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Getting his hands dirty: Democrat LaRocco spends a day on the farm

Phil Davidson - Idaho Falls Post-Register, 8/18/2007

Idaho Falls--The U.S. Senate candidate has been traveling the state as part of his 'working' tour.

U.S. Senate candidate Larry LaRocco is out to prove he's not just another politician with a proclivity to preach from the podium.

With the general election still more than a year away, the 60-year-old Boise resident has been traveling the state and getting his hands dirty as part of his Working for the Senate campaign strategy.

The "working" tour brought him to Idaho Falls on Friday, where he spent the morning bailing hay and laying pipe on friend and fellow Democrat Tom Holm's 3,800-acre farm south of Roberts.

In the past few months, LaRocco has hauled garbage in Orofino, made cheese at a factory in Twin Falls and hawked peanuts at a baseball game in Boise.

"This gives me an opportunity to spend time in communities," he said of his temporary volunteerism. "I get to hear from working families."

LaRocco has applied the working man approach before, having first gained notice performing odd jobs around Idaho's First Congressional District during his unsuccessful bid for Congress in 1982.

He lost by a slim margin to current U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, but won election to the House of Representatives in 1990 and served two terms before losing to Helen Chenoweth in the 1994 Republican landslide.

Coincidentally, LaRocco might be challenging Craig in November, presuming LaRocco has no competition in the Democratic primary.

Perhaps even more intriguing is the possibility that LaRocco could square off against Lt. Gov. Jim Risch should Craig retire. Craig is expected to make a decision in the next few months.

Risch said he would strongly consider a Senate run if Craig retires. He has defeated LaRocco twice, once in a legislative race and last year in the contest for lieutenant governor.

LaRocco is well aware of the GOP's dominance in Idaho, but he's not going to let that curtail his confidence.

"It's going to take resources to win," he said, which is why LaRocco is courting campaign donors all over the country through Internet outreach.

LaRocco reports having raised $100,000 since he announced his candidacy in April. Two-thirds of his 350 donors live in Idaho, LaRocco said.

It's the Gem State residents he's obviously trying to engage through the working campaign.

Steve Zeman, the Bonneville County Democratic Party chairman who also came out to the Holm farm Friday, said outreach with voters is beneficial because it slows down the pace of often exhaustive campaigns.

LaRocco learned firsthand Friday some of the difficulties farmers are up against.

LaRocco, who's worked in the banking industry and now runs a public-affairs consulting firm, might have a promising career as a farmhand should the politics thing fall through. Holm said he did a pretty good job Friday.

But LaRocco speaks like his winning the election is already a done deal. Once that happens, he plans on continuing working around the state. "I will continue to do this once I'm in the Senate," he said.