There is no excuse for Labrador leaving Idaho and missing the State of the State | Opinion

Birds of a feather flock together as the saying goes, and it sure applies to Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, who flew off his Idaho nest on the day of Gov. Brad Little’s State of the State address and instead landed in the Louisiana nest of right-wing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who was inaugurated on the same day. Landry is one of Labrador’s soulmates from when both were in the so-called House Freedom Caucus, a gathering of right-winged Republicans who flock together in Congress.

Call it a norm of democratic government or just the stately thing to do, but it’s a command performance for all elected state officials, even members of the Supreme Court, to attend the governor’s State of the State. It’s modeled after the State of the Union address when the president of the United States lays out his agenda for the nation and, all states follow the leader with this most celebratory and official day for the state’s elected officials.

I’ve attended quite a few State of the State addresses as a legislator, lieutenant governor and state university president, and there were no excuses — maybe the death bed — for missing the one official gathering of state officials who assemble annually from all points on the political spectrum to hear the governor’s message. State officials’ attendance at the State of the State shows their allegiance to their state and the voters who elected them. Labrador’s absence speaks volumes about his priorities, which, when last observed, were in Louisiana.

Labrador claimed he was honored to receive an invitation from his pal, the Louisiana governor, as though it was written on tablets from on high. A Louisiana State of the State address over his own Idaho governor’s? That sounds like the lone wolf Labrador has become in Idaho politics. He operates as a statewide official exactly as he operated as a congressman, using public office to catapult him to the next office and, in the process, beef up his connections with his right-wing friends.

It would be in keeping with his reputation if he passed on the State of the State because the Louisiana trip served as a convenient excuse to avoid playing second fiddle to the incumbent governor. Labrador wants to be concertmaster of Idaho, a guy who strategizes daily how best to manipulate Idaho’s right wing and eventually use the new Republican party caucus — perfectly designed to limit voter participation — to usher him into the Governor’s office?

Labrador defeated Attorney General Lawrence Wasden who was respected on both sides of the aisle and who considered himself the attorney for the people of Idaho, not a self-serving ideologue with a personal agenda of running for higher office. Labrador ridiculed Wasden, but former assistant AGs who have left the AG’s office claim that Labrador’s lack of respect for attorneys in his office is shocking as he encourages his legal staff to pledge loyalty to him rather than the state agency clients the office serves.

Using the AG’s office as his stepping-stone to governor, Labrador steams ahead even hiring former Trump lawyers after he was elected who were not licensed to practice law in Idaho. And if not bringing out-of-state lawyers with their right-wing credentials into Idaho, he is attempting to make it easier for the state to track down Idaho women who seek an abortion out of state so they can be prosecuted in Idaho for exercising control over their own bodies.

He even sued Idaho’s State Board of Education, appointed by Gov. Little, for supposedly violating the Open Meetings Act. The State Board relies on Labrador’s Assistant AG for its legal advice and counsel, but that didn’t stop Labrador from suing the Board his office advises, racking up substantial legal fees on both sides for Idaho taxpayers to shoulder. Apparently, the case had such little merit the judge threw out Labrador’s lawsuit. It’s not often we see a plaintiff suing himself, but that is the way things looked on this one. The real loser in this case is the taxpayer of Idaho whose taxes are chewed up by Labrador’s ambitious and expensive campaign for governor.

By the time Labrador returned from Gov. Landry’s inauguration, you can bet he was salivating for the pomp and circumstance that he witnessed in Louisiana, only next time for his own personal “coronation” as governor. And when it comes to extremist politics, Labrador landed in the right place. Landry is devoted to a right-wing agenda Labrador works daily to bring to Idaho.

The new Louisiana governor whom Labrador calls a friend is more than that. He is a fellow warrior of the Wingnut tribe, that Freedom Caucus in the U.S. House I mentioned earlier. Landry fought vaccine mandates and environmental regulations. He also objected to congressional efforts attempting to limit the spread of misinformation in social media.

On one thing I’d bet the mortgage: Gov. Little didn’t lose any sleep over Labrador’s absence.

More than likely, there was a sigh of relief in the chamber that the Idaho Republican Party’s grandstander didn’t attend. But that’s not the point. The attorney general belonged in Idaho where people elected him to office, but sadly, it is indicative of who comes first for Idaho’s attorney general, and it is not the people of Idaho nor their representatives on this most important day in the life of Idaho state government.

That’s something voters should remember when Labrador makes his move for the office of governor, and you can bet the ranch on that day coming.

Bob Kustra served as president of Boise State University from 2003 to 2018. He is host of Readers Corner on Boise State Public Radio and is a regular columnist for the Idaho Statesman. He served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor and 10 years as a state legislator.