Republican gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell said Tuesday that he believes GOP Gov. Butch Otter aims to "destroy" him for challenging him in the 2010 governor's race.
Rammell said his attorney, John Runft of Boise, told him on the morning of his May announcement as a candidate that he'd been threatened by an anonymous person.
Rammell said Runft told him, "If you run to be the governor of Idaho, these guys are going to destroy you." Rammell said the threat promised "they would hold nothing back to destroy me."
Runft suggested Rammell rethink his decision to run but would not tell him who made the threat, Rammell said. "I'm assuming it was Otter's office," Rammell said.
But Runft said he did not use the word "destroy" or imply the involvement of Otter or anyone else by name. "If there was any threat like that I'd report it to the police," Runft said. "I mean, come on. This is absurd."
Instead, Runft said, he advised his client his chances of winning a Republican primary were slim because Rammell left the GOP in 2008 to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent. Returning to the party for the 2010 election would not be well received, Runft said he told Rammell.
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