Many traditional Idaho Republicans are getting scared. 

They are smart enough to know that anything can happen in an election, and not to take anyone's emminent victory for granted.

On February 29,  I reported here on the JHub about my meeting with Scott Syme, who not only has the right stuff to beat Jim Risch, but he is clearly the best candidate.

Since then, a strange thing has happended.

Things have gotten even better.

"The Republican race for U.S. Senate has the look of Lt. Gov. Jim Risch and the Seven Also-Rans. But there's one candidate attempting the upset with real promise," writes Dan Popkey in a recent Idaho Statesman column. "Army Reserve Col. Scott Syme helped plan reconstruction in Iraq and returned in 2005 feeling a duty to mend America's fractured politics."

"Syme, outfunded 25 to 1, ignored advice to make a more modest start - say, running for the Legislature or local office," Popkey said.

"I wouldn't have done anybody any good at those levels," said Syme, a Weiser native who sells real estate in Canyon County and still holds the shotput record at The College of Idaho. "At this point in history, I felt I had to come back and serve because we need somebody with my experience."

Popkey wrote that those words may read like the utterance of an out-of-control egotist. But Syme seems a genuinely modest man who feels compelled to contribute to a more successful foreign policy and easing partisanship. "I didn't know what I was getting into, but I just didn't really feel I had a choice," he said. "I really had to do this right now."

In my previous JHUb post:

-- I spoke about how  I had the privilege of an extended discussion with Syme at his real estate office in Caldwell.  I also was able to talk extensively about Idaho and national politics with some of his campaign staffers, including Natalie Wallace and Kathleen Pulliam-Jordan.

I reflected on how a record number of people now getting involved in the political process, as we had a chance to break bread with Syme's wife and family, I wrote.

The first thing that attracted me to this cause is the fact that Syme is running a true grassroots campaign. The people around him don't owe their lives to the government because of political positions.

I continued: 

Syme is not an insider in the Republican Party, and as is consistent with the current national wave, he is committed to bringing new ideas and true leadership to Washington. Syme is working to be an antidote to the entrenched interests that Americans are now disgusted with.

For example, "first and foremost we must secure our borders," Syme says. "Then we must provide employers with the tools to easily verify the status of employees. We must enforce the law, but at the same time streamline the process of legal immigration to welcome law-abiding immigrants."

*****

UPDATE: I ran into Syme about a week ago while standing in front of my house with my three daughters, my wife, and some neighbors. Syme was around town doing a literature drop.

That interaction reminded me of how I got the same impression of him as Popkey did.

As the columnist wrote,  Scott Syme is in fact "a genuinely modest man who feels compelled to contribute to a more successful foreign policy and easing partisanship." 

I have also had some great conversations with his wife Patty. Certain other candidates in this election are culturally tone-deaf, but she is as in-touch as one can be on diversity issues and why they are important.

It was heartwarming to chat with Patty during a recent Nampa Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

*****

This candidate is for real.

"He has an internal energy," said Scott Short, another Army colonel, who met Syme in the Reserves in 1993. "He sees it as a calling."

Syme is driven by a conviction he could contribute to the national debate on finishing the job in Iraq. "It is so important to get this right," Syme said.

In its endorsement of Risch this week, the Idaho Statesman went as far as to hedge its bets around Syme:

" The conventional wisdom holds that Risch is facing seven unknown GOP lightweights," the Statesman editorial board wrote.

"This perception gives short shrift to Scott Syme of Wilder, an impressive, eloquent Iraq War veteran. His international experience and global perspective trump Risch, who has built a resume exclusively in state politics. Syme's stated goal - focusing first on constituent service - is practical for a new senator who might well be serving in the minority caucus."

Electing Risch, one of Idaho's most powerful men for 30 years, won't shake up Washington as it needs shaking, Syme said. "Fundamental change is sending someone to Congress who has a new perspective and looks at things in a different light than people who spend their careers as politicians."

According to the Idaho Statesman, Syme got involved in GOP politics only after returning from Iraq in 2005. Canyon County Commissioner Dave Ferdinand has known Syme and his wife, Patty, for years. He helped introduce Syme around as Syme considered running for the U.S. House in western Idaho's 1st District in 2006.

"Scott's gutsy to be taking on this campaign right out of the chute," Ferdinand said. "Bless his heart, he wants to put his hat in the ring and go for it."

One of Syme's key supporters is Don Brandt, who employed Syme as a real estate broker for a decade at the Brandt Agency and admires Syme's pluck. "Beating Risch is probably an impossibility," he said, "but then, Scott feels a strong calling to do this, and there are certainly a lot of people who are not Jim Risch fans."

Is there enough of a groundswell of support for Syme to close this deal?

Popkey says that Syme's level of support is unclear.  However, if Syme can finish second, he will be a strong prospect for future races. "I think it's a great opportunity for him," Ferdinand said. "If you can campaign against Jim Risch, then any time you run for something else you certainly have learned in the trenches."

Syme dismisses the theory that he's running now so he can run again later as the predictable reaction of party insiders. "I'm not in it for that, OK? Either we'll win or we won't."

I am always reminded that a player can't win if he is not in the game. And the one who wins at the end is always someone who thought he could.

Strange things happen in politics every day. Not too long ago, wasn't Larry Craig supposed to be a shoe-in for this election?

Experts have said that an outsider has a shot if he can find a way to make the media listen. Thus, Jim Risch is not unbeatable.

Scott Syme can win.

Take a serious look at this alternative candidate. The campaign's website is www.symeforsenate.com