Risch’s attempts to divert planes from his Boise ranch were petty abuse of power | Opinion

U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, tried to use his position of power and privilege to benefit himself by diverting planes away from his Southwest Boise ranch.

We call that corruption and abuse of power.

According to reporting by the Idaho Statesman’s Kevin Fixler, Risch went to great lengths to divert planes taking off from the Boise Airport to fly not over his 44-acre ranch, but over parts of Meridian and Nampa, even though those flight patterns would have been less safe and less efficient.

The lengths that Idaho’s junior senator went to were extraordinary.

He lobbied the Boise mayor’s office and the Boise Airport. They said no.

He lobbied the FAA. They told him no.

He spoke directly with the FAA director. He told him no.

When none of that worked, he went to a fellow Republican senator, Ted Cruz of Texas, to get a section slipped into an FAA bill.

Risch used his position of power to gain access to people and processes that are not available to ordinary citizens.

Could you imagine, as a resident of Meridian or Nampa, picking up the phone and speaking with the director of the Federal Aviation Administration to complain about airplane noise over your house?

Or stroll over to Cruz’s office and have him surreptitiously slip in a clause in a bill that would benefit you personally?

This was a clear abuse of power for Risch’s own benefit.

And it was an abuse that would have harmed the residents of Meridian and Nampa — the people he’s supposed to represent — and affected traffic in and out of the Nampa and Caldwell airports.

“Funneling the vast majority of louder/large aircraft over one specific point is anything but noise mitigation,” J.R. Williams, a longtime commercial pilot who keeps a private plane at the Boise Airport, wrote in an email to Meridian Mayor Robert Simison about the issue. “It may be mitigation for Mr. Risch, as overflight over his house would become a criminal misdemeanor. … Sen. Risch doesn’t seem to care about the folks in Meridian, Eagle, Star or Nampa. He only wants jets to stay away from his house.”

Williams knows what he’s talking about. Williams also commands a unit of the A-10s at Gowen Field as a colonel in the Idaho Air National Guard and was previously an Air Force Thunderbird elite aerial jet pilot for 12 years.

Even though Risch claimed that he was acting on behalf of other people who were complaining, no one else has any other evidence of significant complaints. Not the city, not the airport, not even Corey Barton, who has built dozens of houses in the area. The FAA said it didn’t have enough complaints to warrant action.

And when asked for evidence of the complaints that he supposedly received, Risch refused to supply them. Not even how many he received.

Risch practically admitted that he was using underhanded tactics to get around protocol when he told Fixler that bypassing federal bureaucracy was the intent behind adding the language to the bill after the FAA wasn’t responsive to his request.

It’s the equivalent of a public official pulled over for speeding and telling the trooper, “Do you know who I am?”

This type of petty self-interest, though, is in character for Risch, who in 2018 blocked a vote from taking place on the budget that year until leadership removed a provision renaming the Boulder-White Clouds Wilderness that included the name Cecil Andrus, a former Idaho Democratic governor and political rival of Risch’s.

With this latest stunt, it once again looks like Risch represents himself much more than his constituents.

Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, opinion writer Bryan Clark, editor Chadd Cripe, newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members Mary Rohlfing and Patricia Nilsson.