Phil Batt ‘a model for all of us.’ Idaho politician remembered for decency, character
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Ryan Suppe, Idaho Statesman
BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Former Idaho Gov. Phil Batt, who died Saturday on his 96th birthday, likely will be remembered for his 1995 deal that curbed nuclear waste dumping in eastern Idaho.
Or it could be for his 1996 bill that protected farmworkers injured on the job, reversing an eight-decade precedent.
He also was instrumental in establishing the Idaho Human Rights Commission, to protect diverse groups of people from discrimination, and he continued to champion civil rights in retirement, urging fellow Republicans to extend protections to the LGBTQ community. For those efforts, a forthcoming education center at Boise’s Wassmuth Center for Human Rights will bear his name.
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But former friends and colleagues said Batt’s enduring impact will be his decency, civility and candor, which set a standard for Idaho government leaders.
“He is the epitome of what a good public servant is,” Ben Ysursa, former Idaho secretary of state, who knew Batt for nearly 50 years, told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “He stuck to his principles, and I think that’s the key. You set your feet in the ground and do what’s right, regardless of the consequences. That’s what Phil did, and he was the model for all of us.”
FISCAL CONSERVATISM AND DEAL-MAKING
As its chairman in the early 1990s, Batt helped reinvigorate the Idaho Republican Party when Democrats had an even number of seats in the state Senate and had for decades controlled the governor’s office.
And across nearly four decades in office, from the Legislature to lieutenant governor to governor, Batt built a reputation as a deal-maker who compromised with political friend and foe.
“His ability to cut through the crap and get a solution that was, in his eyes, best for the people was unmatched,” Dan Popkey, a longtime journalist who covered Batt’s political career, told the Statesman by phone.
Batt’s first-of-its-kind nuclear waste agreement allowed temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel in Idaho if the federal government agreed to expedite treatment and permanently remove waste over the next 40 years. Following the agreement, Batt faced a recall effort, and a ballot initiative sought to repeal it, but the deal remains in effect.
An onion farmer from Wilder, Batt was a devout fiscal conservative who cut state jobs during his gubernatorial tenure. While debating policy, he gave short speeches.
“He didn’t like waste — wasted words, wasted money, wasted lives,” Popkey said.
Trent Clark, who formerly directed an income support program for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Batt’s farming business consistently qualified for federal subsidies rewarding conservation measures. Batt always returned the checks, which totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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“The guy was the epitome of conservatism in the old-fashioned sense,” said Clark, who served as GOP chairman while Batt was governor. “He was just tight.”
A HUMAN RIGHTS CHAMPION IN IDAHO
Batt’s rigor for conservatism was matched by his support for human rights. For 79 years, agriculture had been the only major industry in Idaho exempt from workers’ compensation requirements, until Batt’s 1996 bill repealed the exemptions.
Many farmers and ranchers, and Batt’s political allies in the Legislature, resisted the change.
“He was swimming upstream with a strong current against him,” Ysursa said. “He lost some friends in agriculture over that, but he stood his ground because he knew it was the right thing to do. He was a good politician because he was a good person.”
Batt told the Spokesman-Review at the time that he didn’t relish butting heads with friends.
“However, I believe the action is in the best interest of the state of Idaho,” he said.
Idaho Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke, a rancher from Oakley, said farmers and ranchers dragged their feet on workers’ comp, and Batt “stuck to his guns.”
“It was change, and nobody likes change,” Bedke said by phone. “He was right, we were wrong.”
Early in Bedke’s political career, Batt appointed him to a task force negotiating controversial federal land management issues. Batt would force the group, which included cattle ranchers and conservationists, into a room until it reached an agreement, Bedke said.
“He was always about trying to find a better way,” Bedke said. “That’s what I appreciated about him. He always held us to a high standard, even after he was out of office.”
In his later years, Batt told friends he was concerned about the direction of the Idaho GOP. Leaders of the fractured party are moving to exclude members and candidates who have supported Democrats in the past.
“It bothered Governor Batt, because that was totally against what he believed in,” Ysursa said. “He really was a person who wanted inclusion, not exclusion.”
A UNIQUE CHARACTER IN IDAHO POLITICS
Small in stature and with a tendency to lose his temper, Batt earned the nickname “little giant,” which was affectionately used by friends and adversaries. Former Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus was both.
Despite their political differences, Batt and Andrus were longtime friends who played golf together. In retirement, they teamed up to oppose proposals threatening Batt’s nuclear waste agreement.
Rod Gramer, an author and former reporter, covered Batt’s political career and later wrote a book about him. He said Batt kept a pet parrot in his Statehouse office, and he trained the bird to mock Andrus.
“Cecil is silly,” it would squawk.
In 1977, while Batt was president pro tem of the Senate, he filled in as acting governor for single day and held a news conference to declare it “short people’s day.”
“He had a great sense of humor,” said Gramer, CEO of the Idaho Business for Education group.
Batt also was a skilled writer and musician. He played jazz clarinet, sometimes alongside famed pianist Gene Harris and other times to entertain donors at campaign events. Before performing at a 1994 fundraiser amid his gubernatorial election bid, Batt told the Spokesman-Review that playing the clarinet was “one of the most enjoyable parts of my life.”
“I think music is magic,” he said. “It stirs men into battle, but it also soothes the savage beast within them.”
Along with regular newspaper columns, Batt in 1972 wrote a poem in honor of the 91 miners killed by a fire in a Kellogg mine. The poem, “We Were Miners Then,” is inscribed on a statue commemorating those who died.
“Idaho lost its conscience,” Gramer said. “He was the conscience for us when it came to human rights, when it came to doing the right thing, when it came to being honest and straightforward.”