GOP files lawsuit to close Idaho primaries

BOISE – The Idaho Republican Party is suing the state in federal court, hoping to force the closure of Republican primary elections to anyone who is not a registered Republican.

The party’s executive director, Sidney Smith, said Saturday the lawsuit against Secretary of State Ben Ysursa is a way of taking concrete action to carry out the wishes of party members.

“We hope this suit will move quickly through the process and lead to an effective structure that respects the rights of our party members,” Smith said in a statement.

The lawsuit contends the party has a right under the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution to limit participation in primaries to “those voters who identify themselves as sharing the interests of the party.”

The effort to close the party’s primary election lacks the support of Idaho’s chief executive.

Gov. Butch Otter said the lawsuit forces the party to spend money on legal bills instead of on winning elections, and he called it a purification tool that could one day damage the party.

“I’m not any kind of fan of changing our primary system,” Otter said at a press conference last week. “I think it’s a big mistake for us to make that kind of change that is being requested.”

His opposition also stems from concern that closing the primary may turn away important GOP voters.

“I also think it’s going to disenfranchise a lot of folks that would normally and have in the past supported Republicans,” Otter said. “We haven’t been that unsuccessful at the polls. And why we would … destroy that success, or why we would imperil that success, is a mystery to me.”

Ysursa said he was expecting the lawsuit. The attorney general’s office will fight the matter in court. The state has a right to set policy for a publicly funded election, he said.

“My main concern has always been the election process and the voter,” Ysursa said Saturday. “It will be a continued battle over party rule versus state law. We will defend it to the best of our ability.”

Party leaders conceded they did not expect a federal judge to rule on the matter before the May 27 primary. Instead, the lawsuit asks the court to order the Legislature to pass a bill in 2009 closing the primaries.

Ysursa was named in the lawsuit because as secretary of state he is responsible for administrating Idaho’s election process.

Idaho has had open primaries for the 36 years.

. In 2007, a federal judge rejected a lawsuit brought by former Republican State Sen. Rod Beck that sought to close the primaries. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Mikel Williams wrote that Beck and 71 other GOP members who brought the case didn’t represent the party and had no right to sue.

This time around, the lawsuit comes from the Idaho Republican Party, its executive committee, state central committee, chairman and executive director. The change was possible because in 2006 closed-primary rules were passed by the party’s state convention, and the following year the rules were adopted by the party’s Central Committee.

GOP chairman Kirk Sullivan has opposed efforts by Beck and other party leaders to close the primary, and Beck has said he would consider challenging Sullivan for the leadership post.

Earlier this year, the Senate voted 20-15 to make public which ballot – Republican or Democrat – voters choose in primary elections. The bill never made it to Otter’s desk, however – the House declined to take it up before the Legislature adjourned. Many Republicans who voted for the bill said they did so to help Sullivan survive any challenge from conservatives at the party’s state convention in Sandpoint in June.

Some of the state’s more conservative Republican activists contend Sullivan and others haven’t been aggressive enough on family issues and school choice. Some GOP officials have even suggested that if Beck wins in June, more moderate Republicans could form a new party.