Virginia: GOP wins partial victory in case challenging open primary
AP reports: The State Board of Elections cannot require the Republican Party to hold an open primary in a state Senate race next year, a federal judge ruled on Friday.
The decision regarding a possible primary for Republican state Sen. Steve Martin could affect GOP efforts to block Democrats from voting in other Republican primaries in Virginia.
The case arose from Martin's decision to seek a primary should he face a nomination fight next year. Virginia law gives incumbents the choice of a primary, caucus, canvass or party convention.
U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson on Friday denied a motion from Republicans in the 11th Senatorial District to rule immediately on the case but wrote that parties could exclude independent voters and voters affiliated with other parties if they chose to nominate candidates through a process other than a primary. -- Judge: State Election Board can't require open GOP primary
Comment: I think the reporter got it backwards in the last pargraph. Judge Hudson ruled:
Section 24.2-530 [the open primary law] is constitutionally sound when engrafted onto a statutory scheme providing for alternative, less restrictive means of candidate selection. [The party can hold a caucus or a privately finance selection process.] When the Republican Party’s discretion is foreclosed by Senator Martin’s invocation of § 24.2-509 [which allows the incument to choose the method by which he or she will stand for renomination], mandating a forced open primary, the confluent effect impermissibly undermines the 11th District Committee’s right of free association. This narrow and perhaps infrequent application of § 24.2-530 violates the First Amendment right of the plaintiffs in this case. Therefore, in the event that a Republican primary is held in 2007 in the 11th Senatorial District of Virginia, the defendants are enjoined from requiring the plaintiffs to hold an open primary.
Thanks to Richard Winger for calling this case to my attention this morning. The Court's website has been unavailable most of the day, so I am just now getting the opinion. Some courts were upgrading their case-access software this morning.