Town hall has momentum with lawsuit victory

COEUR d’ALENE — A decision to toss a complaint from a local political organizer has given the green light to a more open conversation about Idaho’s initiative process.

Brent Regan, chairman of the Idaho Freedom Foundation but acting on his own behalf, had filed a complaint with the Idaho Secretary of State’s office that questioned the transparency of Reclaim Idaho, a political organization devoted to the expansion of Medicaid. After a push to get the issue on the Idaho ballot, Reclaim Idaho faced a variety of legal hurdles, including Regan’s recent concerns about the organization’s ties to outside money.

With last week’s decision to toss Regan’s case, Reclaim Idaho’s staff said the organization is eager to move forward, starting with tonight’s town hall symposium at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.

“I’m relieved the Secretary of State has finally dismissed the complaint,” Executive Director Rebecca Schroeder said Monday. “Mr. Regan has been talking about this for quite some time. We were never concerned we were going to lose this. We are and always have been a grassroots organization.”

Regan said in a statement to The Press that he was not satisfied with the Secretary of State Office’s reasoning for its decision, and that he has requested a copy of the investigation file to identify what he calls “the apparent legal loophole that was successfully exploited” by Reclaim Idaho through the form of $500,000 in support from an outside special interest group.

“I hope to read in your article the SOS’s reasoning as to how a $500K contribution to Reclaim does not need to be reported as such,” he said. “This loophole needs to be closed or we can expect it will be exploited by Reclaim or others in the future to mask the true forces behind these campaigns. Reclaim violated the spirit of the sunshine law. You should be very curious as to how they did not apparently violate the letter of the law.”

Officials from the Secretary of State’s office in Boise did not respond to requests to be interviewed. In a letter to Reclaim Idaho, the office concluded Reclaim Idaho did nothing illegal.

While Dustin Hurst, communications director for the Idaho Freedom Foundation, would not comment on Regan’s private lawsuit, he did add that he and his organization are wary of Reclaim Idaho.

“[Reclaim Idaho founder] Luke Mayville and his merry band of agitators wouldn’t be around without all that leftist money,” he said. “A lot of left-wing dark money put Medicaid expansion on the ballot, big medical money.”

Senate Bill 1159 was a March 2019 proposal that would have made it so difficult to organize ballot initiatives in Idaho that Reclaim Idaho said SB1159 violates the state constitution. Citizen ballot initiative rights are part of Idaho’s constitution. SB 1159 proposed to increase the valid signature requirements from 6 percent of voters in 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts to 10 percent of voters in 32 districts. It also provided to cut the time to collect signatures from 18 months to six. This came on the heels of the citizens initiative to expand Medicaid, gathering 75,134 signatures in 21 districts. That would not have been enough to qualify under SB 1159’s requirements.

Gov. Brad Little vetoed SB 1159 in April, as well as its trailer House Bill 296, which had less stringent restrictions but would still restrict the initiative process.

Yet with the issue legally put to rest for now, the organization focuses on a public town hall symposium in Coeur d’Alene that will discuss the initiative process. Reclaim Idaho’s continued push to mobilize initiative drives has turned a spotlight on the process, as recent state legislative moves have tried to make harder the ability for initiatives to succeed.

“Tomorrow night is going to be amazing,” Schroeder added Monday. “Mary Souza is going to be attending. Mary Souza is one of the biggest advocates for restricting our initiative rights. She is the counter-point.”

Souza, the state senator representing the local district, said she was originally unable to attend, as she was scheduled to attend a daylong meeting on child welfare, but a recent postponement allowed her to attend tonight. She said she supports a citizen’s right to drive initiatives, but that laws written more than a century ago to address the initiative process don’t account for the technology at the fingertips of today’s Idahoans.

“I will be attending as a senator,” she said. “I didn’t champion any bill to review the initiative process, but I do support it … My true belief is, if you compare the amount of information given to citizens today, compared to testimony and oversight and review and committee meetings [in] to the legislative process — the floor debates to really vet the ideas — you can quickly see the initiatives, the way we have them now, is weak compared to the way the legislative process can properly debate the issues.”

Former Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice Jim Jones will speak in favor of preserving Idaho’s citizen ballot initiative rights during the event, which begins at 6:30 p.m. tonight at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library on Front Street.

“The bulk of the content from the town hall is going to be audience participation,” Schroeder added. “We want to have a really robust conversation about what other states are doing, for example, other nuanced things we could do to reform the process. I’m looking forward to lots of different viewpoints and zesty conversations, because mark my words: These attacks on our initiative rights are absolutely coming back in the next session.”