Raúl Labrador, who won his race for Idaho attorney general, talks with attendees at the Idaho GOP election night watch party at the Grove Hotel in Boise, Idaho, on Nov. 8, 2022. (Otto Kitsinger for Idaho Capital Sun)
An Idaho judge denied Idahoans for Open Primaries’ request to have the Idaho Office of the Attorney General pay its attorney fees in litigation.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador had unsuccessfully sued to block the election reform ballot initiative, arguing that initiative organizers misled some Idaho voters by portraying the initiative as a proposed open primary law when it actually sought broader election reforms.
Idaho 4th District Judge Patrick Miller dismissed Labrador’s legal challenge in September. But Miller, in a Dec. 18 decision, ruled he didn’t find that the attorney general lacked a reasonable legal or factual basis to pursue his challenge, even though Idahoans for Open Primaries were the prevailing party in litigation.
Miller ordered the Idaho Attorney General’s Office to pay $96 in costs accrued by Idahoans for Open Primaries. But he didn’t order the office to pay almost $65,000 in attorney fees requested by Idahoans for Open Primaries.