State Rep. Luke Malek has taken one step closer to running for Congress.
On Monday, the attorney and Coeur d’Alene Republican filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission.
Malek will join an ever-growing field for the open race in Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, which stretches from the Owyhee Canyonlands to the Canadian border.
Malek is serving his third term in the Legislature. His committee assignments include a seat on the Legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee. In 2015, he served on a legislative interim committee that studied the state’s broadband issues, in the aftermath of the Idaho Education Network contract meltdown.
Malek’s paperwork filing is not a big surprise; he has been publicly mulling a run for Congress since June.
Three other Republicans are already in the running: former state Sen. Russ Fulcher of Meridian; former lieutenant governor and attorney general David Leroy of Boise; and Michael Snyder of Bonners Ferry. Two Democrats have filed for the race as well: Donald Roy Miller of Meridian and Michael William Smith of Post Falls.
The 1st District race is open because incumbent Republican Rep. Raul Labrador is running for governor.
