Idaho Republicans supporting Democrat for attorney general

By KEITH RIDLER

Associated Press

BOISE — Nearly 50 longtime Idaho Republicans, including a former governor and dozens of other past and current officeholders, on Tuesday endorsed the Democratic candidate for attorney general in November’s election.

Republicans attended a news conference at the Statehouse with Boise attorney Tom Arkoosh, who has said he has no political ambitions other than to run the office fairly.

“Tom Arkoosh is the first candidate on the Democratic ticket I have supported in my 66 years of work with the Republican Party," said Republican Sen. Patti Anne Lodge, the powerful chairwoman of the Senate's State Affairs Committee who is retiring this year.

The three other current officeholders endorsing Arkoosh are also leaving office this year, either through retirement or primary losses. But the list of Arkoosh supporters includes many well-known Republicans.

“I want to thank my Republican friends for looking at me as a candidate, and not as a party politician," Arkoosh said, adding he would like the endorsements to start a wider conversation about what voters want in the deeply conservative state that hasn't sent a Democrat to the attorney general's office since 1991.

“When that conversation happens, we will move away from extremism,” he said. “We will become Idahoans altogether again.”

Arkoosh announced his candidacy in July after former U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador defeated five-term incumbent Attorney General Lawrence Wasden in the Republican primary in May.

Arkoosh and the Republicans supporting him say Labrador will turn the office into a partisan base to further his own political ambitions. Wasden is well known for a strategy he describes as even-handedly calling balls and strikes on legal matters, frequently irking fellow Republicans in ruby red Idaho.

Labrador, who ran for governor four years ago but lost to current Gov. Brad Little in the Republican primary, has said voters are looking for an aggressive, conservative attorney general. He has said he wouldn’t put politics above the law and would work with lawmakers to draft bills that would survive court challenges.

Labrador in a statement to The Associated Press called the Republicans endorsing Arkoosh “backroom insiders.” He noted his primary win earlier this year and said he’s been gaining supporters ever sense.

“I am running to represent the people of Idaho by protecting their freedom, our state’s sovereignty, and our shared Idaho values,” he said.