Macomber on attorney general campaign trail

Idaho attorney general candidate Art Macomber said he was initially shocked when the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee recommended Raul Labrador instead of him.

"When I talked to various people about it, they said, 'Well Art, we think he has a better chance of beating (Attorney General Lawrence) Wasden because he has name recognition and he has the money," Macomber said April 1 during a visit to The Press. "What the KCRCC did was, they said to themselves, ‘Wasden’s in the race, we don’t want Wasden, so we have to support Raul because we don’t feel like even our beloved local guy can beat him.'"

Macomber, who serves as a precinct committeeman for the KCRCC, said although people within the KCRCC like him and trust his abilities as a lawyer, they're afraid of Wasden being re-elected, so they've placed their support with Labrador.

"My response is, 'Shame on you. I've been running for a year, and if you guys had supported me in 2021, then I could have been in a position with name recognition with support of my local central committee to actually be able to compete on those levels on Raul," Macomber said. "Let me ask you guys, you supposed right-wing conservatives of the KCRCC, is this really the best method you have for choosing people to run your republics, is to go, 'Big money, big name recognition, he's our guy.' Really?"

Macomber has no big PACs, no large investing organizations, no big out-of-state groups, he said, but he does have hundreds of donors with an average donation of $100. When checking on his opponents, Macomber said Wasden has support from the biggest law firm in Pittsburgh while for Labrador, "the biggest category I see is developers, like home builders, which is really strange."

Macomber has been an attorney in Kootenai County for 15 years. He has been on the campaign trail since February 2021, motivated to run for attorney general after running against Luke Malek for District 4 in 2016. That experience helped Macomber realize his true passion is law, rather than policy.

When churches and businesses closed during 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, he questioned if Gov. Brad Little even had the power to do what he did.

“Around November, I said, ‘You know what? This just isn’t right. I wonder if I could be the attorney general,'" Macomber said. "I could. I have experience in large organizations, I’m a practicing lawyer, I’m pretty relentless, I’m not a politician.”

He said he doesn't know what Wasden’s conversations with the governor were at the time of the pandemic closures.

“As far as I know, Lawrence Wasden is a church-going man, he wouldn’t put up with closing churches, just like you or I would raise our eyebrows,” Macomber said. "It also makes me concerned that Brad Little just went ahead and did it anyway. So then, where’s the check on that power?”

Macomber said he thinks Wasden wants to retire.

"I think he'd rather not have another term," Macomber said. "And frankly, he's the guy who got us into the mess, by the way he advised the governor, or didn't."

He said it's been hard to educate people on the differences between policy jobs, where policies and laws are made, and law jobs, where those policies and laws are enforced.

"In fact, it’s been hard to educate Raul Labrador on what the differences are," Macomber said. "He doesn’t like to talk about this. Raul is a policy guy, and he’s a conservative policy guy, but he’s still a policy guy."

Macomber said Labrador was unable to provide leadership in the state GOP to convene the 2014 Republican Party meeting for the whole state.

"He was put in charge — utter failure," Macomber said. "He failed to get voted in as the U.S. majority leader. He came back from Washington after two terms and had nothing to show for it."

Labrador didn’t build a law firm or didn’t teach at a law school, Macomber said.

"If you look at the things I’ve done compared to what he’s done, what I have had is a legal career and what he has had is a policy career and now he wants to be the top lawyer for the state of Idaho," Macomber said. "And I just don’t see it.”

He called out Labrador's 2022 campaign website for promoting that if elected, Labrador would be a partner for conservative legislators.

"The structure of the Idaho republic is that there are three branches, and those branches are set up to have a fundamentally adversarial relationship. You're not supposed to partner across the fence. We call it checks and balances," he said. "If the executive branch AG wants to partner with the legislature, you know there's a fundamental misunderstanding, because that's not the way these republics are designed."

He said he's concerned Labrador would fall into "policy guy" mode while the attorneys in the AG's office would have no supervision.

"Raul will do the policy guy thing and have photo ops, show up and smile, meet and greets and then in four years he'll run for governor, because that's what he really wants to be. He failed in 2018 and now this is a stepping stone," Macomber said. "I'm not happy with the prospect of Raul."

Macomber said he has even privately and publicly asked Labrador to drop out.

"I don't think he's qualified to take on the aspects of the job that Idahoans are looking for right now in Idaho," he said. "I just don't think at this point of Idaho history that he has the legal knowledge and the fight in him — frankly, the gut instincts to know what arguments to bring. I just don't think he has that, and I think Idahoans want that. I talk to people around the state and they are looking for justice."