W. LANE STARTIN
DEMOCRAT FOR IDAHO GOVERNOR
2010 Exploratory Site

About

 

About W. Lane Startin

A self-described "small-L libertarian Western Democrat," Wesley Lane Startin was born in Coeur d'Alene on 15 July 1973 and adopted at three weeks of age. After attending private and later public schools in Twin Falls, Lane received his degree in mass communication from Idaho State University in Pocatello in 1996. At Idaho State Lane was an award-winning journalist and the owner/editor of an independent campus newspaper.

Not quite 17 years old, during the 1990 session of Idaho Boys State Lane became involved in the re-election campaign of then-governor and former Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus. The next year as a college freshman Lane became president of the Idaho State University Young Democrats. Beginning in 1993 Lane authored a popular op-ed column in the ISU student newspaper. In June 1994 Lane was elected to a two-year term as state president of Young Democrats and consequently became the youngest person on the state party executive committee in many years. Lane was asked to run for Idaho Legislature as a Democrat from Twin Falls County that year but ultimately decided against it in favor of finishing his education.

After graduation Lane moved to Chicago and later Philadelphia, where for the first time he experienced the realities of big-city life, its challenges and the important issues it shares with many rural areas, such as lack of economic diversification, substandard educational systems and environmental concerns. In Philadelphia, Lane was an editor for a small publishing house and helped produce titles on a wide variety of subjects, culminating in former Nevada congressional and lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Jessi Winchester's autobiography, From Bordello to Ballot Box, in which he received cover editorial credit.

In the meantime, Lane became disenchanted with the Democratic Party and its ever-increasing tendency to sacrifice principle for polling on both the national and state levels. By 1999 Lane had disassociated himself with the Democrats and actively sought a new political home. Expressing a desire to return to the West and pursue a career in computers, late in 2000 Lane moved to Las Vegas. In 2002, Lane was the Green Party nominee for United States House of Representatives in the Nevada 1st District, but returned to the Democratic Party shortly after the campaign, disillusioned with the left-wing fundamentalism he found pervasive in the Green Party organization.

Lane returned to Idaho in 2005. He is married to Amber J. Schneiter-Startin and has a daughter, Evelyn. He is an active Freemason and member of Mensa. He is also currently state chair for Idaho for the Democratic Freedom Caucus, and serves on its national committee.