UPDATED with word that we have one more candidate — who will launch his campaign at a Boise bikini bar. Not making this up.

When it comes to political euphemisms, "colorful" is one of the most well-worn words in the bunch.

And Idaho's gubernatorial race got a lot more colorful Tuesday, when Ada County Commissioner Sharon Ullman said she was jumping into the Republican primary.

So here's the lineup:

• We have Ullman, who may be about as polarizing a player as there is in local politics. There isn't much middle ground when it comes to Ullman. You either really like her call-it-as-she-sees-it candor, or you are convinced she's just a grandstander. And, your mind is probably unlikely to change.

• Rex Rammell, who was last seen running for U.S. Senate in a monster RV in 2006. A rather odd independent campaign, combining far-right rhetoric and an open contempt for Republican Jim Risch, who as governor had ordered state game wardens to shoot elk that had escaped from Rammell's property.

• Pete Peterson, who has launched an online and public access TV campaign aimed simply at ousting Otter. "I do not have the slightest interest in becoming Idaho's next governor." he admits on his website. He will formally announce his campaign July 27 at The Torch 2, a bikini bar; I'll go out on my pundit limb and say that I believe this is unprecedented in Idaho politics.

• For now, let's also pencil in incumbent Gov. Butch Otter, who hasn't announced his plans.

Yup, that's Crayola colorful.

And a cynic's dream. It almost seems like Otter called central casting and asked for Republicans who will make him appear executive, and effective.

But that's too cynical — in large part, because it unfairly lumps Ullman in with some full-on rogue candidates.

Ullman has been popularly elected, twice, in Idaho's largest county. (In between, she has also lost two commissioner's races — it's that polarization thing at work). Unlike Rammell, Ullman has had to make the tough decisions that come with elective service.

It is a huge jump for Ullman to try to parlay four years' service on the Ada County commission into the governor's office. Not as big a leap as one-term GOP lawmaker Jana Kemp, who has launched an independent challenge to Otter — but still a longshot.

County commissioner isn't just a local office. It's a strange elected office. As one member of a three-person commission, no commissioner can do anything solo. It's hard to make a personal mark on policy.

And the issues are sometimes pretty pedestrian.

Last week, Ullman served up a six-month synopsis on her blog. She touted $21 million in budget cuts, quickly giving credit to her commission colleagues, fellow elected officials and county department heads. She said the county is continuing to work on the racetrack lease issue (the county announced a new five-year lease Tuesday) and said she supported adding a prosecutor to work on drunken-driving cases. She said she made a successful push to eliminate a $90,000-a-year spokesperson's job — and touted her blog as a place where she can talk directly to voters "rather than through the media."

I give Ullman credit for taking her body of work to the blogosphere. While Otter's team has made only a clumsy and half-hearted effort to tell his story on Twitter, Ullman seems committed to getting her word out. She'd better be. She has to introduce herself statewide, to Republicans who may only know her through reputation.

Ullman seems to be trying to reshape her reputation. She no longer seems like the same commissioner who served from 2001 to 2003 — raising a ruckus on matters as trivial as the price of soda in the courthouse, and bickering almost non-stop with fellow commissioners.

She says she "works well" with her current colleagues, and I buy it. I think this is a productive group; former Ullman colleagues Roger Simmons and Grant Kingsford certainly did their share to make the courthouse dysfunctional during the 2001-03 circus years. I also think Ullman — like many politicians, including Otter — has matured and tempered with time.

And here's the paradox. If you're a maverick county commissioner, you just might make the kind of a splash that gets noticed on a bigger stage. If you're a low-key team player, you might not convince a statewide electorate that you're enough of a change agent.

The rules may not be fair. But there they are.

Much, much more reading. No point in me reinventing the wheel. Treasured Valley does its usual first-rate job of aggregating the blog reactions.

Get Twitter updates on my blog and column and Statesman editorials.
Become a follower. You can
also get updates on Facebook's new Idaho Statesman Opinion Page.