COEUR d'ALENE - Senator Bob Nonini grew up in Wallace, Idaho, in a single parent home. His mother was huge influence in his life.

He remembers counting her tips when she came home from waiting tables at Sweet's Restaurant in Wallace.

She eventually became a bookkeeper, and then became a deputy auditor for Shoshone County. Eventually she made a successful run for county clerk - twice.

"She was such a good role model, she started as a waitress and kept wanting to better herself," he said. "She served as a county auditor at a time in Idaho when lady auditor made substantially less than their male counterparts."

His mother was the first-ever elected Republican county official in Shoshone County at the time.

"That's because it was all Democrat in Shoshone County back then," he said. "She won her second campaign by 72 votes."

Bob remembers people telling his mother to run as a Democrat, so she could easily get re-elected year after year.

"I asked her once why she didn't just run as a Democrat," Nonini said. "She told me it was because of her principles. Her principles were more important to her than a job.

"That really hit home with me," he said, adding that has influenced his political career tremendously.

Nonini has successfully run five times for state legislative seats, despite a somewhat troubled past, before he entered politics.

Do you want to discuss that a bit?

Every time I run someone brings that stuff up and it's all been pretty well vetted by now. People can find that information if they look for it.

It's my past, and I am not going to run from it, but it's been pretty well vetted.

You kind of pulled off a power play on the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee back in the 1990s when there was similar split in the party. You took over the committee as chairman. What occurred there?

In 1994 we picked up a few seats. People like Jeff Alltus and Tom Dorr were elected. Clyde Boatright had been elected Wayne Meyer was elected ... all Republicans. You could put Wayne and Clyde in a moderate category, but Alltus and Dorr were in a conservative category. Then Gordon Crow was elected and Jack Riggs was elected in 1996.

The Republican party started to gain seats in the state legislature. That is something we'd never had.

Then as the party started to grow, the conservatives started showing up in the party - people like Don Morgan, Ron Rankin, Matt Rotter and Tina Jacobson.

I had my battles with all of them, but I always thought of the old adage: If a buddy is voting with you eight out of 10 times, it's better than a foe voting with you two out of 10 times.

And so that litmus test stuff came up back then. They wanted you to prove that you are a Republican and we tried to push it aside and it has kind of resurfaced in a sense again.

That's seems to be the case, now we are really starting to see more interest in the political infighting at the central committee level again. Do you know what I mean?

It's a little different now. With the growth of the Reagan Republicans and the big growth in the committee itself, and then you've got two pachyderm clubs and you've got a very active Kootenai County Republican women's club, there is a lot more political activism.

Back in the late '90s what you saw was the only real active Republican group was the central committee. You didn't have all these groups, so everything centered around the central committee.

And now, it's the central committee and these other groups. These groups are now fighting for control of the central committee to promote their agendas.

I think the growth in political activism, - and that's a good thing, it's a good thing for sure - I just wish that within our own party it might be done in a more unified way.

You know we are seeing a lot of that spill over at the state and federal levels. We saw a lot of it in the last legislative primaries. You were involved in some of that. Do you want to address that?

I have a political action committee. The purpose of that committee is to support candidates who think like I think. The people who support my political action committee want the same kind of legislators that I am.

So I supported some candidates that challenged a few incumbents, and some of them are well-known incumbents, that I considered friends. Now they might say Nonini is no friend of mine, but you have to put politics and personal things aside.

Politics is a contact sport, so if you want to promote an agenda, you need to have the majority. The candidates I supported thought like I thought and it was controversial in the fact that I was moving from the House to the Senate and I opposed some senators that I faced the possibility of serving with, and I did serve with this last year.

As far as those three senators go, we talked, we carried on a professional session, and they have not held any hard feelings.

They are all real good people in that regard.

So, I got involved in some races, and I wasn't successful. That draws a lot of media attention.

I think that was funny in way because I spent a total of about $8,000 with my PAC, and the media wants to make it sound like such a big deal. When IACI, Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, spent about $200,000 in that race, and a large portion of that went to the candidates that I opposed. None of that was in the media.

So, what's the story here?

I was going to ask you that.

It appeared by some of the coverage that you were setting the stage for a power play in the Senate. Is there any truth to that?

No. I don't think so, as far as myself starting the power play, I have always believed in starting at the bottom and working my way up.

I did that in politics. I started as a legislative district chairman, got involved in some races and ran for central committee chairman, and from there into the legislature, and got into a chairmanship.

I worked my way up in that regard, and I am going work my way up in the Senate.

My purpose was more of trying to get senators elected that thought the same way I did on education issues, thought the same way I did on taxation issues, thought the same way I did on healthcare issues.

If we would have had a majority, we probably wouldn't have a state healthcare exchange like we have now signed into law. The people I was supporting would not have supported the exchange.

If we could have gotten within a couple of votes on these issues, we could have had effective legislation.

Let's talk about that for a minute. You lost the battle on your bill to provide $10 million worth of tax credits to families who choose educate their children in private schools. Then the media came after you. What happened there?

That is a good piece of legislation and I am still working on that.

From the beginning of my political career, I have campaigned on parental choice. The more choice you have out there, I think all entities do better when they are competing for the same student.

If a student goes into public education, the state then funds based on average daily attendance. If the student doesn't go into public education then the state system doesn't get the funding for that student.

Because of the recession a lot of parents can't afford to pay for the private school tuition.

What we've seen is a decrease in private school enrollments and an increase in public school enrollments. So we are spending more money in the public education arena, and we are seeing teachers in the private schools getting laid off.

That results in lack of income tax revenue and even sales tax revenue, because they don't have the paychecks to shop.

That scenario in addition to my belief in parental choice and how good private schools do, led me to work on this legislation over the last few years.

I still contend it saves the state money. I have statistics that show these types of programs save states money. I'd say 15 to 16 states have some form of a similar tax credit.

I have had some brief conversations with some of the senators who opposed this and talked about some changes that we may make to get it through.

Some in the media are referring to you as the Great Nonini now. You have been criticized for not talking with the media. What's behind that?

That was a name given to me by a guy that used to write for the Lewiston paper.

It seems like all of the statehouse reporters have been frozen out. Is that true?

Yeah because nothing ever good comes from talking with a reporter in my opinion. Well, I will give one exception and that is the Coeur d'Alene Press.

I try to return the reporters' calls from the Press, but down in Boise they just want to sensationalize everything we do down there. It's just easier for me not to talk with them.

Does it hurt you though?

With who?

Your constituents?

I hope not. I mean I send letters and I stay in communication. I return all emails. Getting my message out to my constituents is one thing, playing the media is another.

I don't necessarily want to play the media just to get my name out in the newspaper. I have a darn good record in my nine years down there. I hope voters aren't just relying on the media for their information.

There is rumor floating around that you are eyeing the 1st District U.S. House seat. Is there any truth to that?

I always keep my options open, but I have no intention of running against Congressman Labrador. So, no, I am not running.

What is one thing people would be surprised to learn about you?

That's a good question. I go to Mass every Saturday night. Most people don't know that about me. Now you know.