NewsHour Election
Night Analysis

Regional Analysis
of the Election

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Other delegates react to the night's results

We ran out of ballots in Meridian, Idaho and when polls closed in Southern and Southeastern Idaho there were lines at the polling places. A nuclear waste initiative, a one percent Property Tax Cap, Term Limits and Bear Hunting Initiatives seemed to be the hot issues to drag people out to vote. "I have seen people vote tonight that I didn't even know existed," said one polling place worker in Kuna, a small town near the capital city of Boise, Idaho.

One exciting Senatorial race pitted the leadership of Larry Craig against a newcomer. Sen. Craig proved too much for the new comer and he has won handily. "We are soon to be grandparents," Craig said in his acceptance speech. He is one of the "singing senators" and made sure that the victory was accepted for all of his Capitol Hill leadership team. "Bill Clinton will not be able to touch our welfare reform," Craig said, "We have kept our majority in the Congress."

In another hard fought battle, with thousand of dollars spend since last April by the AFL-CIO blasting the conservative stance of First District Congressman, Helen Chenoweth won a second term in spite of all of the negative advertising which called her too extreme. When asked about the Bob Dole loss Chenoweth said, "It looks like the nations wants divided power in the U.S., and we will continue to hold the line on the government." The Congressman also said when asked what's on the agenda for the next session, "We will probably tackle campaign finance reform in the next session. It has really has been a huge factor in the national picture."

The general feeling from Idaho voters the message was clear, "keep a handle on Washington" and return more authority to the state of Idaho.

Some upsets in local government, but the strong conservative voice in Idaho has spoken. Remember Northern Idaho is in Pacific time zone, so when the national news media predicted winners at two minutes after the polls closed in the southern part of the state, they were still open in the northern part of the state. Candidates will be airing their concerns in the media tomorrow.