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Lt. Gov. McGeachin says Gov. Little left Idaho without notifying her office

Janice McGeachin smiles while speaking into a microphone in front of a crowd of supporters
Otto Kitsinger
/
AP
Idaho Lt. Gov.-elect Janice McGeachin gives her victory speech in Boise, Idaho, Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018.

Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin says Gov. Brad Little left the Gem State for several days without alerting her office. It’s just the latest in a power struggle between the two.

In a Friday morning press release McGeachin said she couldn’t fill her constitutional role as “acting governor” because Little didn’t tell her he was gone.

As acting governor in May, McGeachin issued an order banning mask mandates, which Little repealed as soon as he got back to the state. Then in October when the governor was in Texas, she signed an order that banned schools and other state entities from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine or test. Little reversed that as well.

Speaking Friday on Idaho Matters, Idaho Capital Sun reporter Kelcie Mosely-Morris said Little and McGeachin disagree on whether the governor gives up all his powers when he is quote “absent from the state,” which is a phrase written into Idaho’s Constitution.

“Because even the code that she cites doesn’t say that he has to notify her, it just says that she’s acting governor during his absence from the state,” said Mosely-Morris. “So, I think this is going to be something the Attorney General will have to weigh in on and then potentially it goes to court.”

McGeachin has said she’s running for the Governor's seat next year.

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As Senior Producer of our live daily talk show Idaho Matters, I’m able to indulge my love of storytelling and share all kinds of information (I was probably a Town Crier in a past life!). My career has allowed me to learn something new everyday and to share that knowledge with all my friends on the radio.

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