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>>He served Idaho for decades, from the state Senate to the governor's office and made a massive impact on Idaho public policy.

Tonight, we take a look at the life and career of Governor Phil Batt.

I'm Melissa Davlin.

Idaho Reports, starts now.

Hello and welcome to this special episode of Idaho Reports.

This week, we take a look at the life and career of Governor Phil Batt, who died Saturday, March 4th on his 96th birthday.

Then Governor Dirk Kempthorne, Senator Jim Risch, Governor Butch Otter and Governor Brad Little join me to share memories of their friend and mentor that served Idaho for decades.

In between his negotiations on nuclear waste management, his human rights work and his Republican Party chairmanship.

He made an impact that helped shape the Idaho we know today.

Little: Governor Batt's long standing service as a citizen, legislator, lieutenant governor, governor and the many roles he played is marked by many achievements.

Popkey: He didn't have, you know, the easiest young life.

I mean, he worked hard on the farm.

He went to the U of I.

He had to come back because his father was seriously injured in a car wreck and he had to come back and run the farm.

Didn't complete his degree.

He was a brilliant guy without a college education.

Malmen: I have a number that I wanted to share with you.

21,250.

That is the number of days ago that Phil Batt entered public service in this building.

Until this one.

Russell: Governor Batt was always serving his community.

But he served in the state Senate where he sponsored landmark legislation.

He was elected lieutenant governor.

Johnson:Republican Lieutenant Governor Phil Batt, became the first Republican candidate to announce for governor at year's end Batt was generally thought to be the GOP frontrunner.

Russell:He went back to the Senate.

Then he became the Republican Party chairman and really was responsible for the the vast rise in the Republican numbers in Idaho to become a supermajority.

Kempthorne:Rather than going home and just rolling it all up.

Once again, he rolled up his sleeves and Phil Batt became the champion of the Republican Party and revitalized it.

Batt:I had all kinds of organizational activities going out there throughout the state.

I traveled extensively doing that.

Malmen:He was very active in going around the state in 1991, working in each county with folks that weren't necessarily part of the county party, but were identifying themselves as either conservative or Republicans and interested in the outcome.

And from that, he took the information, cataloged it, and went back out and started talking about here are the things we have in common.

And it became kind of the big tent approach, which is that we have enough room to be a home for people with lots of different ideology on the Republican side.

What we have to focus on are the things that bring us together and let us win.

And he was very effective at finding candidates that would espouse that that weren't necessarily lockstep on every issue, but could align around some broad principles.

Popkey:But he quickly helped restore the, you know, historical balance.

And the Republicans won back enough seats that when in just two years later, they held 23 seats in the Senate and the Democrats were down to 12.

So that sets the stage for him becoming governor two years later.

Malmen:At the beginning of the campaign, we were 36, 38 points down and had to spend a lot of time looking at our shoes, but then getting out and having to work hard.

And Phil was, you know, the happy warrior.

He was out there on the campaign trail all the time, and it started early and worked late.

Popkey:I think you can say it really was a pivot point that leads us to where we are now.

Batt:They couldn't do any good, the Democrats, they tried and time and time and time again, we just wiped them out.

Popkey:As genial as his relationship with Andrus was, he wanted to win and he wanted the party to restore its strength, restore its effectiveness.

And so he was capable of being sharply partizan when it was called for.

Franklin:I think Governor Batt was always willing to learn, he says in his biography, his autobiography, rather that listening is important and he struck me as a person who might have a reaction at the very beginning, but then he would listen to people and potentially change his point of view.

Batt:We should not immediately attack from a position of strength the issues which will be before us.

We must give them full discussion and certainly we should be statesmen about it.

Popkey:He would use whatever tool was available.

With honor and honesty, but also he was capable of fighting for what he wanted.

Barker:Idaho did not require workman's comp insurance for migrant workers, and he wanted legislation that would require that.

Would expand workman's comp to migrant workers.

Popkey:He tried to get that done his first session in 95 and failed.

But the House defeated the bill by a large margin.

And then in December of that year before the 96 session, a farm worker working on a dairy in Malta lost both of his arms and a leg, working with a postal digger.

And Batt used that.

Barker:The legislature at that time was still primarily farmers, a lot of farmers, and they didn't want to do that.

And he, you know, he just kept pushing and pushing.

Popkey:For all his humility, he knew how to turn the knife and how to get someone to vote for something that was reluctant to do so.

Batt:I felt fairly strongly about that one.

I'd carried my own compensation for 40, 50 years, I don't know.

And it was a benefit not only to the worker but to the to the employer.

And because you're immune from lawsuits and it only makes good sense.

I made some, some of my farm friends very angry.

In fact, I think I lost friendship for a long period of time with some of ‘em.

The Hispanic population increase, which has been spectacular, is going to affect every facet of our life.

And I think I hope we do that with some aplomb and some understanding from everybody.

Barker:It was plain courage.

And he did it.

And then it became, you know, just the way he was.

Humanities and all kinds of actions that were, there were many people who did a lot, but Idaho's Too Great to Hate.

I see his face.

FranklinHe was involved in the very beginnings of the Commission on Human Rights.

He really worked hard for Idaho to adopt Martin Luther King Human Rights Day.

Russell:That's why we see the new Human Rights Education Center named the Philip E Batt Building here in Boise.

Popkey:He was a hard guy not to love.

I mean, he was just so humble, loving, kind, determined.

Kempthorne:When people describe Phil Batt, I never heard them use the term tall.

But we all did look up to him.

Russell:He's known for being small in stature, and I, too, am quite short.

And I remember walking down the stairs in the Capitol Rotunda with him and he turned to me and said, I like you Zeff, your short.

Risch:Phil loved his family.

He loved farming.

He loved to write, He loved music.

To our chagrin he also loved corny jokes.

Batt:There is a pear at the desk.

[Laughter] Barker:The first time I met Phil Batt was at the Idanha in the mid eighties, playing clarinet with Gene Harris, you know, wow!

Stiger:Phil Batt was very dear to me.

I've known him since I was a teenager and we always had our love of music and playing the clarinet in common.

Batt:Well, I never took myself very seriously.

I just, you know, music always helped me along in everything.

But most of my fun has been in music.

Malmen:One of the things I think people forget is the poem that he wrote wrote in honor of the deaths of those miners in in North Idaho that are etched into the statue.

Narrator:We waited in spirit at the mouth of the pit.

Ached in unison at the news of the dead.

Joined the jubilation at the rescue of living.

Marveled at the poise of the tiny community.

And we became strong.

The flux of the widow's tears welded your strength into our bodies.

And we were all Idahoans.

And we were all miners.

And we were all proud.

Malmen:What people are going to miss was kind of in this even handedness.

Was he a Republican?

Yes.

Was he over the top?

No.

I mean, he worked with Democrats.

Some of his best friends were Democrats.

And would they disagree on issues?

Yeah, but they didn't do it disagreeably.

Batt:an hardly talk about it without being emotional.

It's a tremendous honor for me to serve as governor and one in which I stand in wonderment all the time.

After all, I'm a man of fairly humble beginnings and education and it proves that anybody can do it.

Popkey:That humility and that connection with other people, I'm going to miss that.

Batt:It's a fact.

We only have so many years on this earth, and I know that eventually my time will come and I think that I should spend some time in retrospection, reflection.

Joining us today.

It is an honor to introduce Idaho's four governors, Governor Dirk Kempthorne, Senator Jim Risch, Governor Butch Otter and Governor Brad Little here to share their memories of Governor Phil Batt.

There was so much we weren't able to get to in the package about Governor Batt's life, you know, his his involvement with INL and, you know, his involvement with the Transportation Department.

But, Senator Risch, I wanted to start with you.

You served with Governor Batt in the Senate.

Do you have any memories or stories that you want to share?

>>I do.

Some I can tell, some I can't tell.

But look, Phil Batt was, above all, I think a fun guy, a fun guy to hang out with.

And I think like all of us, probably more so when he was younger.

But when I first got to the Senate, he was a majority leader and he ran for president pro tem against the then president pro tem and lost that race.

And so he sat in the background.

The leadership sits in the back row.

The freshmen sit in the front row.

I was in the front row on the front corner and and he was in the back row.

And we became good friends during that two years.

But then after the two years, the president pro tem didn't run.

So Phil moved up and then I moved up.

So we sat next to each other in the back row for the rest of his first time in the legislature.

So we when when the debate drags on, you wind up getting to know each other pretty well.

A lot of conversation takes place.

But but look this thing has been portrayed absolutely accurately.

Phil's first love was his family.

There's no question about it.

He really loved farming.

He didn't talk about that very much.

He really liked to write.

And all of us have received missiles from him from time to time.

Some very confidential sorts of things, and that others not so much.

And he loved and he loved music.

And like I said, yes, he loved corny jokes too much more.

So when he was when he was younger.

In fact, the first corny joke I remember him telling, I can't remember what the joke was, but I remember it bombed and we'd been the legislature was very different back then.

And this was in 19.

My first year was 1975, and we had been in session for about two weeks.

Now, today they have the legislators go to breakfasts, lunches and dinners and sometimes multiple times.

Well, back then it wasn't like that.

They didn't have all these dinners and what have you.

And in any event, he he made a joke about the fact that we'd been in town two weeks and the the entity that was holding the dinner, he was congratulating them for the first ones to finally feed the legislature.

Although we'd been there for two weeks, it it got the same reaction it got here just now.

So that was not uncommon.

>>Were you at the Yang Yee.

>>Yang Ching.

>>Yea.

>>Where did you have dinner?

At that Chinese place.

>>That was, Butch, you're talking 50 years ago.

I can't remember where the dinner was, you know, but it was.

I can remember.

I can remember the entity that had the dinner.

It was the Commission for the Blind and the Deaf, the dinner.

I think they hold one every year, have held one every year for a while.

>>They can be pretty long.

>>Yeah, they can be long.

>>Yen Ching is still there.

>>And Phil by the way, Phil was the masters.

They had asked Phil to be the master of ceremonies at this dinner, so I don't remember where it was.

>>I don't think I've ever eaten there.

>>It's delicious.

You're missing out.

Governor Kempthorne, What memories do you have of Governor Batt?

>>Well, picking up on what Senator Risch said.

First, I'm going to say he he totally, totally was devoted to his family.

I would be invited out to Wilder to their home.

Jackie would was great with the fried chicken.

It was always wonderful food.

But the kids I mean, Bill and Rebecca, Leslie, they.

And then, of course, the family grew.

But Phil was in his element there, and the family liked to laugh.

So during the campaign in 1982, I got the call to come on out to Wilder again.

And as I pulled in, no one was around.

And I walked up the drive and there was his car, which was now painted with bats on it.

>>The Batmobile.

>>The Batmobile.

And all the family members, including Phil, were hiding, watching my reaction.

So I said, No, I think it's great.

You know, anything that raises the profile and the visibility of the candidate.

He also loved music and well I'll tell ya, those of us had had the great joy of going to the Idanha Hotel and Peter Shots.

And that's where Gene Harris would be playing.

Gene Harris was a world renowned jazz pianist, and Phil loved playing with him.

They loved one another.

And again, that's when I saw the joy in the eyes of Phil Bat.

Curtis Stigers.

He would play with Curtis Stigers.

For his inauguration when he became governor, his his one one of the wishes he had was that Chet Atkins would come to the inaugural and do something at the ball.

He did.

And then again, Phil Batt joined Chet Atkins on stage.

Mark Dunn, a great buddy of Phil's, brought in Chet Atkins.

So Phil was a world class player, but also player by music.

But also if school kids school bands would come in, the governor would get the clarinet out also.

>>And he was genuinely good, too.

I saw videos of him.

We we had some earlier in the show.

He was genuinely good.

>>He was very good.

Very, very good.

And loved playing.

>>Governor Otter, what memories do you have of Governor Batt?

>>Well, first off, rather than repeat everything that Jim and Dirk have said, I agree with everything they said.

And I could I could go on and on and on about that forever.

But there their comments about the music I thought was was great because he was really in his element when he was playing music.

And we would go out during campaigns, we would go out to senior citizen centers, me with my guitar and of course him with tootin that horn and we'd go to schools.

There was a lot of places that we would go, and he always would comment later on, you're no Chet Atkins.

>>Oh.

>>And, I figured that was a compliment because he was making he was making the comparison.

>>And you told him he was no Pete Fong?

>>No, no, I didn't.

But I'll tell you what I saw yesterday.

One of the most tender moments in that whole deal yesterday.

>>When he was lying in state.

>>When he was lying in state.

Was when that guy played that song on that clarinet.

>>This was the song that Governor Batt wrote.

>>Yeah.

>>Yes, yes.

>>And >>But it was haunting.

You know, the clarinet is kind of a haunting instrument anyway.

And and it just sucks the tenderness out of you because it's so mellow and yet very distinct.

And so, you know, he picked for Phil Batt's character.

He picked the right instrument to play.

>>It was a it was a gorgeous, gorgeous performance.

>>But I got a lot of other memories.

>>Feel free to share em.

It's just between us.

Between us.

>>Brad's turn.

>>What do you remember of Governor Batt?

>>He was really a tightwad and he was he was a fiscal conservative from the get go when he took over the governor's office.

You know, and it was a what we in our business call a hostile takeover.

It was after 24 years of Democrats, it was Republicans.

But every agency had, every legislator, everything.

As we got to lower the trajectory of the cost of government moratorium on hiring new people.

And he was that way about state government, but he's also that way about local government.

And for these three that served in Congress, every time they voted for a bill that cost too much money, they perhaps maybe got a phone call.

>>I've heard of some of these legendary phone calls and man.

>>But he I mean, he was truly, you know, people that don't think he wasn't a a conservative.

And I think he was also a conservative from the kind of the human rights side.

You know, Lincoln was famous because he wanted everybody to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

And Phil thought it was unfair for certain people in certain places because of their lot in life to not have an opportunity.

And he wanted that trajectory in the economy and government, not to stifle it.

He cut taxes, he cut spending, he cut state employees and anybody that cast him as anything other than a but I remember talking to him about early childhood development and this is before we did kindergarten and some of the other things.

And I remember goes, Damn it, Brad, those little kids, when they're four and five, their brains are developing.

I don't want to spend any money, but we got to do this is the right thing to do.

>>I want to >>You know, I was in the office when I was on his transition team, when when he became governor.

And I was there when he got his first cell phone.

He didn't think that a cell phone was a good idea to begin with.

Okay.

But anyway, the next morning he shows up and this thing isn't working anymore, and I said, well, did you charge it?

He said charge it.

You've got to charge this every night.

Yeah, I don't want this thing, you know, And he gave it back to he didn't like it anyway because they were spend money on a cell phone.

>>Along those lines.

You know, he wasn't just a fiscal conservative when it came to government.

It was also in his own personal life, too.

And you had put together a proclamation for his birthday, March 4th.

Phil Batt Old Geezer Tightwad Day, I just want you to walk us through some of the parts of this proclamation.

>>Well, I mean, Saturday was his birthday and it was Idaho Day and I had capital for a day.

And so I. Kelly Stasky of my staff.

I said I just gave her a couple of ideas.

I says, let's write up a proclamation.

I'll give it to Phil and Francine the next day.

And then, of course, I was at the prayer breakfast and I got the call that he'd passed away.

And so I went to we had the birthday party for him anyway, and I kind of approached Franci about it.

She says, Oh no, read it.

And you know, it was a sad event.

All the all of his old staff and and a few of us were there and and but the family brought it to the to the in state ceremony yesterday.

But it you know, it just talked about, you know, he he got rid of Ceic's Cadillac and was driving a Ford Taurus and it just all of those are doesn't don't surprise any of us about you know there'd be some proposal to do something in the capital today.

Oh I think it's too damn much money.

And and I remember when they tried to pass a bond in Wilder, he and I were going back and forth about what plurality we need to pass a bond.

And he was almost convinced to lower the plurality and then in Wilder he said, Oh, that was too fancy a school.

They lowered the costs of school and passed and says, No, don't, don't mess with that Brad.

So but he really was a conservative.

But he was I mean, the word compassionate conservative should have been invented for for Phil Batt.

>>I want to ask how his mentorship affected your leadership style and your you served immediately after Governor Batt and you knew him very well.

How did the lessons that you learned from him impact your leadership?

uld guess I'd say two quick things.

One, I would I would be taken to the woodshed at least once a week.

And as these gentlemen will attest.

>>Only once a week?

>>I mean, he could just take the bark right off of you.

I mean, he just.

But you talk about his writing, you'd probably get a little note later in the day.

He had had remorse and was sorry about what had happened.

>>Sometimes.

>>So so that that taught me to develop the poker face later when I became governor.

So that when you're dealing with some tough issues, you can just have the right face for it.

The other the other example I would give is his compassion for the people.

I'll always remember I was in the US Senate at the time, but we were having terrible floods up north.

We were in Orofino and I was with Governor Batt.

The clear water was just raging and here was the major bridge to Orofino and on the banks was a very nice home, but it was going to be taken off its foundation ultimately by the floods and if it were allowed to go, it would take the bridge up.

So Phil was standing with the family that owned that home.

He consoled them, but then gave the order to the guard, the National Guard, take it down.

You talk about his heart being in the right place, standing with the people.

He was always up front, but knowing how to make the tough decisions.

>>Right.

>>Well, you know, first of all, governing is not something that you're the ability to govern the the understanding of governance.

That's not something you're born with.

And generally they don't teach it anywhere that I know the civics classes, what have you.

So when you're elected to public office, you have grand visions of the kinds of things that you want to do.

And and so you have to make a decision, you know what?

What is the proper role of government?

That is, do you want to be all encompassing and take care of every problem that comes down the pike and try to be everybody's friend and create new programs and what have you?

Or do you believe that government should do only what folks can't do for themselves?

And that's a spectrum and everybody lies on that spectrum somewhere.

And so when I when I came to the Senate, I spent two terms as a county prosecuting attorney.

But it was a legal position, not a governing position.

You weren't making the executive decisions as to what you should do or or how to go about it or that sort of thing.

So when you when you come to the legislature, which by the way, is a great schooling place to learn how to govern, if you watch and listen to people who've done it for a while.

Phil Phil, had by the time I got there, I mean, he had this down.

This guy was a master at governing and, and he had the innate ability to listen to a problem and knew exactly where, where it, where it fell on what we should or shouldn't be doing about it.

And I think that's probably something I mean, I got that from him very, very early on and it still informs every decision I make today, probably more subconsciously than anything else.

But but it's you, you, you either develop that yourself, which most people don't, or you pick up pieces of it from from other people.

For me, and I suspect for the other guys sitting at this table, Phil was a tremendous influence in that regard.

>>Governor Otter >>Well, I have to go back much further than when I first started serving with Phil.

I was just out of active duty with the military.

I just got home from Fort Knox, Kentucky, and a good friend of mine, Dean Summers, was the chairman of the attache committee.

So he came to me and he said, Butch, would you like to be the assistant secretary and parliamentarian of the Senate?

And I said, Yeah, I thought that would be great experience.

And I said, Yeah, I'd love to.

And that was my first introduction to Phil.

And that quick mind.

Phil was a student, if not maybe the author under an assumed name of the one minute manager.

If you had a problem, if you had an issue that you wanted to go in and talk to Phil about, you went into the elevator and practiced going from floor 1 to floor 3.

And if you couldn't say it in that time, Phil wasn't going to listen to it.

>>I believe it >>Yeah.

You know, there were times when I'd walk in and he knew exactly why I was coming, and he'd say, Hi, Butch, thanks for coming and the meeting was over.

>>He did.

>>By the way, I'll send you a note.

>>He did that when you and I went and saw him in the hospital.

What are you guys doing here?

Well, nice to see you.

>>He did that when I went and saw him in Arizona, We when he ended up in the hospital in or not in Arizona, California.

He and Fran were on a trip down there and he got sick, ended up in Betty Ford's hospital or one right next to it anyway.

And I walked in with Ron Vanocur because that's who Miss Lori and I were staying down there with.

And we walked in and he said, What are you guys doing here?

Didn't even say hi.

>>He was very impatient with things he didn't like.

He was and people who weren't who weren't very good at doing things.

He he just he had no patience there at all.

You know, he he wanted to get from point A to point B and not make a lot of stops along the way.

>>What kind of lessons did you take from Governor Batt?

>>Well, I mean, obviously getting things done on a expedited basis, like I talked about yesterday, he fixed the computer system at Health and Welfare for Cecil Andrus, his predecessor, Andrus just asked him to do it.

He went around and did all the work.

The state pension fund that all of us in this room are going to enjoy.

He fixed it.

Jody Olson said >>And nobody knows it.

He doesn't get credit.

>>Yeah, he doesn't get credit for it.

>>That was a huge that was a huge thing.

>>Al Winkel said that he asked the toughest questions of any board member or any governor about what do we need to do to make sure that the politicians don't dabble in PERCI to their benefit or for for votes and that the long term sustainability.

So every local, every every local government, every teacher, every state employee will reap the benefits of Phil's hard work.

But I do have to say one thing.

You know, Phil, Phil's had some health issues in the last few years.

Francie added years and years onto his life, his love for Francie.

I remember that wedding.

He, Phil and all of us were Republicans.

But Francie's brother was a Democrat serving in the state Senate.

>>Terry Riley >>Yeah, yeah.

And I remember going to Phil's reception at Al Henderson's place where we'd all had events and there were Hillary Clinton stickers there, and I go, Phil, what's the deal with all these Hillary Clinton bumper stickers?

But it was it was Terry and but Francie absolutely Phil was so happy when he when he and Francie were together.

They had this connection, music, incredible connection that Francie absolutely saved Phil's life because he had you know, he he had a back fracture.

He had some other things.

Francie took care of him, and and and he needed that.

>>She's she's a lovely woman We >>Can I add one more thing?

>>Absolutely, please.

>>So I knew what that wedding meant for Phil.

Brad is absolutely correct.

It gave him new life.

And so my gift to them was I wrote a note and said, I'm overseas.

I have been in France.

I said, I've lighted a candle for you at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

And whenever I'm in a church that has candles, I will light a candle for you.

And Francie came up and gave me a hug yesterday saying how much that meant to her.

>>That's so lovely.

That's what we only have a few minutes left.

But I wanted to ask you just briefly, what are you going to miss most about Governor Batt?

>>Well, you know, he he's one of those people that he was always there.

You know, you didn't see him every day.

You didn't talk to him every day, but he was always there.

I don't think there's anybody at this table that hasn't made lots of calls to Phil over the years.

And say, hey, this is this is what we got.

This is what I'm thinking.

What do you think?

And all all of us stood shoulder to shoulder, obviously, on the on the agreement to clean up INL.

Nobody put a finger on INL without calling Phil Batt and saying, hey, this is this is what we're thinking of doing.

What Where do you want to go?

But I think that's that's what I'll miss and probably miss it the first time.

I think, you know, I had to run this I'd like to run this by Phil, and he's not there to run it by.

>>Governor Kempthorne.

>>The fact that you have four governors sitting here, three former one incumbent, but they're all friends and a common thread was Phil Batt.

And yesterday, when each of us spoke, perhaps the first time I've experienced it, all four of us were choked up.

That's what he meant to us.

And he gave us so many positive examples and one of those is the fact that this friendship can go on.

And I appreciate Phil for that.

>>And the weld is Phil Batt.

Phil, had a great attitude.

In fact, it remind me he didn't say it exactly this way, but I interpreted it that way that with your enemies and those people that you sometimes disagree with, they need love the most when they appear to deserve it the least.

And that's why whenever you got to whenever you got a chewing out by Phil Batt it was a note or it was a phone call or it was a knock on your office door.

Say, you know, maybe I was a little hasty.

Let's talk a little bit more about this, and then you could get into some some serious understanding of Phil Batt, the man.

>>Governor Little.

>>Well, he he really kind of epitomized our job about not getting too full of yourself.

Don't take yourself too serious.

You go around everybody.

Oh, Governor, this governor that.

Phil would make you humble real fast.

>>Yeah.

>>And he he and and I think it's what people in Idaho expect of their governors and their governance that we that we still have that connection which he always did you know kids people far remote from Boise Idaho other people that would came in he he never was big on going to national meetings you want to stay right here in Idaho and do his job.

Don't get too full of yourself.

And I know that's what the people of Idaho want.

>>Alright.

Well, I want to thank all four of you for joining there for for joining us to remember Governor Batt.

Governor Brad Little, Governor Butch Otter, and Governor Dirk Kempthorne and Senator Jim Risch.

>>Let me say just one final thing.

And and I run this at the risk.

I do this at the risk of if Phil was here, I'd be I'd get chewed out for it.

>>I believe it.

>>But Phil was my kind of RINO.

He was a rational individual with noble objectives.

And that was the Phil Batt I knew.

>>Well, we'll have you back to talk about that later governor Otter.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

And thank you for watching.

We'll see you next week.

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