Labrador promised Idaho ‘better lawyers.’ These are the best he could come up with?

If you’re surprised by Idaho Attorney General-elect Raúl Labrador’s choices to head up his office, you’ve not been paying attention.

The former four-term congressman who excelled at placing politics ahead of solving problems is now putting partisanship ahead of legal acumen. At least, that’s the case in his two most prominent hires:

• Theo Wold — Labrador’s pick as solicitor general — served in the Trump Department of Justice, including acting assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy and deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy. He also served as deputy chief counsel to U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

The Idaho Statesman’s Bryan Clark pointed out recently the man Labrador has assigned as his chief litigator has made more of an impression, sounding Trumpian campaign themes during a 2020 appearance on a conservative talk radio program. Clark found instances of Wold telling the 2022 National Conservatism Conference at Miami he would support using the heavy hand of government to compel private business to follow ideological positions “whether on immigration or fetal research or any number of issues. ...”

And Clark dug up Wold sharing a post from right-wing commentator Matt Walsh discussing the Great Replacement Theory, a dark vision of whites being demographically and culturally replaced by non-whites.

Whatever the case, it will take some time to find out. As Betsy Russell of the Idaho Press noted, Wold is not licensed to practice law in the state of Idaho. He’s scheduled to take the state bar examination in late February — more than midway through the upcoming legislative session.

Maybe he’ll pass, get his license and move on.

And then again, as anyone who has taken the bar exam will tell you, there are no guarantees.

• David Dewhirst — Labrador’s pick for chief deputy — like Wold, served in the Trump administration as principal deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Until earlier this month, he served as solicitor general for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen. His background also includes operating the pro-business Freedom Foundation in Washington state.

Like Wold, he is not licensed to practice law in the state of Idaho. However, the Gem State and Montana have a reciprocity agreement so after a 60-to-90-day background check, Dewhirst would have the necessary credential — again well after the legislative session has convened.

Keep in mind that along with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden — who Labrador defeated in the GOP primary — at least eight of his key staffers have already left the office. Some of the people working for Wasden spent more time working on such things as reapportionment or initiative law than the judges who heard their arguments in court.

Much of the time, the work these people did was detail-oriented and routine — but nonetheless vital. You wouldn’t know about it unless things went haywire, disrupting something like the state’s food stamp program.

So you’re left to wonder: With all the lawyers in this state, why has Labrador selected two people who for the moment can’t practice law here and are strangers to the legal culture of the Gem State? What is Labrador’s relationship with the judiciary and the legal community that he felt compelled to reach outside the realm of expertise in Idaho law?

Back in October, Labrador told the Lewiston Tribune’s William L. Spence: “The Attorney General’s Office needs to have better lawyers. That’s really my No. 1 priority. We seem to lose a lot of cases in the state.”

Of course, it depends on how one defines what makes for “better lawyers.”

In the case of Idaho’s next chief legal officer, that suggests Labrador is more interested in performative politics than legal accomplishment. He’s pursuing a national agenda instead of an Idaho agenda. And experience and knowledge about Idaho law are not among his priorities.

But you knew that already.

Or you should have. — M.T.