Over the course of a lot of years, we’ve talked to a lot of Republican Idaho elected officials who in no way wanted a closed primary (of the sort Oregon has, where you have to declare party affiliation to vote in a party’s primary). The fat is now burning. From an e-mailed state GOP release on Friday:
The Idaho Republican Party filed suit late Friday in U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho against the Idaho Secretary of State, in an effort to close the party’s primary elections process, so only registered Republicans would be allowed to vote in Republican primaries.
“The party presently has expressed its choice to implement closed primary elections, and we have taken concrete action to carry out these wishes,†said Sidney Smith, Executive Director of the Idaho Republican Party. “We hope this suit will move quickly through the process and lead to an effective structure that respects the rights of our party members.â€
This session, the legislature did not implement an appropriate closed primary system such as the “call for ballot†process. The Idaho Republican Party urged the legislature to approve closed primary legislation this year, in order to avoid litigation, but several proposals were unsuccessful.
Therefore, according to the resolution approved by the party Central Committee in January of this year, the party was required to file suit within 10 days of adjournment of the legislature, thereby making this suit unavoidable.
Won’t affect this year’s primary, the calendar being too late for a serious change now. But it could – who knows? – have some effect on this year’s politics . . .
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