Rod Beck, lead plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking to close Idaho’s GOP primary election to anyone other than registered Republicans, is upbeat today, even though a federal judge tossed out his lawsuit yesterday. “Do we give up? Heavens no,” Beck said. “This is just a minor setback.”

He said he and the other 70 GOP plaintiffs, some of whom serve on the Idaho Republican Party central committee, found some encouragement in the judge’s decision, even though it found they lacked standing to sue. “We win on the merits,” Beck said. Next, he said, “We’ll work to get the state central committee to support us, because I think they already do. … We’re going to encourage the Legislature to enact legislation that will provide for implementation of our rule, and if they fail to do that, then we will pursue legal action.” He said if nothing changes before the May primary election, the election results could be challenged “because of the pollution of Democrat votes in our primary, we could reject the results of that primary.”

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