Steady hand has run the Idaho Attorney General’s Office. Is it time for a change?

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden could have joined a lawsuit filed by Texas’ attorney general over the way some states handled the 2020 presidential election.

It would have been politically expedient for him to sign his name, issue a press release and check a box for the upcoming election.

But he didn’t.

Wasden knew that the lawsuit was baseless and that Idaho, along with other states, didn’t have standing to sue another state over its election. Wasden’s legal judgment proved correct just a couple of days later, when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declined the lawsuit on those very grounds.

Still, Wasden could have joined to score political points.

In fact, his Republican primary opponents, Art Macomber and Raul Labrador, are trying to make political hay over Idaho’s abstinence from the suit, arguing that the state needs a conservative fighter to stand up for what they see as conservative issues.

But Wasden — who is a conservative, by the way — knows that the law is the law, and that the role of attorney general shouldn’t be based on political whims.

He’s right, and that’s why Wasden earns the Idaho Statesman’s endorsement in the Republican primary for Idaho attorney general.

Labrador declined to interview with the editorial board, and Macomber did not respond to our invitation. The Statesman will not endorse a candidate who does not interview with the editorial board.

Wasden’s opponents have made it clear that they intend to turn the office into a political bully pulpit, and that would be bad for Idaho and is the exact opposite of how the AG’s office should function. We already have a state Legislature bent on making political statements through legislation that invariably gets blown out of the water in the courts. We don’t need a political activist in the executive branch as well, enabling such costly behavior.

Wasden, 64, has been Idaho’s attorney general since 2003, and he has guided the ship with a steady hand. He is the longest-serving attorney general in the state’s history, having been in the office since 1989.

Wasden famously touts his record of “calling balls and strikes,” even while some legislators have goaded him to “throw a curveball, a knuckleball, a change-up.” No, the job of attorney general shouldn’t be relegated to that of a slip-and-fall ambulance chaser. We’ll stick with someone who calls balls and strikes, thank you.

Macomber, a practicing lawyer in Coeur d’Alene, presents the stronger philosophical challenge to Wasden.

One issue that perhaps best illustrates their differences is the way the governor and secretary of state made changes to election laws in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under Gov. Brad Little’s emergency orders, the May 2020 primary was mail-in ballot only, and in-person voting was temporarily suspended.

Macomber sees that as a violation of the U.S. Constitution, which states that only state legislatures can determine the “times, places and manner of holding elections.” Macomber thinks Wasden should have taken action to halt that action by the executive branch. That’s a fair criticism.

Wasden argues that the Legislature passed enabling legislation that allows the governor to declare an emergency and enact such changes, therefore staying within the bounds of the Constitution.

Further, if the governor asks the attorney general to represent him, the attorney general is obligated by law to act as attorney for the governor, Wasden points out.

One of our main concerns with Macomber is that he would become too much of a lawsuit-happy attorney general, tilting at every windmill that he feels is a violation of the U.S. Constitution. Plan to open that legal fund checkbook if he’s elected.

Meanwhile, Labrador, 54, a lawyer, former state legislator, former U.S. congressman and former chair of the Idaho Republican Party, speaks in generalities with few details to back up his positions. Attorney general just seems to be the next prize he’d like to add to his resume as he keeps running for different public offices.

Wasden has run the attorney general’s office well, and he’s the best candidate in the upcoming Republican primary.

This story was originally published May 3, 2022 at 4:00 AM.