Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Stennett mounts up for Fourth parade

Senator continues to fight cancer, feeling positive

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By EXPRESS STAFF
Express Staff Writer

Riding high: Idaho Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett is looking good and feeling good after undergoing brain surgery last winter to have a brain tumor removed. He continues with orally-administered chemotheraphy, but has completed radiation treatments. Photo by Willy Cook

Idaho Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum, is continuing to recover following removal of a brain tumor last February and winter- and spring-long radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

He rode in the Fourth of July parade in Hailey and is enjoying evening walks with his wife, Michelle.

Stennett, diagnosed Jan. 24, received radiation treatments at Mountain States Tumor Institute in Boise. He is continuing to take orally-administered chemotherapy on a monthly basis. He also participated in an experimental program at University of California San Francisco in which he took a drug called Enzastaurin, designed to enhance the efficacy of traditional treatments.

Despite the battle and rigors of cancer treatment, Stennett worked throughout the winter legislative session in Boise and filed last spring to run for his Senate seat again this fall. He is the longest serving minority leader in Idaho's history.

Stennett made his pre-political career as owner of an array of Wood River Valley media outlets. He was elected to the Idaho House of Representatives in 1990. He served in the House for four years before being elected to the Senate. Of his 14 years in the Senate, 10 have been as minority leader.

At the age of 28, he convened a group of investors to buy the Wood River Journal. His share of the investment was $6,000, "which was my total net worth." After buying out his partners, he sold the newspaper three years later, buying television station KSVT the same year. Along the way he bought radio station KSKI, which he owned for about five years.