COEUR d'ALENE - It took a little nudge, but Vito Barbieri is entering politics. After Rep. Jim Clark announced his upcoming retirement from the District 3 House seat, friends and colleagues approached Barbieri about possibly filling the spot.

COEUR d'ALENE - It took a little nudge, but Vito Barbieri is entering politics.

After Rep. Jim Clark announced his upcoming retirement from the District 3 House seat, friends and colleagues approached Barbieri about possibly filling the spot.

"I'm conservative," the Dalton Gardens resident said about people asking him to take a run at politics. "And I do voice my conservative values."

After some convincing, Barbieri decided to run.

"Now's as good a time as any," he said. "We have to stand up. We have to voice our conservative values."

Barbieri's values include supporting states' rights, promoting tax breaks for the benefit of small businesses, and transparency of spending in public schools.

Any measure that helps public schools save money is a good step, since public education makes up such a large portion of the state's budget, he said. He supports current proposals to post school spending online to help the public keep an eye on school spending, as well as the option for schools to allow students to test out of school early.

Those students would be able to pursue their secondary education while not taking up resources for other students who might need it, he said.

"It's important to invest in the kids," he said.

An attorney who practiced in federal court since 1984 and former owner of Sunshine Trader Restaurant, Barbieri said he has a clear understanding of how the government can help or hurt small businesses.

He said keeping taxes low for those businesses is imperative for their growth, as well as the growth of the state's economy. Benefiting small businesses is especially important now, as Idaho was one of the last states to feel the effect of the recession, and will be one of the last to crawl out of it, he said.

"Taxation oppresses," he said. "I believe too many regulations have been implemented without considering the net effect of hurting business' ability to profit."

Barbieri said he is concerned with recently passed health care reform, which should be constitutionally challenged. He said he is worried the "expanding and increasingly intrusive federal government" will use the reform to use tax money to pay for abortions.

Married for 19 years to wife Joy, the couple has three children. Barbieri is a board member of Open Arms Crisis Pregnancy Center in Coeur d'Alene and moved to Dalton Gardens from southern California in 2004.