Citizens Alliance Gets Help From Militia Two Groups To Team Up On Petition Drives For Anti-Gay, Anti-Abortion Measures

Kelly Walton says the United States Militia Association will help his Idaho Citizens Alliance get its anti-abortion, anti-gay and education-related initiatives on the 1996 ballot.

Representatives of the Heyburn-based alliance will meet with the militia at its monthly leadership meeting Saturday in Twin Falls.

“We’re proud to address them, to answer questions about the initiatives and get (petitions) in their hands,” Walton, the Citizens Alliance’s founder and chairman, said Wednesday. “We appreciate their interest in getting signatures for us.”

Bill Tuttle of Twin Falls, the U.S. Militia Association’s state director and an Idaho Citizens Alliance volunteer, confirmed last week that Walton has been invited to the September meeting. But he declined to comment on what role the militia will play in the initiative campaigns.

Opponents of the proposed initiatives said they are not surprised by the move.

“This development confirms what the No on One Coalition has always claimed about the ICA, that they are an extremist organization who are outside of the mainstream of Idaho politics,” said John Hummel, a spokesman for the umbrella group formed to fight the anti-gay initiative that narrowly was rejected by Idaho voters last year.

Cathy Fuller, the Idaho Democratic Party’s executive director, said working with the militia “further discredits Mr. Walton and his causes.”

Walton said both the alliance and the militia strongly support the Second Amendment guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms. “Beyond that, I’m not real familiar with what they’re about,” he said.