Idaho author who helped numerous politicians get elected was once a candidate, but personal tragedy changed his course
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IDAHO FALLS – Dennis Mansfield’s clients often describe him as a real-life Forrest Gump because of the way his life has intersected with historical figures.
But Mansfield refers to himself as “The Man who shot Liberty Valance” (the title of a 1963 film about a man whose actions help another character get elected to Congress) because of the role he’s played in helping others get elected to public office.
The 67-year-old Boise man is the author of a new historical fiction thriller that highlights how history might have been different had John F. Kennedy and others not been assassinated. Though it’s a work of fiction, it’s a project Mansfield says connects history together in surprising ways.
The book is available for purchase here. The first chapter is available at the end of this article. Mansfield discusses the book in our video interview above.
Mansfield’s encounters with historical figures is equally captivating. He’s had interactions with well-known politicians over the years, including President Richard Nixon.
He set out to become a public servant in the 1990s after working as a lobbyist and creating the Idaho Family Forum, an organization now known as the Idaho Family Policy Center that promotes Christian and family values in public policy.
A personal tragedy cut short Mansfield’s bid for Congress in 2000 and set the stage for a writing career that began about 10 years ago. Simon and Schuster published a book in 2013 about the medication-related death of Mansfield’s son, Nate, four years earlier.
An attempt to revive a political career by running for a seat in the Idaho Senate last year was unsuccessful.
Throughout his life, Mansfield’s played an integral role in getting politicians elected, including the late Helen Chenoweth, the only Republican woman to ever represent Idaho in Congress.
“Many years ago, a farmer in the Middleton area west of Boise wanted to run for office. He was a nice young guy. I met with him and he said, ‘I only have this amount of money and I need someone to run (my campaign).’ I put Nate in contact with him and Nate ran the race. That individual won by 13 votes,” Mansfield recalls in an interview with EastIdahoNews.com.
The winning candidate was Mike Moyle, who’s now Idaho’s Speaker of the House.
RELATED | Rep. Mike Moyle elected new speaker of the Idaho House
Moyle speaks highly of Mansfield and his son, saying he owes them a lot for his 25 years in office.
“Signs and door flyers, you name it. They did a lot of door knocking, which is really hard to get people to do,” Moyle recalls.
The two have kept in touch, met at various events and talked about issues over the years. Moyle values Mansfield’s friendship and describes him as a “genuine, God-fearing guy.”
Mansfield and his other son, Colin, also helped a then unknown Raul Labrador get elected to Congress before he became Idaho’s attorney general.
“I think the Lord gave me a spirit of John Ford’s movie, ‘The Man who shot Liberty Valance.’ I’ve been there to help other people (get elected). It’s been a great joy to see that, though I have never been elected,” Mansfield says.
A trip to Washington and a letter from Richard Nixon
Mansfield’s interest in politics stems back to his boyhood. In 5th grade, he and his family lived in Detroit, Michigan, where he had a job as a paper boy. The paper later awarded Mansfield a trip to Washington, D.C. for his efforts in doubling his clientele in just a few weeks.
Mansfield’s dad was in the Air Force and they’d previously lived in D.C. Dennis remembered watching Air Force One land and meeting former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, former U.S. Senator George McGovern and other famous politicians on the tarmac.
“Suddenly, here I am at the ripe old age of 10 remembering what I did as a little kid and realizing, ‘My heavens, anybody could get here,'” he says. “I thought I’d eventually like to get into politics.”
As Mansfield got older, his parents couldn’t afford to send him to college. On a whim, he decided to write a letter to President Richard Nixon asking for his help in getting into West Point Academy in New York.
Much to Mansfield’s surprise, Nixon wrote him back.
“He said, ‘Send me your paperwork and let’s see what we can do.’ My dad didn’t know anything about this,” Mansfield recalls with amazement. “It began the process of a multi-year relationship with President Nixon. By the time I was in high school, I was getting these letters from ‘my friend Dick.’ He approved my appointment to West Point.”
Mansfield went on to become president of his class, but he never graduated. His parent’s split up during this time and it shook him up. His grades suffered as a result, and he eventually received an honorable discharge.
President Nixon sent Mansfield an encouraging note.
“Dennis, there’s another future for you,” Mansfield recalls the president writing to him at the time.
Mansfield no longer has any of the correspondence between him and President Nixon. It got thrown away during his parent’s divorce, much to his disappointment.
When military service was no longer an option, Mansfield was determined to have a career in public office.
His wife’s sister worked for the California Republican Party at the time, and Proposition 13 — an initiative enacted in 1978 that established a 2% property tax ceiling — was a hot topic.
The couple moved to California and helped get the measure passed.
Though he became an outspoken pro-life advocate in Idaho years later, Mansfield says it was economic factors — not social issues — that whet his political appetite.
He and his wife were spurred onward in the next political cause after reading a pro-family article written by Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. They “fell in love” with Idaho during a trip through the Pacific Northwest and decided to become advocates in the Gem State.
“We found that whether a person was LDS, Catholic or Protestant, we were all of one accord. We loved God and we wanted to see how we could be the best ministers in a secular way, and we did it,” says Mansfield.
That led to his involvement in leading campaigns for Moyle and Labrador before his son’s drug-related death in 2009.
‘Tremendous good fortune’ on the path he didn’t choose
His son, Nate, was arrested on drug charges four days before the 2000 election, in which Mansfield was running against then Lt. Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter to represent Idaho in Congress. Otter ended up winning the election.
Though Mansfield felt Otter was “ill-equipped” to serve in Congress at the time, he now speaks highly of Otter’s leadership.
Mansfield is grateful for the opportunity his son’s arrest gave him to not only be involved in helping inmates and addicts, but also be a better dad.
“I got to be a fantastic dad to my son,” Mansfield says in retrospect. “We struggled through jail and prison. I used to say that all my friends were in politics and then I found out that my new friends were all felons and addicts and I think I traded up.”
Though his son eventually cleaned up and got out of prison, he later hurt his back and a doctor gave him a shot of morphine to help with the pain. As a recovering addict, Mansfield says his son’s body had been craving opiates for a long time. The morphine created an adverse reaction in Nate’s body that killed him.
He had a heart attack and died hours before his wedding, Mansfield says.
When Mansfield heard the news, he says it was like somebody “shot him with a shotgun.”
“I backed up against the wall and fell to the ground,” he says. “I knew the reality of my faith was now on the line. Either God was real or it was all b.s. I stood up and I said, ‘I choose to exercise my faith and believe that it’s real.’ I never lost my faith and Susan (his wife) and I grew closer.”
He and Susan have now been married 46 years.
The title of Mansfield’s first book, “Beautiful Nate,” was inspired by John Lennon’s song, “Beautiful Boy.” Mansfield says that song came out when Nate was born and it just seemed appropriate.
With the release of his 10th book, Mansfield feels writing is his new calling. Though the genre varies from book to book, he says there’s an overarching theme of redemption that he hopes readers recognize. In addition to writing, Mansfield is a life coach and hosts a podcast.
Mansfield is appreciative of his “tremendous good fortune” and the path his life has taken.
“I’m a fortunate man. (My wife and I) have a great deal of joy and I hope the love of Christ comes through in my writing. If I only influence a handful of people who end up influencing millions of people, then I am indeed ‘the man who shot Liberty Valance,'” he says.
READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF “EMPIRES OF DIRT” BELOW:
