Idaho Groups Unite To Fight Hate Coalition To Target Extremist Organizations, Militias

A forum today on hate groups and political extremists will be used to launch a new state movement.

The Idaho Anti-Extremism Coalition would be modeled after a similar group in Montana. The Montana Anti-Extremist Coalition was formed last August, led by Hamilton Municipal Judge Martha Bethel and Butte Local Development Corp. director Evan Barrett.

Idaho organizers include the Idaho Democratic Party, the Idaho Women’s Network, the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment and the Ada County Human Rights Task Force.

Taking the unusual step of holding a news conference to advance the forum Thursday, organizers said they would demonstrate that groups like the Aryan Nations, militias, Christian Identity movement and even the Idaho Citizens Alliance - which is pushing an anti-gay initiative - are part of a fringe national structure.

“Right now the anti-extremist groups are very fractured, and we want to be able to pull them together for a very specific cause,” state Democratic Party spokesman Ryan Hill said.

Billed as a “briefing” on hate groups, the session will be at Boise State University.

Speakers include Bill Wassmuth of Seattle, executive director of the Northwest Coalition who opposed the Aryan Nations while he was a Roman Catholic priest at Coeur d’Alene; Jonathan Mozzochi of Portland, executive director of the Coalition for Human Dignity; and Tarso Ramos, lead researcher for the Western States Center.

One target countered that the new coalition was whipping up a hysteria by tying Idaho militia members to national hate groups.

“This is a hot button,” said Samuel Sherwood of Blackfoot, national director of the U.S. Militia Association.

“They think they can get some press out of it. They think they can get some money out of it.”