Time is a zero-sum resource. It can be used well, or it can be frittered away.
As Rep. James Ruchti, candidate for the Idaho Senate from Pocatello, puts it, “From the moment the legislative session begins, the clock is ticking. House and Senate leadership wants to get the work done, then go home and quit burning up taxpayer money.”
“We can either spend our time doing good work,” says Ruchti, “or we can waste time. The last two years we have wasted a lot of time. Every hour we spend on culture wars nonsense, like CRT — that isn’t in classrooms — and porn— that isn’t on library shelves,” he said, referring to fake news intended to fire up a political base, “is time we are not working on things that genuinely make life better for working families.”
Helping working folks is Ruchti’s goal. Despite being in the minority party, his common-sense approach has made him a sponsor of multiple bills signed into law by the governor. He works on legislation with Republicans and Democrats. “I’ll work with anybody who is willing to roll up their sleeves to get the job done,” Ruchti said.
Ruchti has worked on laws to reduce property taxes, legislation to end predatory property rental practices, consumer protections dealing with underinsured motorists, and the successful streamlining of settlement payments for worker’s compensation cases. That’s just in the last two years. There’s been more.
“Pocatello’s special to me,” Ruchti told me when I asked why voters should mark his name on the ballot. “I love representing this community.”
He and his wife, Wendy, raised their two sons here. The boys attended Pocatello Community Charter School. It’s a stone’s throw from the same elementary school where Ruchti, his father, and grandfather all started their educations.
Growing up in Pocatello, Ruchti says he “saw how hard my folks worked to provide for the six of us kids. Looking back, I know there must have been sleepless nights wondering how they would make ends meet.”
“We knew we struggled financially, but we never felt deprived,” said Ruchti. “Through public school and public programs, there are so many good things to do in Pocatello. For us there were sports and school activities we could participate in. There were clubs we were able to join,” he added.
“Those are the kinds of things that working families need when they’re raising kids. When I think about my job in the Legislature, I focus on making sure working families have access to the best possible schools and libraries and activities,” said Ruchti.
Ruchti’s good grades in school earned him an appointment to the US Military Academy at West Point. A decade later, equipped with his education and experience as a military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, deployed at home and abroad, he entered the UI Law School and earned his J.D.
In addition to his law career since then, Ruchti has represented Pocatello in the Idaho House from 2006-10 and 2020 to the present. That kind of experience will matter if he is elected to the Idaho Senate.
For the past 20 years, Pocatello’s been represented by people with similar experience. Edgar Malepeai spent four years on the Pocatello city council before serving 10 years in the Idaho Senate. Following Malepeai for two terms in the Senate was Roy Lacey. He had been elected to the Idaho House for a term before moving to the Senate.
The late Mark Nye also served a House term before succeeding Lacey in the Senate for three terms. Eva Nye was on Pocatello’s city council for 14 years and was also a substitute in the legislature for two different Pocatello House members before Gov. Little appointed her in August to complete the remainder of her late husband’s term.
If Pocatello voters pick Ruchti on Nov. 8, they will continue that long practice of electing someone who understands lawmaking takes work. To sponsor and pass legislation extending the rights of child sexual abuse victims and protecting elderly and disabled consumers from predatory practices, as Ruchti did during his first stint in the Legislature, takes effort that’s far from glamorous.
That’s OK with Ruchti. “I don’t want to spend time on issues that divide people.” he declared. “I want to work on things that make their lives better.”
Dave Finkelnburg is a longtime Idahoan, a former newspaper journalist, and is currently semi-retired from an engineering career.