Alliance Renounces Militia Group Backers Of Anti-Gay, Anti-Abortion Initiatives Reject Help From Militia Group

The Idaho Citizens Alliance and the United States Militia Association will not be political allies after all.

Citizens Alliance Chairman Kelly Walton had said his organization would welcome help from the Blackfoot-based militia group and its leader, Samuel Sherwood, to collect signatures on petitions for anti-abortion, anti-gay and education-related initiatives the alliance wants on the 1996 ballot.

But on Friday, Walton repudiated the militia and Sherwood. Walton, a Heyburn contractor, said he now believes 6-month-old news reports that Sherwood threatened state legislators, despite Sherwood’s denials.

“I’m not going to deal with a group that can’t shoot straight, and I’m talking about telling the truth,” Walton said.

He said he consulted with several people, including Republican Congressman Helen Chenoweth, before renouncing the militia and Sherwood.

“Chenoweth regards him as a loose cannon. The feeling that I’m getting is that we’re just going to avoid this group at all costs,” Walton said.

In March, Sherwood was quoted as telling militia colleagues at a meeting in Boise to, “Go up and look legislators in the face, because someday you may be forced to blow it off.”

He admitted making the statement about a week later, but since then has denied it.

Late Friday, Sherwood declined to comment on Walton’s snub. Bill Tuttle of Twin Falls, state director of the U.S. Militia Association, also was mum.

“That’s (Walton’s) prerogative,” Tuttle said. “I haven’t talked to the man. He hasn’t explained his reasoning to me.”

Walton’s repudiation of the militia came just two days after he welcomed its support and called the group a “substantial signature-gathering force.”

“When it comes to doing something, I believe in doing it with integrity and doing it right,” he said Friday. “If this action costs me a few signatures, so be it. But I think in the long run it will net us many more signatures for wanting to do it right.”

Brian Bergquist of the No On One Coalition, which is opposing the Idaho Citizens Alliance’s initiatives, said he hoped Walton’s renunciation of the militia was not “just a PR thing.”

“We hope (Walton) isn’t just publicly distancing himself from the militia but that he really does believe and act as if what they’re doing is wrong,” Bergquist said.