Ron Beitelspacher (born January 25, 1945, in Hoven,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

) is a former Democratic Idaho state senator. He finished second behind

Larry EchoHawk Larry J. Echo Hawk (born August 2, 1948) is an American attorney, legal scholar, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Echo Hawk served under U.S. President Barack Obama as the United States Assistant Secretary of the Interior for In ...

in the 1994 Democratic primary for

Governor of Idaho A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. A resident of Grangeville and a lineman by trade, Beitelspacher represented

North Central Idaho North Central Idaho is an area which spans the central part of the state of Idaho and borders Oregon, Montana, and Washington. It is the southern half of the Idaho Panhandle region and is rich in agriculture and natural resources. Lewis and Clar ...

in the

Idaho Legislature The Idaho Legislature consists of the upper Idaho Senate and the lower Idaho House of Representatives. Idaho is divided into 35 legislative districts, which each elect one senator and two representatives. There are no term limits for either ...

in the 1980s and early 1990s. He served briefly in the

Idaho House of Representatives The Idaho House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Idaho State Legislature. It consists of 70 representatives elected to two-year terms. The state is divided into 35 districts, each of which elects two representatives to separate se ...

in 1979 after being appointed to fill a vacancy by Gov. John V. Evans. He was appointed to the Idaho Senate in 1980, again by Evans to fill a vacancy. Beitelspacher was elected to the Idaho Senate in 1980 from a North Central Idaho based floterial district and reelected throughout the 1980s. Towards the end of his Idaho Senate career Beitelspacher served as the

ranking member In United States politics, a ranking member is the most senior member of a congressional or state legislative committee from the minority party. On many committees the ranking minority member, along with the Chair, serve as '' ex officio'' member ...

of the resources and environment committee. He chose not to run for reelection in 1992 after floterial districts were eliminated. Along with several other Democrats, in 1993 Beitelspacher announced his candidacy for

after it became clear the Democratic incumbent, Cecil D. Andrus, would not run for a fifth term. Although most of the potential Democratic field dropped out after EchoHawk, the then-attorney general, announced his candidacy in early 1994, Beitelspacher remained in the race. Beitelspacher won a handful of counties in his North Central Idaho base in the May 1994 primary, but was decisively defeated statewide by EchoHawk. In September 2011 Beitelspacher was chosen to co-chair a bipartisan committee to oversee redistricting in Idaho. The committee was convened after a previous committee failed to produce a redistricting plan.Idaho State Legislature - Redistricting Commission - Commissioners
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References

1945 births Living people Democratic Party Idaho state senators People from Grangeville, Idaho {{Idaho-politician-stub