Idaho Attorney General Wasden announces bid for re-election. It would be his 6th term
Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden will seek reelection in the office he has held for nearly two decades, he announced Monday.
Wasden, a Republican, was first elected attorney general in 2002. The Nampa attorney worked for the attorney general’s office since 1989 and, before that, served as a prosecutor in Canyon and Owyhee counties. He is the 32nd attorney general in the state’s history and will face three other GOP candidates in the May primary.
Wasden said in a news release that his “guiding principle” has been to offer fair and objective counsel to the state.
“An attorney general does not provide their clients or their state any value by giving them the legal counsel they want to hear or that is politically convenient,” Wasden said. “Rather, my goal has always been to provide counsel that is soundly rooted in the Rule of Law. This approach has served Idaho well, and it’s important to maintain this consistency in 2023 and beyond.”
As the state’s chief legal officer, Wasden represents the Idaho Legislature and often provides opinions on whether a bill is legally defensible. At times Wasden’s office has clashed with state lawmakers, and some legislators tried unsuccessfully this year to expand the use of private legal counsel to defend state laws.
In October, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin had blamed the AG’s office for her court loss in a public records lawsuit. In response, AG spokesperson Scott Graf had said the matter “is an excellent demonstration of why government should seek legal counsel that it needs to hear instead of what it wants to hear.”
Wasden was also one of the few Republican attorneys general nationwide who didn’t support a Texas lawsuit that alleged without evidence election fraud in some key swing states. Twenty-two other Republican Idaho officials, including Gov. Brad Little, signed on to the lawsuit.
The incumbent will face Raul Labrador, a former congressman, and Art Macomber, a Coeur d’Alene attorney who has represented Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, in the May Republican primary. Labrador announced his candidacy last week, saying he plans to “defend our liberties and hold the Biden administration accountable.” Sandpoint attorney Dennis Boyles is also an attorney general candidate.
This story was originally published November 22, 2021 at 11:18 AM.
