GOP Idaho lawmakers aim to defund party s attorney general
KEITH RIDLER, Associated Press
FacebookTwitterEmail
FILE - This March 1, 2017 file photo shows Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden during an interview in Boise, Idaho. GOP Idaho lawmakers frustrated with the Republican Idaho attorney general have put forward a series of bills that could significantly defund his office. Wasden irked lawmakers by not joining a Texas lawsuit to invalidate the presidential election. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman via AP, File)Darin Oswald/AP
BOISE, Idaho (AP) When the Texas attorney general sued to invalidate Joe Biden’s presidential victory in some states despite no evidence of widespread fraud, many said it had no chance.
March 1, 2021
Two former Idaho attorneys general and a former deputy attorney general have formed a group to fight what they say are unconstitutional laws being proposed by the Legislature. Jim Jones, who is also a former chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court, announced on Monday that the Committee to Protect and Preserve the Idaho Constitution will engage in various activities, including legal action if needed. The group said a bill to make ballot initiatives nearly impossible, another to limit a governor’s ability to respond to emergencies and others removing the attorney general’s office as the primary defender of state agencies are unconstitutional. The ballot initiatives bill would require signatures from 6% of registered voters in all 35 Idaho legislative districts in 18 months to get an initiative on the ballot. That’s up from the current 6% of registered voters in each of 18 legislative districts in 18 months, plus a number of signatures that equals 6% or all r