Conservative States Leave National Association of Attorneys General Over ‘Intolerable’ Liberal Bias

State attorneys general from Texas, Missouri, and Montana have withdrawn their membership from the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) over its “intolerable” liberal bias.

The three states’ exit from NAAG comes after Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall left the organization last year.

NAAG touts itself as a “nonpartisan national forum” for state attorneys general, but according to the soon-to-be-former members, it is anything but that.

In a letter to NAAG President Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller the three attorneys general said:

The attorneys general of Texas, Missouri, and Montana have decided to withdraw our states’ membership from NAAG. While we have been a driving force for NAAG’s success—both financially and on key issues—the Association’s leftward shift over the past half decade has become intolerable. Indeed, this liberal bent has fundamentally undermined NAAG’s role as a “nonpartisan national forum” that “provides a community…to collaboratively address” important issues. We can no longer spend our taxpayers’ money to sustain our membership with NAAG under these circumstances.

“Taxpayer money should not go to this biased, left-wing org,” Texas’s Attorney General’s office tweeted.

“Montanans rightly expect their elected officials to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and transparency from funds that are supposed to be managed in our best interests,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen posted on Facebook. “Continued membership in the National Association of Attorneys General does not meet those expectations, so today I am officially ending it.”

Along with NAAG’s ideological leftward shift, the attorneys general are worried about the organization’s “financial management and practices.”

“We bear a solemn responsibility to our taxpayers and as trustees of major settlement funds,” the letter continued. “The responses to our stated concerns about NAAG’s financial management and practices have fallen short of the assurances we need to continue being faithful stewards of those funds.”

For Example, after the consulting firm McKinsey & Company settled a $573 million lawsuit over its role in the opioid crisis, NAAG received a larger portion of the settlement than most of the states involved in the lawsuit. Additionally, NAAG received its entire $15 million payment up front, compared to the states who received their portions in annual installments. According to the consent judgement, Montana only received $1.9 million of the multimillion-dollar settlement.

A senior official in the Montana Attorney General office likened NAAG’s involvement in the various settlements to a casino in Vegas, where “the house always takes a cut.”

The senior official told Breitbart News:

The conservative states have sat around, and at some of these meetings, we’ve realized this is just not a good place for us to be because what it’s getting out for our respective states is less and less over time. And that even weighs out in terms of the payments. NAAG takes, you know, it’s kind of like Vegas, right? The house always takes a cut. And they take a pretty substantial cut, that they negotiate on these settlements, to the point where you’d almost think that they’re a state.

The attorneys general raised their concerns to NAAG’s senior leadership but ultimately determined the organization would make no change to appease them.

“We previously met with NAAG’s senior leadership to make them aware of our concerns. Those conversations were friendly, but nothing has been done. And we see no signs that anything will change in the future,” the letter said.