Ysursa seeks dismissal of primary suit

BOISE – Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa has asked a federal judge in Boise to dismiss a lawsuit against the state by conservative Republican Party members demanding that Idaho close its primary election.

Seventy-two Idaho Republicans sued Ysursa in July to have the GOP primary closed to voters not registered with the party. In early June, a majority of the state GOP’s Central Committee meeting in Burley approved a resolution seeking a closed primary.

The lawsuit has split the state’s dominant political party, as a conservative faction led by former state Sen. Rod Beck argues that letting everyone vote in GOP primaries for the past three decades has produced candidates who don’t reflect his party’s conservative ideals on issues such as school choice.

State GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan, however, said there’s no reason to change a system that’s helped Republicans win 79 of 105 state legislative seats.

Ysursa, represented by Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, filed his motion for dismissal on Thursday in U.S. District Court. He contends that because Beck and others who sued don’t officially represent the state party, they lack standing to bring a lawsuit. For the suit to be valid, Ysursa says, it would have to be endorsed by the party itself, which hasn’t happened.

“The individuals suing don’t have standing to sue, based upon the party rule,” Ysursa, a Republican, said Friday.

Since the early 1970s, Idaho has had an open primary, where anybody, regardless of political affinity, can choose a party’s ballot and help pick that party’s candidates. Republicans who want a more restrictive primary say Democrats often switch sides to skew election results.

Sullivan, who has said he fears closing the primary could alienate independent voters, agrees with Ysursa that the lawsuit is “legally impossible” without the backing of the Republican Party. “The lawsuit that was filed named the Republican Party as a plaintiff. This is not correct because neither the state Central Committee nor the executive committee approved such action,” he said.

“We did pass a rule in Burley indicating we’d like to have a closed primary, and that’s all.”

But the issue came up before the Legislature this year and the primary wasn’t changed, Beck said, making a lawsuit his group’s only recourse.

“We simply want to demonstrate that there’s a majority of the Idaho Republican Central Committee – and Republicans, in general – that support our efforts,” Beck said, adding that his group isn’t pushing for Sullivan’s ouster. “Our issue is closed primaries. That is a clear direction of the grass roots of the Republican Party rank and file members.”

Beck and others suing the state are circulating a petition among Central Committee members demanding a special meeting if Sullivan and other leaders don’t sign onto the lawsuit.

Idaho Democratic Party Chairman Richard Stallings said that “philosophical purists” like Beck are attempting to drive “heretics” such as Sullivan and other perceived moderates from the state GOP leadership.

“It sounds like they’re threatening a purge,” said Stallings, a former congressman from eastern Idaho, adding he expects his party will profit from the friction. “I see it angering a lot of moderate centrists who don’t subscribe to what Beck thinks the party should be, and will turn to the Democrat Party for relief.”