<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">Courtesy of today's (October 20, 2012) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Luna-backing group fights donor disclosure</span></font></h1><h5 class="subhead" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: normal; clear: both; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Attorney says Ysursa inquiry harms clients</span></font></h5></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – A group promoting Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna’s education overhaul refused Friday to disclose its donors, instead suggesting it be allowed to take back its money.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Education Voters of Idaho’s new lawyer, Christ Troupis, told Secretary of State Ben Ysursa that his client is a nonprofit organization that’s exempt from campaign disclosure under federal law.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, Troupis said the group – created Aug. 16 amid the battle over Luna’s overhaul – would take back its $200,000 contribution that went for TV commercials touting the education changes.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Troupis also said Ysursa’s efforts to secure the identities of Education Voters of Idaho’s financiers were having a chilling effect on the group’s free-speech rights.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“My client has ceased its lawful participation in constitutionally protected political activity based on those threats, and thus has already suffered irreparable and immediate harm,” Troupis wrote.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Luna’s education reforms, passed by the 2011 Idaho Legislature to limit union bargaining power, promote teacher merit pay and require online classes and student laptop computers, are the subject of a heated Nov. 6 repeal effort.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The repeal is being pushed by the Idaho Education Association teachers union.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To help save the overhaul, Education Voters of Idaho gave just over $200,000 to a related political action committee, Parents for Education Reform, for broadcast advertising. The groups share leaders and addresses.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now, Troupis suggests Parents for Education Reform should be allowed to refund the contribution; after that, “all contributions and expenditures by Parents for Education Reform would be accounted for” in future campaign reports, he told Ysursa.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ysursa had given Education Voters of Idaho until Friday to explain why it didn’t have to reveal its backers’ identities.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Friday, Ysursa was still reviewing Troupis’ letter but said his goal remains winning disclosure of campaign contributions made during the most recent reporting period.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 21px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Brian Cronin, a Democratic state representative leading the effort to repeal Luna’s overhaul, said he’s concerned that allowing its contribution to be returned – after the TV commercials have already been paid for – would deny the public its legal right to learn who is bankrolling the effort to save Luna’s overhaul.</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">-------------------------------------<br><img src="cid:9BDA7AE7-86AF-4F57-9EBC-ECDAD302D6F1" alt="image.jpeg" id="9BDA7AE7-86AF-4F57-9EBC-ECDAD302D6F1" width="330" height="222"><br><div>Seeya at the polls, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares"</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"We're a town of about 23,000 with 10,000 college students. The college students are not very active in local elections (thank goodness!)."</div><div><br></div><div>- Dale Courtney (March 28, 2007)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>