Our Voice: Franklin County’s Richard Lathim for the 9th District

The difference is life experience.

That was Richard Lathim’s take on what separates him most from Rep. Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy. The two Republicans are vying for the 9th Legislative District seat in a special election to be decided Nov. 3.

We think Lathim’s got this race pegged exactly right, and he is the better candidate.

Dye has been in office only since May, when she was appointed to replace former Rep. Susan Fagan, a Republican from Pullman who resigned over ethics violations.

Although Dye has a long, grassroots history in politics, she does not share the breadth of knowledge that Lathim has accumulated during years of public service as sheriff of Franklin County.

Dye and her husband run a 3,000-acre wheat farm, and much of her background is focused on the agriculture industry and Republican Party politics.

She has been a GOP leader in Garfield County for a couple of decades and has helped many candidates get elected. Dye has some impressive accomplishments, including helping draft a white paper on freedom to farm, which became the basis for a federal bill in 1995. She also was involved in the “Save Our Dams” movement in the late 1990s and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2012.

But there is more to the 9th District than farming and politics, and that’s where Lathim has an edge.

He grew up on a farm, so he understands the importance of agriculture to the area. But he also has experience in law enforcement, running a county office, managing a department budget, union issues and the challenges facing low-income rural and urban families. He said he knows how hard it is to work with unfunded mandates by state and local governments.

Dye barely had time to get going in the Legislature after her appointment. Perhaps she would come into her own eventually.

But we know Lathim’s character and he is a guy who speaks his mind. If elected, people will know where he stands, and that is a refreshing trait for a state legislator.

He was Franklin County sheriff for 28 years until last year, when he was unseated in the general election. At the time, we favored his opponent, believing it was time for a new perspective in the department.

But Lathim would represent the urban and rural areas of the 9th District equally well, and considering Franklin County is among the fastest growing in the state, it should be represented in the state Legislature by someone living there.

The Tri-City Herald recommends Richard Lathim for the 9th Legislative District.

This story was originally published October 11, 2015 at 1:40 PM with the headline "Our Voice: Franklin County’s Richard Lathim for the 9th District."