Christian activist Bryan Fischer announced today that he's leaving Idaho to move to Tupelo, Miss. to host a talk show for the American Family Association. His Idaho Values Alliance, as a result, will "go into whisper mode on July 1," Fischer said. Fischer, former pastor of Community Church of the Valley and a former Idaho State Senate chaplain (2001 session), has been a frequent sight at the Statehouse in recent years, in his alliance's quest to make "Idaho the friendliest place in the world to raise a family." The organization first backed the successful anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment; this year, he testified against day care licensing legislation, which passed; and in favor of a new conscience law for pharmacists to allow them to refuse to dispense prescriptions; that bill passed the House but died in the Senate. In his farewell message on his Web site, Fischer claims credit for defeating Gov. Butch Otter's proposed gas tax increase, through helping organize "tea party" rallies in April and May that "helped to stave off a tax increase which would have harmed Idaho families."

His move to Mississippi, he said, "represents a remarkable and unanticipated opportunity for me, an opportunity to do what I have done with the IVA on a larger scale."

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