COEUR d'ALENE - Walk into the North Idaho Fair from the north entrance and the first thing that hits you isn't a whiff of livestock or a hard rock riff from a wild carnival ride.

It's politics.

The Kootenai County Democrats have arguably the best booth location at the fair. They've been there for years, said Steve Moss.

This year they're asking fairgoers to sign a petition to raise the minimum wage.

"There aren't a lot of people who want less wages," Moss said Thursday. "There are studies that show when you raise the minimum wage, everyone is better off."

Moss said younger people are eager to sign the petition, and short of a few Libertarians, most everyone seems willing to sign.

"People want to get into the fair," he said, "and we try to corral them right away."

Go around the corner toward the main exhibit barn, and the Republicans are not to be outdone. They have a large booth in probably the second best location at the fair.

"I don't know how long this goes back," said Barbara Heddon,a committee woman who was volunteering on Thursday. "But I do know that it goes back a long, long way."

Heddon said the Republican Central Committee uses the booth to educate voters on where they should vote, who their representatives are and to help people register to vote.

"We even have bumper stickers," she said, adding that the committee is also raffling off two copies of "The Liberty Amendments."

Just across the fairway, Coeur d'Alene mayoral candidate Steve Widmyer is sharing a booth with city council candidates Kiki Miller and Amy Evans. Widmyer said the fair is an excellent location to meet folks and introduce himself.

Miller said they met with about 100 people on Wednesday and expected to meet with at least that many on Thursday.

"It gets real nice out here in the evening," Widmyer said.

A stone's throw away, one of Widmyer's challengers for the mayoral seat is Mary Souza. Her campaign manager, Becky Funk, was manning the booth for a couple of hours on Thursday.

"It really picks up out here after 5," she said. "We are signing up boaters for Mary Souza. There is a lot of interest in the Third Street boat launch. People want to keep that opened."

Funk said the fair is a must for political candidates.

"It really makes a difference," she said. "Even if people don't stop to talk, they are seeing the name."

Inside the main exhibit barn, the North West Property Owners Alliance has a booth to explain property rights and how Kootenai County is trying to revamp its land use codes. Gary Mitchell was volunteering to sign people up to join the group.

He said so far the group has added a couple dozen new members.

The Kootenai County Reagan Republicans also had a booth indoors. Eileen and Gene Mann were on hand to educate the public about the group and to help people fill out the partisan declarations to vote in the primary elections next spring.

The Reagan Republican booth is directly across the aisle from the North Idaho Central Labor Council. There Shirley McFaddan said they are at the fair to "bring awesomeness to the Sandwich Bill." The bill, HB 432 has been introduced twice in the Idaho Legislature and never made it out of committee for a vote. The bill would make it mandatory for employers to give a 30-minute unpaid lunch hour for anyone who works a 7.5-hour work day.

"Right now there is no law requiring lunch breaks or even coffee breaks in Idaho," she said.

Behind their booth is the Inland Northwest Freethought Society. They were there promoting the separation of church and state, said Jim Hudlow. The group is comprised of atheists and agnostics.

"We just want to let people know that we exist," he said. "We are not trying to recruit or change anyone's beliefs."

He said many atheists live a lonely existence when it comes to socializing. His group has many get-together opportunities to socialize, he said.

Many atheists are misunderstood, Hudlow said.

"I don't know any atheists that say God doesn't exist," he said. "We just haven't seen any empirical evidence for superstition."

Jeremiah Smedra rented a booth space to push his Abolish Human Abortion group.

He said there's a movement in the pro-life community that wants to divorce religion from saving babies. He wants to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ back into the debate.

"If I could do one thing," he said, "it would be to get a Christian to stand up boldly and speak the truth and love."

Kootenai County Task Force on Human Rights has a booth as well. Michelle Fink said they were there to promote the group and sign up a few new members. Membership costs $1.

They were also pushing a fundraiser for the Human Rights Educational Institute. For $10, you can purchase a raffle ticket and win $5,200 in free groceries.

Fink said it's interesting to see all of the political viewpoints at the fair.

"We have love for all of them," she said. "We might not agree with them all, but they certainly have a right to say what they want.

"That's kind of what we are all about."