COEUR d'ALENE -

Republican Precinct Committeeman Matt Roetter is going after the state Republican party platform in order to remove a plank that supports the repeal of the 17th Amendment.

"I am going to submit a resolution to the central committee on Tuesday," he said. "I want to protect the right of the voters to select their own U.S. senators."

Until the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1913, every state legislature elected its two U.S. senators. In an effort to avoid corruption, Roetter said states amended the constitution to allow voters to elect the senators.

Prior to that, he points to an article in the Montana Law Review that details one of the most corrupt elections in national history.

A "copper king" named William Andrew Clark, who was worth an estimated $50 million when he ran for U.S. Senate in 1899, bribed his way into office. He resigned months later after a Senate investigation.

"He paid each legislator up to $10,000 each to vote him in," Roetter said. "$10,000 was a lot of money back in those days.

"Now our Republican platform says we want to take away the people's right to vote, and let the legislatures pick our senators again," he said. "I don't like that."

In his proposed resolution, Roetter wrote by repealing the 17th Amendment the Idaho Legislature would select both of Idaho's U.S. senators, and strip that right away from the voters.

If the resolution is adopted, Roetter would like to see the desire to repeal the amendment removed from the party's state platform. It would also compel any of Kootenai County's Central Committee representatives with state voting rights to vote to remove the repeal language.

Roetter would also like the local central committee to send a copy of the resolution to Idaho's state and federal elected officials, as well as the media. It would also prevent the central committee from endorsing anyone who supports the repeal of the 17th Amendment.

Nobody from the State Republican Party headquarters could be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

In other business, the central committee will also consider a resolution compelling the Kootenai County commissioners to enact an ordinance to protect the 2nd Amendment.

The "2nd Amendment Preservation Ordinance," would prevent federal infringement on the right to keep and bear arms, and would nullify all federal acts in violation of the amendment.