Idaho lawyer Larry Grant (D) won’t run against freshman Rep. Walt Minnick (D), even though he’s received encouragement from some Democratic activists to challenge a congressman whose voting record makes him the most conservative Democrat in the House.

Grant, a former Micron Technology executive, was the Democratic nominee in Idaho’s western 1st district in the 2006 election, losing by 5 percentage points to Republican Bill Sali. Minnick unseated Sali in the 2008 election by slightly more than one percentage point.

I called Grant on Friday after reading a blog item in the Idaho Statesman that said Grant “gets at least one call a week from Democrats urging him to challenge Minnick” and that also carried the provocative headline “Larry Grant a Republican for Congress?”