Yesterday I went to lunch with Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID). My brother-in-law Steve works at his Pocatello office. Steve called me up the other day to ask if I would be willing to join his boss and him for lunch while he was in town. I just couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to go to lunch with a US Representative.

Simpson has a pretty interesting story. He went to college at Utah State and left before graduating to go to dental school. After practicing as a dentist in Blackfoot, Idaho for a few years he decided to run for the Blackfoot City Council. The day of the deadline, only one person had submitted their name to run, and there were two seats open. That same day several other people submitted their names as well. It ended up being a six person race for two seats. He said that one of the candidates had served on the city council for years and was highly favored to retain his seat, essentially making it a five person race for one seat. The long-time incumbent did in fact retain his seat by a large margin. Simpson came in second with 1016 votes, securing the other seat. The third place candidate received 1008 votes. Simpson won by just eight votes. Well eventually he decided to run for the Idaho State House of Representatives winning and serving as Speaker of the House. After some time, a seat in the US House opened up as Rep. Crapo decided to run for Senate. He has now been in the House of Representatives for 9 years.

He told a pretty funny story about his wife Kathy. Apparently, he did not like going out to choose a gift for his wife. So one Christmas he suggested that he purchase a gift for himself and that she purchase one for herself and they could just exchange cards. He went out and bought a new TaylorMade driver. His wife bought a Porsche Boxster! The next year he bought her a Christmas present.

Although I don’t agree with Simpson on some issues, it was cool to go to lunch with somebody from congress. It was especially cool for all of the US taxpayers to pay for my lunch!