BOISE, Idaho — The rallying cry for jilted voters these days seems to be recalls. In the Idaho State House, lawmakers have their own version; impeachment.
Eastern Idaho Representative Chad Christensen (R-Ammon) went to Facebook to announce that he was committed to impeaching Gov. Brad Little, a fellow Republican.
He claims the governor's state shut down was unconstitutional, specifically limits on social gatherings in churches and restaurants. Rep. Christensen also believes the governor's ability to spend $1.25 billion in Federal CARES Act relief funds, saying the legislature should have approved it first.
On Tuesday, he posted the article of impeachment, however, Rep. Christensen said he isn't the original author, rather another legislator wrote the article of impeachment but wanted to be anonymous out of fear of "federal retaliation," according to the Post Register.
Rep. Christensen did not elaborate on what he meant by Federal retaliation or why the Federal government would get involved in the impeachment of a governor.
In that Facebook post, Rep. Christensen urged people to contact House State Affairs Chairmen Brent Crane to give the articles of impeachment a hearing.
But Rep. Crane said Rep. Christensen had already done it himself and Crane's answer was still a resounding no, saying he wanted nothing to do with impeaching Gov. Little.
"Well I may strongly disagree, and, in fact, I do strongly disagree with the way that the governor has handled some of the situations surrounding the pandemic," Rep. Crane told The 208. "I don't agree with closing businesses, I don't agree with closing churches, I don't agree with restricting crowd sizes. there's a lot of things that the governor and I disagree on but just because we disagree on how it's handled doesn't mean that that's cause for impeachment."
Rep. Crane added that he isn't even sure if Rep. Christensen's articles of impeachment are even legally sound.
"Just because an individual drives up and says, 'We want the governor impeached!' You don't do that. There has to be legitimate cause, there has to be actual cause," he said. "You would also have to engage the Senate as well to find out, 'Do you guys believe there is cause?' The idea of impeachment is very serious and something that shouldn't be discussed flippantly. It's something that should be well reasoned and well thought out and the charges must be extremely serious. It cannot just be a disagreement with the governor over mask mandates and the way he's handled the pandemic."
The idea of impeaching Gov. LIttle in the House appears to be dead in the water without a hearing. But the legislature, Rep. Crane hopes, will do plenty to show its dissatisfaction with the governor and how he has handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2021 legislative session started just over two weeks ago and Idaho lawmakers have busy writing up eight separate bills aimed at curbing the governor's powers during an emergency or ending the current COVID-19 emergency. There's House Joint Resolution 1, the one that would amend the Idaho Constitution to allow for the legislature to call itself into session should they feel the need. That has advanced to the Senate State Affairs Committee.
House Concurrent Resolution 2 is Rep. Crane's attempt to lift the limit on group gathering sizes and that is also on to the Senate side. Two others have stalled in committee.
Meanwhile, House Bill 16, the one trying to do the most by keeping emergency declarations to 30 days, keep churches open during an emergency, make all businesses essential, and limit the powers of the governor during a disaster declaration. That one has been skipped over in the house three times.
Rep. Crane told The 208 on there are still some issues with it and the sponsor, Rep. Jason Monks (R-Meridian) has asked to send it back to committee for revision.
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