OPINION: Dorothy Moon inadvertently fueling efforts to detoxify Idaho's Republican Party

Dorothy Moon held onto her position as boss of the extremist branch of Idaho’s Republican Party at the GOP convention in Coeur d’Alene last weekend. Mary Souza challenged Moon for the chairmanship in hopes of bringing more moderation to the party but failed on a vote of 376-228.

A tremendous effort had been made by reasonable Republicans to win a majority of precinct committee positions in this year’s closed GOP primary. The objective was to vote the extremists out and change the direction of the party. Despite creditable success in some areas of the state, the reformers did not get their majority. They will in the next election, if they keep at it.

Moon demonstrated that the official party wants to tighten its minority control over the political life of the state. She proclaimed that her GOP “is a private group. It’s a private association.” She told a reporter that convention proceedings were closed to the press and that transparency was not part of the equation. Moon allowed that one reason for locking out the press was so that she and her cohorts could figure out a strategy to defeat the Open Primaries Initiative, which will likely be on the November ballot.

Moon is well aware that she and her branch of the GOP will be history if every Idaho voter can have a say in who gets elected to office. Extremists have been able to grab and maintain control of the Legislature by stacking the deck in favor of their candidates in the low-turnout GOP primary. Reasonable Republicans are defeated by scurrilous disinformation campaigns supported by out-of-state dark money interests. Idaho’s 275,000 independent voters, which includes about half of Idaho’s 160,000 military veterans, are effectively denied their right to vote in the primary election, unless they claim to be Republicans.

As if the present bossism of the Moon GOP isn't enough, the convention delegates voted to file suit against Secretary of State Phil McGrane to prevent crossover voting. McGrane had correctly informed Moon that state law takes priority over GOP rules, but Moon apparently thinks her rules are the law of Idaho. It will be interesting to see if Moon’s attorney general, Raul Labrador, will effectively defend the lawsuit.

The delegates then went about the business of gearing up for a variety of culture war battles. Among other things, they opposed “using taxpayer funding for programs beyond high school.” So, Moon’s GOP platform would now withhold state funds for higher education, while making taxpayers cough up for K-12 private and religious schooling. Is there a fear that too much education is bad for our kids?

The delegates resolved that “Idaho has the right and obligation to remove from our state any and all people that are unlawfully present within our borders.” This would devastate the construction business across the state, as well as Idaho’s agricultural industry, particularly our dairies, their feed suppliers and their processors. It’s good that the state does not have the legal authority to enforce this resolution.

The delegates voted to prohibit the destruction of embryos, which would hamper in vitro fertilization. They called for an end to no-excuse absentee voting and for ending all government funding and programs not required by the Constitution. The delegate failed to consider the number of present-day programs that are not even mentioned in the Idaho Constitution. They overlooked the fact that their own extremist legislators have failed to carry out a duty specifically required by the Constitution -- to provide adequate funding for “a general, uniform and thorough system of public, free common schools.”

Even though the reformers were not able to replace Moon as chairperson or eliminate the extremist planks of the Republican platform, Moon and her cohorts have clearly demonstrated that they are incapable of responsible, responsive government. Their continued misbehavior leading up to the November elections will result in the passage of the Open Primaries Initiative. The reformers lost in the convention, but the example set by Moon and her wrecking crew will lead to the detoxification of the GOP.

Jones is a Vietnam combat veteran who served 8 years as Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and 12 years as a Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court (2005-2017). His columns are collected at JJCommonTater.com.