COEUR d'ALENE - A retired Army pilot from Caldwell has announced his run for Congress.

Rob Oates, 55, said his lack of state political experience won't hinder the Libertarian's campaign for the 1st District congressional seat; rather, it should help him, as Republican and Democrat "professional politicians" have put the country in an economic turmoil from decades of governing.

"They've taken turns being in charge and they've generated what we have today, an obese, gigantic government and a debt that just turned over $16 trillion," said Oates during an editorial visit with The Press Thursday. "Libertarians don't consider much obese, but that is."

As chairman of the state's Libertarian Party, Oates' campaign follows familiar Libertarian principles: Smaller government, less military presence abroad, while abolishing the domestic war on drugs and focusing on states' rights and personal responsibility.

"There's not a single war on anything, at the moment, that the Libertarians would support," he said, citing both military conflicts abroad and domestic "wars" such as the war on poverty, illiteracy and drugs.

Fighting the aforementioned battles, which both parties in part have supported at times, has ballooned the country's debt, he said.

"We're spending an enormous amount of money trying to chase after people who smoke marijuana for instance," he said. "You should be responsible for what happens to you and your body, it's not up to the nanny state."

He said the uphill climb to get elected in a Republican state as a third-party candidate will be made easier if voters recognize the two major parties will offer only more of the same type of governing.

"The only thing they're actually talking about is reducing the rate of growth of a program," he said about politicians' promises to cut. Another example is any politician who brings earmarks back to his or her home state "Programs, on a whole, are almost never reduced."

He doesn't believe the federal government has the constitutional authority in a number of programs in which it's involved, such as education or maintaining federally owned land.

Married with three children and a graduate of the University of Idaho, Oates is a former Caldwell City Councilman who is employed by a governing agency, as Caldwell's airport manager.

Aviation is regulated by the federal government, but Oates said it shouldn't be seen as hypocritical that he's taking aim at government's size while earning a living off it.

He said aviation should be run by private business and he wouldn't have a problem cutting his own job.

"As far as the hypocritical nature, change has to come from somewhere," he said. "I'm certainly open to criticism to being a hypocrite on some level, but I'm not opposed to speaking out against the system. I would rather move on to a different job if they privatized the industry."

Oates also served as an Army officer, attack helicopter pilot and unit commander in the Republic of Korea.

The congressional seat is held by Republican Raul Labrador, who is seeking re-election. Democrat Jimmy Farris is also running.