08/20/09

BOISE, Idaho (AP) _ An Idaho Republican leader who helped oust
the state GOP chairman in 2008 faces charges of aggravated assault
with a deadly weapon in 4th District Court after an altercation
escalated while he snapped photographs of a home with a delinquent
mortgage.

Challis McAffee, one of 231 voting members of the state
Republican Central Committee, is in Ada County jail after being
accused of pointing a gun at a man's head.

McAffee works for a company hired by Wells Fargo & Co. to
document the condition of foreclosed homes.

McAffee, a backer of libertarian-leaning former GOP presidential
candidate Ron Paul and an activist in this year's ``Tea Party''
protests, helped organize Paul backers who aligned at last June's
Idaho State Republican Convention in Sandpoint with other foes of
then-state GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan.

Sullivan was voted from office in favor of Norm Semanko.

McAffee's arrest was first reported in the Idaho Statesman.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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