How a Malad banker became the second Latter-day Saint Democrat to serve as Idaho’s governor
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Editor’s note: This is the eighth in a series of stories about former Gem State governors from eastern Idaho. Read more here.
IDAHO FALLS – John Victor Evans was Idaho’s second Democratic governor in 30 years when he took office in 1977.
His predecessor, Cecil Andrus, had earned the majority vote over the Republican incumbent, Don Samuelson, in the 1970 election. His victory was due, in large part, to his stance on environmental issues. Two years before, a New York-based company had filed a mining claim in the White Clouds area of what is now Sawtooth National Park. Large amounts of molybdenum, an alloy used to strengthen steel, had been discovered, according to emeritus University of Idaho professor Katherine Aiken. The company wanted to build an access road to begin mining operations.
The project was met with setbacks early on. Some were concerned about its impact on the environment and the U.S. Forest Service held a public hearing on the matter.
As Aiken explains in the book “Idaho’s Governors,” Samuelson’s views on the issue placed him “at the center of the controversy.”
“They aren’t going to tear down mountains. They are going to dig a hole,” Samuelson is reported to have said.
The company had filed a legal claim, as far as Samuelson was concerned, and he “took the Forest Service to task” for delaying the project.
The dispute gained nationwide attention and Andrus made it a major campaign issue. Samuelson’s attempts to paint himself as a supporter of the environment because of his long participation in outdoor recreational activities were unsuccessful, Aiken writes. Andrus ended up winning a slim 52% majority in the election, and began a 24-year period of Democratic leadership in Idaho.
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Three years into Andrus’s second term, President Jimmy Carter appointed him the secretary of Interior. Evans, who was serving as lieutenant governor at the time, was now being called upon to finish the remainder of Andrus’s term. He later earned the support of voters on his own merits for two more terms. (Andrus successfully ran for governor again in 1987 and served another two terms. He left office in 1995.)
Evans, a 52-year-old Malad native, had a long history in Idaho politics when he was sworn in as Idaho’s 27th governor. He’d served numerous times as a state senator and six years as the mayor of Malad. He was the state’s second Latter-day Saint to serve as governor and had a master’s degree in business and economics.
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Despite his education and credentials as a banker (his grandfather is the founder of D.L. Evans Bank), his efforts in leading the state through a turbulent time were not popular, according to an essay by Keith Petersen. He points out that each of the 10 Legislative sessions Evans was part of were contentious and “stormy.”
Highlights of Evans’ administration
With the environment and natural resources being the focus of Andrus’s campaign, Evans aimed to continue his predecessor’s agenda. But unlike Andrus, who got along with members of the GOP, Evans did not. There were many issues on which he would not compromise, Petersen writes, and “he took pleasure in the political frays.” Many of his programs did not pass, as a result.
The 1970s was an unstable time for people living in the Gem State. In 1977, when Evans took office, Idaho was in the middle of a drought. Petersen reports “it was one of the driest years in the West, with minimal snowpack in winter and bone-dry reservoirs by mid-summer.”
“It was an emergency and Evans handled the situation about as well as any governor,” Petersen writes.
In addition to creating a drought task force and acquiring $250,000 in drought relief funds, Evans reportedly shut down air-conditioning and watering of state offices.
On top of that, it was a recessionary period of budget deficits, which presented challenges across the board. Education suffered, as did State Parks.
Evans’s solution was to boost taxes. He lobbied hard for a Department of Commerce to promote tourism, which replaced mining as Idaho’s third largest industry under Evans’s administration. Not only was the department created, but Petersen says it also led to the formation of the Idaho Travel Council and a 2% lodging tax.
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“It worked out beautifully,” Evans said to Petersen years ago. “It provided a resource of monies for the Division of Economic and Community Affairs and the Department of Commerce during most of my administration.”
Evans was also instrumental in resolving a dispute over water rights. Idaho Power customers filed a lawsuit against the company in 1977, claiming it had failed to “adequately protect its water rights for hydropower generation at the Swan Falls Dam” near Mountain Home. The Supreme Court ruled in their favor in 1982, according to the lawsuit, and the power company retaliated, “seeking curtailment of those rights based on their junior priority relative to the company’s hydropower rights.”
With the help of Governor Evans and then Attorney General Jim Jones, the parties negotiated a settlement.
“(It) established minimum flow for power generation and required a basin wide adjudication of the Snake River Water Rights,” Evans’s obituary from Summers Funeral Home in Boise says.
In May 1981, the Lewiston Tribune reported Evans’s son, John Jr., was the victim of a foiled kidnapping plot in Burley. His son’s wife, Karen, is credited with saving the day. Authorities did not specify a motive, but Governor Evans assumed at the time it had something to do with his son being the manager at D.L. Evans Bank.
Another major topic for Evans was right-to-work, legislation which prohibits any type of union membership requirement as a condition for employment. Evans opposed this law because he felt there was a place for labor unions. Employees should pay the fees to get the benefits, he said.
Voters, however, did not agree, and the right-to-work bill eventually became law.
Petersen says the passage of this particular bill “best depicts” the legacy of Evans’ administration.
“The trials of a Democratic governor attempting to work with a dominant conservative Republican legislature and Congressional delegation,” Petersen writes in summary.
Evans’ life post-governor
In 1987, after 10 years in office, Governor Evans decided against seeking re-election. Instead, he decided to challenge Republican Steve Symms for U.S. Senate. Although he came within a few thousand votes of winning, he ultimately lost.
Choosing to retire from public service, he returned to Burley and resumed work in the family business at D.L. Evans Bank.
“He said, ‘I’ve been mayor, I’ve been lieutenant governor, and I’ve been governor,'” recalled John Evans Jr. “One thing I haven’t been is president.”
He served as the bank’s president for the rest of his life and over the years, it grew to become “Idaho’s largest locally-owned bank,” according to an Idaho Press column.
Evans was 89 when he passed away on July 8, 2014. The cause of death is unclear, but his wife, Lola, died less than a year later at her home in Boise.
“Having had the good fortune to serve under Governor Evans, I got to know him as a sincere professional who understood the cost of success and took seriously his responsibilities as Idaho’s chief executive,” former Governor Butch Otter told the Spokesman-Review shortly after Evans’ death. “He always had the best of intentions and was earnest in his love of Idaho.”
“He was a great leader in the state and a great leader at our bank,” John Jr. added.
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