interior manages America’s vast tracts of federally managed public lands, which add up to 504 million acres of surface land — or one out of every five acres in the union.

Created in 1849, the department now has over 70,600 employees — including those at the U.S. Geological Survey — at 2,400 operations across the United States and its territories. Its annual budget is US$16.2 billion, and it raises more than US$10 billion in tax revenues from activities related to energy, minerals, grazing, timber, recreation and land sales.

The majority of these public lands are in the western states, so having a good secretary of the interior who understands the West is vital to this region’s prosperity, especially its rural areas, which are heavily dependent economically on mining, oil, forestry, farming and tourism.

And with Kempthorne, the West will indeed have a good one.

At 54, Kempthorne has a remarkable track record of personal success wherever he’s set his sights. Born in San Diego, Calif., he grew up in Spokane, Wash., and earned a BA in political science from the University of Idaho in 1975. He began his career as assistant to the director of the Idaho Department of Public Lands, moving in 1978 to become executive vice-president of the Idaho Home Builders Association.

Kempthorne took a year off to become campaign manager for Phil Batt’s unsuccessful 1982 Idaho gubernatorial campaign, and from 1983 to 1986, worked for chemical giant FMC Corp. as its public affairs manager in Idaho. (At that time FMC had a significant minerals division, named FMC Gold, which later morphed into today’s Meridian Gold.)

In 1986, Kempthorne became a very popular mayor of Boise, and was re-elected, unopposed, in 1989.

Shifting gears in 1993, Kempthorne moved to Washington, D.C., to serve as a U.S. senator for Idaho. As senator, he became chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Drinking Water, Fisheries and Wildlife. He also served as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel.

Rather than seek a second term, Kempthorne returned home in 1998 to become Idaho’s governor, after Phil Batt unexpectedly vacated the position after only one term. Kempthorne was re-elected governor in 2002, winning 56% of the popular vote.

While governor, Kempthorne was chairman of the National Governors Association, chairman of the Western Governors Association, and president of the Council of State Governments. He was also a member of the Columbia River Basin Forum, which established a regional plan to save wild salmon in the U.S. northwest.

As both senator and governor, Kempthorne time and again has showed an ability to understand the complexity of land issues and find the right balance between the preservation of nature and the development of natural resources.

In particular, he has worked hard to revise the deeply flawed Endangered Species Act, in part, by shifting power from the federal government to the state and local levels. These revisions are now making their way through Congress.

This year, he is approaching the end of his second term as governor, and cannot seek a third under the state’s constitution.

Appearing with Bush in the Oval Office of the White House on March 16 to announce the nomination, Kempthorne said: “One of the hallmarks of my public service has been my ability to bring people together to the table and to work together to build consensus. I pledge to you and the American people that I will continue in that role of reaching out and finding solutions.”

Bush noted that when Kempthorne and his wife Patricia were married, they chose to hold the ceremony atop Idaho’s Moscow Mountain at sunrise, and quoted Kempthorne as having said, “I don’t think that there’s a more beautiful cathedral than the outdoors.”

Kempthorne’s nomination must still be confirmed by the Senate, but with Republicans controlling the upper house, and senators loathe to reject one of their own former members, he’s a shoo-in.

Kempthorne will be the second Idahoan to serve in the position after Cecil Andrus, who was interior secretary under former president Jimmy Carter.

While the U.S. mining community heartily welcomes Kempthorne’s ascendancy to secretary of the interior, in the years to come, he will probably make the biggest headlines when greenies howl over his support of oil exploration in Florida’s Gulf Coast region — against the vehement objections of the president’s brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — and within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge along Alaska’s northern slope.