BOISE, IDAHO --
These days, the land at the south end of Cloverdale is used for the City of Boise's waste water treatment plant. Years ago, long before he went into politics, Bill Sali leased the land from Col. Robert DeShazo, a longtime Republican, who his family says would regret the deal for the rest of his life.
In a contract signed by Sali himself, he agreed to pay DeShazo more than $15,000 to lease the land and some farming equipment in the spring of 1977. But it's money the DeShazo family says they never received.
Instead, the DeShazos received checks, one for $10,000 and one for $5,500. Both bounced.
"My parents kept on trying to get those checks to clear and they just wouldn't," said Marianne DeShazo, estate executor. If Sali didn't pay, he was to hand over his crops, but Marianne DeShazo says a bank took them over to pay off Sali's other debts. Marianne says Sali didn't maintain the farming equipment or pay for the utilities he used, both things also required in the contract.
She says her father, a retired colonel and a lifelong Republican, went to his grave feeling duped. It even strained his some of his relationships with close friends and associates because he continued to talk about how Sali had treated him.
"We believe the citizens of Idaho have the right to know the way he really is," Marianne DeShazo said.
Today's 6 tried to contact Congressman Sali twice, but he is campaigning in north Idaho and is unavailable for comment. His spokesman, Wayne Hoffman, says the farming business called Triticale Breeders was Sali's father's, and that Bill was simply a 23-year-old farm hand, even though his is the only name on both the contract and the checks.
"His dad allowed him to sign some checks and work the farm. That was about it," Hoffman said.
Hoffman certainly questions the timing of the DeShazo's going public.
"No one has ever raised this, no one has ever questioned it. We've never had this raised at all, except five days before the 2008 election," Hoffman said. Marianne DeShazo says part of the reason for the timing is because once she and her family decided to go public, they had a hard time digging up old documents. She found the bad checks earlier this week.
That's whe she and other members of the family, all Republicans, sent a press release to the media and Sali's opponent's campaign. She says it is not because she supports Walt Minnick, but because she cannot support Bill Sali and holds him accountable for what happened even decades later. "I wanted to put a sign on our property, but I don't think there are any signs out there that have Sali with a circle and a cross through it," she said. Hoffman says regardless of what happened 30 years ago, Sali is the better friend of the farmer on election day.
"Bill's been a big supporter of farms. He's worked on a farm, he's been very helpful to Idaho agriculture. It's why he has the support of so many farmers," Hoffman said.
Marianne says she's tired of hearing Sali talk about his support of Idaho's farming families, and feels taken advanage of. "This is one farm family he did not support," she said.
Her father, Col. Robert DeShazo, passed away in 2001.
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