Here’s how a transition should work.
A day after Phil McGrane was elected as Idaho’s secretary of state, he had a friendly lunch with retiring Secretary of State Lawerence Denney and his chief deputy, Chad Houck. As McGrane observed, “I’m pretty sure we were the only ones that had lunch together.”
He’s probably right. It hasn’t been so smooth with Superintendent Sherri Ybarra and Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who celebrated their election defeats by handing out a series of big raises and bonuses – at taxpayer expense.
McGrane and Denney were not always best of pals. They were opponents eight years ago in the race for secretary of state, won by Denney, and it was a hard-fought campaign. But the two maintained a common goal, which was to ensure the integrity of Idaho elections. Denney was the lead elections officer for the state while McGrane served as the Ada County clerk. McGrane accepted the election results and he has had a constructive working relationship with Denney ever since.
Denney has made it a practice in his eight years not to endorse candidates in any race, so we didn’t hear about who he liked – or disliked – in the hotly contested primary election that featured McGrane, Rep. Dorothy Moon (now the state Republican Party chair) and Sen. Mary Souza. But when McGrane’s election became official in November (he ran with light opposition), Denney was “all in” for McGrane.
“Secretary Denney has gone out…
