Dan Popkey reports that the most important lawmaker in Idaho today is an appointed senator who’s spent three months on the job.

Republican leaders need his vote, and Gov. Butch Otter has asked for it. Colleagues ready to call it quits are dying to know what he’ll do.

Sen. Dan Johnson, R-Lewiston, is handling the pressure with veteran cool, declining to say whether he favors a full Senate vote on a $35.7 million income tax cut that will benefit only corporations and individuals in the highest tax bracket.