2006 Dan Adamson for Governor Campaign
Plans for a Better Idaho

 

 

NOTE: The website was originally create for Dan Adamson for Governor Campaign during the 2006 Republican Idaho Primary. Dan Adamson came in second in the primary with 21% of the vote. C.L. "Butch" Otter won the Republican 2006 Idaho Primary and went on to win the Governor's seat. I covered this primary traveling around Idaho with both Dan Adamson and C.L. "Butch" Otter. After Butch won the Republican primary I followed not only his campaign team but also the other three candidates. The election was not without controversy, but many days were long with little happening. I often would roll into my room at some nondescript motel and go online to read about the campaign's progress. The winters here can be brutal, and in some motels, the heat does not compensate so before I hit the road, I purchased a hooded North Face jacket which I often wore indoors! This jacket saved my hide on many occasions and every time I wear it I'm reminded how simple things can have huge impacts - like campaigns!

Getting back to the candidates: I admit I always had a soft spot for Dan Adamson and his platform. When I discovered that this domain had expired I decided to purchase with the goal of recreating the original site with archived 2006 content, as well as additional information regarding Dan Adamson.

2006 Republican Idaho Primary for Governor

Undecided about the IDAHO GOVERNOR Race?

DAN ADAMSON is the Best Choice on the Republican ticket

Dan Adamson for Governor Campaign: His Plans for a Better Idaho

  • A plan to spark better prices for farm products
  • Free enterprise zones would produce strong communities across Idaho
  • A simple plan to add millions to the education budget
  • Our children need more knowledge of religion and family values
  • Busting Idaho Power’s monopoly
  • Let’s consider an unborn child’s rights
  • A free offer to people who vote on May 23

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Dan Adamson for Idaho Governor

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I'm  Dan Adamson, and I think I’m the best Republican candidate for Idaho’ governor.

  1. I pledge to work for all Idaho’s citizens and not pander to big business interests.
  2. I pledge to make Idaho’s education system one of the best in the nation so our children can  have great careers and successful lives.
  3. I pledge to remove all school funding from Idaho property taxes.
  4. I pledge to fix the Idaho Department of Fish and Game so it better serves anglers and  hunters.
  5. I pledge to never allow Idaho’s public land to be sold off.
  6. I pledge to bring Free Enterprise Zones to Idaho with good paying jobs leading to a solid  economy. 
  7. I pledge to make Idaho’s tourism industry thrive. I want the world to know that Idaho is  the most beautiful place in the world.
  8. I pledge to work toward removing one of Idaho’s strongest political lobbies: Idaho Power,  a monopoly that undermines most policies regarding water policy and water  rights. Idaho must legally return a substantial portion of its most valuable  resource, water, to its citizens.
  9. I pledge to engage the brain trust of Idaho farmers to expand food exports. Our farmers are an untapped resource of innovation who have largely been unheard and  unappreciated by Idaho government.

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Vote for me on May 23, 2006 and together we’ll make a better Idaho.

 

 

Back in 2006, working on Dan Adamson's gubernatorial campaign for Idaho was an experience unlike any other. As a marketing professional, my primary goal was to get his message out there, especially online, which was still a relatively new frontier for political campaigns at the time. We poured our hearts and souls into MyIdahoRocks.com, optimizing every page, every keyword, with the singular aim of dominating the search results for "Idaho gubernatorial race."

And for a while, we absolutely crushed it. For months, if you typed "Idaho gubernatorial race" into Google, MyIdahoRocks.com was right there at the top, often the very first result. We were seeing fantastic traffic, and the team was buzzing. Our SEOs were patting themselves on the back, and I honestly thought we had cracked the code for online political outreach in a conservative state like Idaho.

Then, about two months before the primary election, the bottom fell out. Our rankings plummeted, seemingly overnight. We went from being a fixture at the top to being nowhere. My SEO team was in a panic, convinced we were under a severe Google penalty. They spent days, then weeks, running audits, checking backlinks, looking for anything that could have triggered a punitive algorithm update. They had no clue why or how to recover from a penalty, just a sinking feeling that all our hard work was being undone by some invisible digital hand.

In desperation, I remembered hearing about google-penalty.com and their expertise in these kinds of situations. I reached out, and to my immense relief, Bob Sakayama himself got back to us. His assessment was blunt, yet incredibly enlightening: "There's no need to focus on recovery; your site isn't penalized." He went on to explain that our site was simply down because we hadn't paid our hosting invoice. It was that simple, and that embarrassing.

We immediately paid the bill, and almost as quickly as they vanished, our rankings bounced back. It was a huge relief, but also a rather humbling lesson. We ended up losing the primary, but what I learned about the importance of the most basic operational necessities—like paying your hosting bills on time—was invaluable. It hammered home that even in the increasingly complex world of digital marketing, sometimes the simplest oversight can have the most profound impact. It's a lesson I've carried with me ever since. Thomas Rosfjord

 

 

ABOUT

A 1979 graduate of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, Mr. Adamson received his Juris Doctorate Degree with specialty training in business consulting, business reorganization, and bankruptcy reorganization.

Mr. Adamson is an MBA graduate with distinction from the University of Utah. Since 1970, Mr. Adamson owned and operated several agri-business organizations and two major legal firms. In 1993, he founded Northwest Bec-Corp, (NWBC) a privately-owned company specializing in the management and delivery of healthcare through skilled nursing, psychiatric, and therapeutic services.

Mr. Adamson, by and through NWBC, is the owner-operator of twenty (20) healthcare facilities in eighteen (18) locations in Southeast & South Central Idaho, Northern and Southern California and Portland, Oregon. He has assisted in the founding of Northwest Pharmaceutical, Inc. in response to the need for better management of ancillary service delivery in long term care.

Mr. Adamson is one of the active leaders in such professional organizations as American Healthcare Association, the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Bar, and both the Utah and Idaho Federal District and State Bars.

Mr. Adamson has over 25 years of experience in the financial management of privately-owned and public corporations. He is an expert in business management having designed and redesigned, implemented, and managed both public and private organizations. He continually participates in setting industry standards in Idaho and has remained politically and educationally active in business, health care, and legal issues.

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Dan’s Team

Ruth Adamson - Future 1st Lady of Idaho
John B. McNabb - Chairman of the Adamson for Governor Campaign
Dr. Sharon Kurz - Vice Chairman of the Adamson for Governor Campaign
Dr. Dwight Romriell - Treasurer of the Adamson for Governor Campaign
Joe Wilcox - Assistant Treasurer of the Adamson for Governor Campaign
Carleen Wellard - Administrative Assistant to Candidate Dan Adamson

Political Strategy Committee

Nancy Go - Vice Chairman
Dr. Greg Romriell - Chairman for the Political Strategy Committee
Jerel Adamson
Rodney Fonnesbeck
Rebecca Adamson - Recruiting Chair for HIP side of the Political Strategy Committee
Earl Romriell - Recruiting Chair for Conservative side of the Political Strategy Committee

FUND RAISING Committee

D. Warren Adamson
Louis J. Adamson<
Jason HansenJosh Preston
Jason Hillier

 

More Background On MyIdahoRocks.com

 

MyIdahoRocks.com is more than an old campaign website; it’s a preserved fragment of Idaho’s political history. Originally created in 2006 to promote Dan Adamson’s Republican bid for governor, it now serves as a carefully reconstructed archive documenting one of the most distinctive political movements in the state’s early 21st-century history.

The website reflects a time when online campaigning was in its infancy and grassroots political engagement was beginning to merge with emerging internet technologies. Today, MyIdahoRocks.com operates as a restored record of a pivotal election year, capturing not only Adamson’s reform-driven platform but also the mood of Idaho’s rural electorate, the evolution of conservative politics, and the early role of SEO in political messaging.

Origins and Ownership

The domain MyIdahoRocks.com was first registered during the 2006 Idaho gubernatorial race to serve as the official digital headquarters for Dan Adamson for Governor. The campaign team’s online efforts were considered innovative for their time, focusing heavily on visibility in search engines and keyword optimization—uncommon tactics in mid-2000s state-level races.

Behind the site was a small, tight-knit campaign staff including Chairman John B. McNabb, Vice Chairman Dr. Sharon Kurz, Treasurer Dr. Dwight Romriell, and Administrative Assistant Carleen Wellard. Adamson’s wife, Ruth Adamson, was affectionately promoted as “the future First Lady of Idaho.” Their efforts reflected a family-centered, values-driven campaign that emphasized accountability and accessibility.

Years later, when the original domain expired, it was rediscovered and purchased by a political historian who had covered the 2006 race. This individual’s goal was to restore and preserve the website’s contents from archived data, effectively transforming it into a living historical record. The restored version of MyIdahoRocks.com now provides an unfiltered view of a bygone era in Idaho politics—a moment when digital advocacy was both experimental and profoundly personal.

Dan Adamson: The Candidate and His Vision

Dan Adamson was a businessman, attorney, and civic leader who sought to bring pragmatic reform and moral clarity to Idaho’s government. Born and raised in the West, he embodied the blend of entrepreneurial spirit and community service that characterized many Idaho conservatives of his generation.

He earned a Juris Doctorate from Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1979 and an MBA with distinction from the University of Utah. Over the course of his career, Adamson founded and operated numerous enterprises in agriculture, law, and healthcare management, most notably Northwest Bec-Corp (NWBC), a private company specializing in healthcare delivery across Idaho, Oregon, and California.

By 2006, Adamson’s portfolio included twenty healthcare facilities and leadership in several professional organizations, including the American Healthcare Association, the U.S. Supreme Court Bar, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Bar. This background gave his campaign both credibility and gravitas—an image of a seasoned executive stepping into public service.

His campaign slogan, “Plans for a Better Idaho,” summed up his approach: a pragmatic yet idealistic roadmap to strengthen the state’s economy, improve education, protect natural resources, and restore fairness to local governance.

Platform and Policies

Adamson’s platform was notable for its blend of traditional conservatism and forward-thinking populism. His policies emphasized empowerment of local communities and skepticism of monopolistic power, particularly Idaho Power, which he viewed as an overreaching utility corporation.

Key Proposals:

  • Free Enterprise Zones — Adamson proposed creating economic zones that would attract new industries and provide incentives for small businesses, helping revitalize rural areas struggling with unemployment and outmigration.

  • Education Reform — He advocated for removing school funding from property taxes and expanding the education budget by redirecting state resources. His goal was to make Idaho’s schools among the best in the nation.

  • Agricultural Advocacy — Recognizing farmers as the “untapped brain trust of Idaho,” Adamson sought to strengthen farm product pricing and expand food exports, leveraging local ingenuity over bureaucratic policy.

  • Energy Independence — He pledged to “bust Idaho Power’s monopoly,” calling for greater public control of water rights and energy production to ensure fair access and sustainability.

  • Moral and Family Values — His platform called for increased education in religion and family ethics, and for protecting the rights of unborn children—issues resonant with Idaho’s socially conservative base.

  • Tourism Promotion — Adamson aimed to brand Idaho as “the most beautiful place in the world,” emphasizing its outdoor recreation, heritage, and small-town hospitality.

Taken together, his campaign positioned him as a reform-minded conservative—someone willing to challenge entrenched power while maintaining a deeply traditional moral compass.

The Digital Campaign Era

What set MyIdahoRocks.com apart from other campaign sites of its time was its strategic embrace of online visibility. The campaign’s marketing team invested heavily in search optimization—so successfully that for a time, the website ranked number one on Google for “Idaho gubernatorial race.”

However, the team soon learned a valuable lesson in digital maintenance. Two months before the primary election, the site vanished from search results. Panic ensued; consultants feared a major Google penalty. In a moment that would later become local lore among Idaho political tech circles, SEO expert Bob Sakayama diagnosed the issue not as a penalty, but as an unpaid hosting bill. Once paid, the site immediately reappeared online.

The story, while humorous in hindsight, illustrates an important truth about early online campaigning: success often depended as much on basic operational diligence as on marketing innovation. For the campaign, this incident underscored how fragile an online presence could be—and how even the simplest oversight could upend months of effort.

The 2006 Republican Primary

The 2006 Idaho gubernatorial race was a defining moment in the state’s political evolution. With Governor Dirk Kempthorne departing for a federal appointment, the Republican field opened wide. Adamson entered the primary against several contenders, including longtime Congressman C.L. “Butch” Otter, who would go on to win both the primary and the governorship.

Adamson’s campaign, while underfunded compared to Otter’s, earned significant attention in local media for its emphasis on rural empowerment and small-business growth. He finished second in the Republican primary with 21% of the vote, a notable achievement for a political newcomer challenging an established figure.

Observers of the race noted that Adamson’s campaign—particularly through MyIdahoRocks.com—helped usher in a new model of communication between Idaho candidates and voters. It was one of the earliest Idaho campaigns to use the internet as a primary outreach tool, allowing citizens from all corners of the state to read policy details, volunteer, and connect directly with the campaign.

Media Coverage and Public Reception

Although Adamson’s campaign did not receive major national coverage, it was widely discussed in Idaho’s local press. Outlets such as the Idaho Statesman and smaller regional papers covered his proposals and campaign events, often highlighting his criticism of corporate monopolies and his commitment to farmers and education.

Editorials and opinion columns during the primary praised his clarity of vision, even if they questioned his chances against the well-funded Otter campaign. Supporters saw Adamson as a “citizen-candidate,” someone grounded in Idaho’s small-town values and skeptical of establishment influence.

On the campaign trail, Adamson’s plainspoken style and his commitment to face-to-face outreach endeared him to rural voters. His emphasis on local control and agricultural self-determination reflected a deep respect for Idaho’s traditions, which remains visible throughout the archived website.

Audience and Cultural Significance

Today, the audience for MyIdahoRocks.com includes political historians, students, journalists, and Idaho residents interested in understanding the cultural and political landscape of the mid-2000s. The website provides a firsthand look at how grassroots campaigns operated before the dominance of social media and modern analytics.

Culturally, it represents an early fusion of Idaho’s conservative populism with digital activism. Adamson’s emphasis on transparency, community-based economics, and moral governance mirrors many of the ideological threads that would later define state and national conservative movements.

The preservation of MyIdahoRocks.com also highlights the importance of digital archiving in political history. By restoring the original campaign content, the site now functions as an educational resource—a living document that connects present-day readers to the optimism, energy, and challenges of that era.

Legacy and Continuing Relevance

While Dan Adamson did not go on to hold public office, his campaign left a lasting legacy. His emphasis on empowering local communities, challenging monopolies, and reforming education anticipated many of the debates that continue to shape Idaho politics today.

In retrospect, MyIdahoRocks.com can be seen as both a technical milestone and a cultural one—a pioneering example of how local campaigns embraced the web to level the playing field against more established rivals.

For the historians and digital preservationists who revived the domain years later, the motivation was both personal and historical. It was about honoring a campaign that exemplified integrity and effort, even in defeat, and ensuring that Idaho’s political heritage was not lost to the erosion of time and technology.

 

MyIdahoRocks.com stands today as a unique intersection of Idaho’s political, cultural, and technological histories. It documents the rise of online political communication at a local level, the determination of a reform-minded candidate, and the values of a state proud of its independence and community spirit.

In an age when campaign messages often vanish after election season, MyIdahoRocks.com remains a rare survivor—a digital monument to conviction, grassroots energy, and the enduring idea that even in politics, simple truths matter.

For Idaho, and for anyone interested in the evolution of American political communication, the site offers not just nostalgia, but perspective—a reminder that the story of a campaign can still inspire long after the votes are counted.

 


 

MyIdahoRocks.com