{"id":13836,"date":"2020-07-29T00:45:37","date_gmt":"2020-07-29T06:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=13836"},"modified":"2020-07-29T00:45:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T06:45:37","slug":"stennett-stakes-her-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2020\/07\/29\/stennett-stakes-her-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Stennett Stakes Her Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime Valley resident seeks fifth term as state senator<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
District 26 State Sen. Michelle Stennett. Photo credit: Michelle Stennett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In any election, but especially in legislatures, incumbents historically hold a distinct advantage over their opponents. But 2020 is a year unlike any in recent history, which means Idaho State Senator Michelle Stennett knows she can\u2019t take this campaign season or her underdog opponent lightly.<\/p>\n

Stennett has held the District 26 seat, which encompasses Blaine, Camas, Gooding and Lincoln counties, since 2010, and is seeking reelection for a fifth consecutive term. She is the minority leader in the Idaho Senate and was the minority caucus chair prior. And in November, Stennett will be challenged by Republican candidate Eric Parker, who was similarly featured in a Wood River Weekly article earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Parker said he didn\u2019t like the idea of a Senate seat going unopposed and he didn\u2019t like the idea of not having enough working-class politicians in office. For Stennett, her nearly 10 years in office doesn\u2019t make her a professional politician.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only make $17,000 a year holding this seat, so we\u2019re not in it for the career,\u201d Stennett pointed out. \u201cI come from the working class. I\u2019ve held working class jobs. I\u2019ve been a restaurant worker. I have a messy r\u00e9sum\u00e9 and I\u2019m proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Proud Past<\/b><\/p>\n

Stennett\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 is as impressive as it is \u201cmessy.\u201d It includes a bachelor\u2019s degree in international relations and environmental studies, as well as a bachelor\u2019s degree in Latin, and a minor in business from the University of Oregon. She holds a Certificat d\u2019Etudes from the Universite de Poitiers, France, and a Legislative Energy Horizon Institute certificate from the University of Idaho. After college, the 35-year Wood River Valley resident worked in developing countries on disaster and famine relief and on water and sanitation projects. She worked in a hunting\/fishing lodge in Alaska before moving to Idaho, then was employed with Horizon Airlines and the fixed-based operator for private aircraft, Sun Valley Aviation. Her \u201cworking class\u201d jobs covered many restaurants and catering companies, including Pioneer Saloon, and she managed community-based programs with philanthropic organizations, before working at a veterinary hospital and selling ads for a local cable station.<\/p>\n

Stennett is aware that anything can happen in an election during a pandemic, even though more than 60 percent of Wood River Valley voters are registered Democrats. District 26, Stennett notes, goes beyond Blaine County into Camas, Gooding and Lincoln counties, which are fortified Republican.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not shying away from the fact that I\u2019m a Democrat,\u201d said Stennett. But, \u201cMy philosophy is I work for everybody. Yes, you\u2019ll see a D placed after my name. But when a constituent calls me with an issue they need addressed, I\u2019m asking them what the problem is, not whether they\u2019re Republican or Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

With four terms under her belt, Stennett now serves on a myriad of committees and interim committees focusing on natural resources, public lands access, fisheries, water issues, workforce development, and ethics in politics. She is co-chair of the Tourism Committee for the Pacific Northwest Economic Region and co-chair of the Canadian Relations Committee for the Council of State Governments-West. She also sits on the State Affairs and Resources & Environment committees.<\/p>\n

Political Priorities<\/b><\/p>\n

With four terms under her belt as part of the political minority, Stennett can also speak in length to all the initiatives she wishes she could have pushed further up the legislative ladder. However, three in particular stood out during this recent interview.<\/p>\n

Minimum Wage\u2014If you want to talk about respecting the working class to Stennett, you need to talk about increasing the state\u2019s minimum wage, which sits at the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have fought for legislation but my colleagues keep rejecting it,\u201d Stennett said. \u201cI\u2019ll keep trying though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tourism Funding\u2014Tourism dollars, which are vital to the Valley, rank third highest in the amount of money the state sees filtered through its economy. With its relatively low costs and wide variety of activities across all seasons, Stennett feels tourism can fare even better. Stennett is pushing for a more rigorous tourism campaign for the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s underfunded right now. We need to invest,\u201d Stennett said.<\/p>\n

Broadband\u2014Stennett is concerned about the gaps that will only broaden between rural and urban regions when it comes to high-tech infrastructure. As the fastest growing state in the nation, Idaho\u2019s gap will only broaden, Stennett says. The senator said she is pushing legislators to develop five- and 10-year plans that set benchmarks for infrastructure spending related to growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime Valley resident seeks fifth term as state senator By Eric Valentine In any election, but especially in legislatures, incumbents historically hold a distinct advantage over their opponents. But 2020 is a year unlike any in recent history, which means Idaho State Senator Michelle Stennett knows she can\u2019t take this campaign season or her underdog […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,26,36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13836","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-politics","9":"category-slider"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}