District judge blocks Moon’s attempt to elect new GOP committee members in Bingham County

A 7th District judge has blocked a Monday meeting that Idaho GOP Chairwoman Dorothy Moon had scheduled to elect new members to the executive committee of the Bingham County Republican Party.

District Judge Darren Simpson on Friday granted a request for a temporary injunction after the executive committee of the Bingham County Republican Central Committee, or BCRCC, and its chairperson, Matt Thompson, filed a lawsuit in Idaho’s 7th Judicial District on Thursday against the state Republican Party. Caldwell attorney Greg Chaney is representing Thompson and the BCRCC, court records show.

Moon is employing “bully tactics” in an attempt to void a legitimate election of four BCRCC executive committee members because she wants to replace them with “people that are going to rubber stamp everything she wants to do,” according to BCRCC State Committeeman Ben Fuhriman.

“I am disappointed that we have a Republican leader who is not being a leader,” Fuhriman said. “For Moon, it’s her way or the highway and if she doesn’t like the rules she is going to ignore them. If she doesn’t like an election, then she thinks we can do it all over again until she does like it and to me that is not leadership. She has lost my confidence and I’m just sad and disappointed that it has had to come to this.”

The suit filed Thursday appears to be the latest development in the BCRCC’s attempt to dissuade Moon and the Idaho Republican Party from what the committee believes is an example of Moon overstepping the governing bylaws of the Idaho GOP.

The contention around the election of officers to the executive committee of the BCRCC began June 15 when former chairperson Dan Cravens announced his intention to resign as he was moving out of state, the BCRCC’s suit states.

On July 13, Cravens distributed a notice via email to the entire committee stating that he was resigning effective Aug. 1 and that an election to fill his vacancy would be held July 20.

The election was held July 20, resulting in BCRCC state committeeman and first vice chairperson Matt Thompson being elected to become the new Bingham GOP chairperson, Jordan Johns becoming the first vice chairperson, Fuhriman being elected as the state committeeman and Jedediah Russell becoming the youth committee person.

The suit alleges that on Aug. 21, Moon sent a complaint to the BCRCC accusing it of failing to follow certain party rules in the election of its officers.

“On the basis of an anonymous complaint, Moon issued a decision contrary to recognized rules that the committee’s election of officers was void and called a meeting for a new election,” the BCRCC suit states. “This is a continuation of a systematic conspiracy by Moon and her allies in the party to declare void the elections of persons with whom they don’t agree and re-vote under circumstances carefully manipulated and choreographed to elect persons sympathetic to Moon and her aims.”

On Sept. 5, Moon sent another letter to the BCRCC stating that she had found that the July BCRCC election was void and, pursuant to state rules, she would call a meeting at an appropriate time to conduct a legitimate election, according to the suit.

On Sept. 11, Moon sent several members of the BCRCC an email “announcing a meeting to elect new officers on Sept. 18 — a date where several regular members of the BCRCC were known to be out of town,” the suit states.

“Moon’s Sept. 11 email also provided, in bold type, that any meeting the BCRCC held before a new chairman was elected would be void, despite state rules, county bylaws, and Robert’s Rules of Order all providing otherwise,” the suit states.

Thompson on Thursday appealed Moon’s findings to Daniel Silver, the first vice chairperson of the Idaho GOP and chairperson of the GOP Judiciary Committee.

“Chairwoman Moon talks about upholding the rules, but she’s breaking the rules by refusing to allow us to appeal,” Thompson said in a news release from Chaney that was provided to the Idaho State Journal on Friday.

Silver on Thursday responded with a letter stating that Moon’s decision to host a meeting Monday to elect new officers to the executive committee of the BCRCC couldn’t be enforced until the appeal had been decided, the suit states.

“Nonetheless, Moon refused to cancel her meeting scheduled for Sept. 18,” the suit states.

Moon provided the Idaho State Journal with a written statement Friday in which she said the BCRCC lawsuit “is completely without merit and self-contradictory.”

“I suspect Mr. Chaney is aware of his argument’s defects which is why he stoops to conspiracy theories and character assassinations to distract from the facts,” Moon said in her statement.

Moon also contends in the statement that she is simply adhering to the bylaws of the Idaho GOP and she reiterated that the BCRCC election held on July 20 violated the rules.

“From the complaint itself the plaintiff admits that Chairman Cravens announced that he PLANNED to resign on Aug. 1, 2023,” Moon wrote. “He then conducted an election on July 20, 2023, to fill a vacancy that did not yet exist. Before you can hold an election to fill a vacancy, that vacancy must actually exist and a simple check of the calendar shows that the date of the ‘election,’ July 20 was BEFORE the date of the vacancy, Aug. 1. This is well established in our rules (Idaho Republican Party Rules Article IV Section 9) and in Idaho code with case law supporting this fact.”

Moon says in her statement that to correct the issue, all BCRCC was required to do was “call a meeting for the purpose of electing a chairman.”

“This would have been a redo of the earlier meeting but this time with an actual existing vacancy,” Moon wrote. “The vice chairman refused this simple remedy.”

Additionally, Moon outlines why she scheduled a meeting for Sept. 18 to host a new election of officers to the BCRCC executive committee, indicating that because the BCRCC vice chairperson failed to call a meeting for a new election within 30 days, the state chairperson can call such a meeting with seven days notice.

“I am obligated by our rules to call the meeting to correct the fact that under our rules, Bingham County does not have a legitimately elected chairman,” Moon wrote. “It is notable that this new meeting would be among the same members that held the illegitimate meeting (so) the likely outcome would be the same.”

The BCRCC lawsuit states that Moon’s attempt to call a Sept. 18 meeting to host a new election “threatens to deprive (the BCRCC and Thompson) of their appeal rights under state rules and to interfere with the BCRCC’s quasi-governmental obligations.”

The suit alleges that Moon also “intends to insert herself into the selection of the nominees for the vacant position of (Bingham County) Prosecuting Attorney.”

Former Bingham County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Rogers, a Republican, resigned on Sept. 1. According to Idaho code, BCRCC is tasked with providing a list of three names to the Bingham County commissioners for appointment to fill the vacancy left with Rogers’ departure.

According to the suit, Moon intends to host new executive officer elections in order “to select the nominees to fill the vacant position of Bingham County Prosecuting Attorney.”

In her statement, Moon points out that if the executive committee of the BCRCC was elected illegally, then it could jeopardize the validity of any appointments as well, particularly that of a new prosecuting attorney.

“If the BCRCC is not legitimately organized the validity of the appointed county prosecutor may come into question and if the prosecutor’s legitimacy is in question, all cases he prosecutes are in jeopardy,” Moon wrote. “A good attorney would appreciate this fact.”

Thompson, in the news release from Chaney, said, “Bingham County should be in charge of choosing their next prosecuting attorney. It should not be decided by outside people trying to game the system.”

As a result of the temporary restraining order, the meeting set for Sept. 18 to host a new BCRCC executive committee election is off the table.

“The court agrees at this time that plaintiffs have alleged specific facts to show that absent intervention, irreparable injury is plausible,” Simpson wrote in his order granting the temporary restraining order.

When informed of the restraining order, Moon declined to comment further.

Instead, a court hearing on the BCRCC’s request for a preliminary injunction has been set for Sept. 28 at the Bingham County Courthouse in Blackfoot.

“This is what we wanted,” Fuhriman said. “This gives us more time to talk and discuss this and hopefully come up with a better resolution for both parties.”