Idaho GOP split over plan to close primary

BOISE – Discord over how the state’s political parties choose their candidates may come to a head Saturday, when some Republican conservatives at a GOP meeting in southern Idaho hope to make clear their displeasure at crossover voting by Democrats in primary elections.

Since the early 1970s, Idaho has had an “open primary” where voters can choose any ballot they wish. Still, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 in a California case that states can’t force political parties to associate “with those who don’t share their political beliefs.”

So if the Idaho Republican Party Central Committee meeting this weekend in Burley passes a rule seeking a closed primary, its members could sue the Idaho secretary of state and demand a change in the primary law.

The Idaho attorney general concluded earlier this year the state would likely lose such a challenge.

Even in a state where Republicans dominate federal, state and local legislative races, this issue remains heated.

Some GOP members say closing the primary is needed to prevent Democrats from switching sides to skew results. Others, including GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan, argue his side’s success – 79 of 105 state lawmakers and all statewide elected posts are in Republican hands – shows the existing system works just fine.

“My first question is, ‘What is broke?’ ” Sullivan told the Associated Press. “Why do we need to change the rules?”

Last summer, GOP participants at the state Republican Convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of closing Idaho’s open primary. But the 2007 Legislature failed to push through a change, so the ball is back in the GOP’s court.

Sullivan said the closure push is being led by passionate GOP ideologues who may be frustrated that their conservative candidates haven’t gained more traction.

His rivals accuse him of snubbing the majority’s will.

“He (Sullivan) doesn’t represent the Republican Party,” LeeAnn Callear, a GOP central committee member from Orofino, said in an interview Tuesday.

Backers of a closed primary say continuing to allow unaffiliated voters to help choose Republican candidates for general elections is akin to letting “Target choose the products for Wal-Mart’s shelves,” Callear said.

And letting so-called independents vote in GOP primaries for the last three decades has produced Republican candidates who don’t reflect the party platform’s conservative ideals on issues such as school choice, said Rod Beck, a Republican from Boise who lost his May 2006 state Senate primary.

“It’s our contention that simply electing somebody who claims to be a Republican is not the same as electing somebody who actually subscribes to the Republican platform,” Beck said. “They’re co-opting the franchise.”

There was an attempt in the 2007 Legislature to appease closed primary supporters without barring independents from voting, including a proposal that would have created a system of party registration for Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians – while still allowing unaffiliated voters their choice of primary ballots.

That effort sputtered, however, setting up this weekend’s showdown in Burley.

“I think we’re going to shoot ourselves in the foot,” said Rep. Mark Snodgrass, R-Meridian and a foe of closed primaries. “Even some of the hardcore Republicans don’t want to be put in a box that way.”

Democrats watching the issue say forcing primary voters to declare party affiliation – it would become a public record – could become a foundation for discrimination in small towns, community organizations or on the job.

Idaho’s current system protects voter privacy, said Senate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum.

“Policy wise, that (a closed primary) absolutely goes against the culture of Idaho,” Stennett said. “Politically, there couldn’t be a better gift for Democrats, to tell the independents of this state, ‘The Republicans don’t want you.’ “