Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is quoted as saying his office will mount a vigorous defense if legal challenges are raised to initiatives for a state lottery and to ban adoptions and foster parents in homes with unmarried couples.

McDaniel draws suspicion because of expressed opposition to the adoption limitation measure and questions about fallout from a lottery (the very real prospect of video lottery terminals and other types of gambling should this be approved.)

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There will be a challenge to the adoption limitation proposal. And here’s a related question for Secretary of State Charlie Daniels: How in the heck did you wind up with the state’s go-to accounting firm for Republican politicians — JPMS Cox — to outsource your petition reviews? The initiative is just another one of those Republican red meat issues to drive presidential vote turnout (remember the gay marriage amendment?)

The use of the Republican accounting firm won’t turn out to be altogether a bad thing. When the suit is filed over the adoption petitions, opponents, generally Democrats, can then beat up on the contract workers and not Democrat Daniels himself, for counting signatures that monitors contend appear to have multiple signatures in the same hand; on petitions gathered outside the 30-day “cure” period; on petitions notarized days after signatures were putatively gathered; etc. But there’s also this: This week, backers turned in 30,000 new signatures supposedly gathered in 30 days, after months and months of effort fell thousands short initially. Hmmm. They bear close inspection. It should be interesting to watch the ensuing challenge, should Daniels certify the initiative. Constitutional questions also will be raised, important ones with far-reaching implications.

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