Sometimes the best course of action is no action.
That’s what GOP lawmakers will do with an “illegal” bylaw change made last Saturday by the Utah Republican Party’s Central Committee.
State Rep. Mike McKell told UtahPolicy Friday morning that his “fix” bill will be simple.
It will say that if a political party picks the Qualified Political Party route for its candidates in the previous November party filing period, any changes to party bylaws that could jeopardize that QPP status will just be ignored:
— The November filing stands under law, and any party actions during the first and second quarters of an election years don’t signify.
“We probably are going to be sued no matter what,” said McKell, R-Spanish Fork.
But that’s the political world we live in.
Later Friday McKell released HB485.
Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, the state’s official election officer, will ignore any attempts by any group to “decertify” the Utah Republican Party’s QPP status.
The matter will likely go to court.
But McKell, an attorney, and other GOP leaders feel confident that, with his bill’s clarification, Utah will be in a good place to defend keeping all candidates’ election processes the same as they were at the time of the QPP filings.
“The Democrats are a QPP,” said McKell. “The Republicans will be a QPP” for the 2018 elections.
If legislative Republicans didn’t take this action, it’s likely the Utah Republican Party could have been dropped down to the status of a Registered Political Party.
And under SB54 – the 2014 compromise law that allows candidates to take the signature route to the primary, the caucus/delegate/convention route, or both at the same time – a RPP ONLY allows its candidates to take the signature route to the ballot.
That would mean any number of GOP candidates this year who only wanted to go before their county and state party delegates to get to the primary, would have had to hustle up and get the 2 percent of voters to sign their candidate petitions required.
Under McKell’s bill that won’t happen.
A candidate taking the signature route will just keep on collecting signatures – due in mid-April — and convention-bound candidates will just keep on going that route, or candidates picking both routes at the same time will just do that.
In essence, McKell’s bill just pretends the radical right-wingers on the Central Committee didn’t do anything Saturday.
A small majority of the whole 180-member CC passed a bylaw change saying GOP candidates can only take the convention route – applying that only to 1st an 2ndCongressional District candidates for 2018.
HB485 does go a step further. It says that if a QPP attempts to stop a candidate who otherwise qualifies from going to the party’s convention, then that candidate automatically is placed on the primary ballot.
The right-wingers on the CC have talked about kicking a candidate out of the party. But HB485 says if they do that to a candidate, he or she goes to the primary ballot.
Ouch!
That would seem to blunt some CC members’ from apply a “purity test” to a candidate in an effort to get him out of the party or otherwise harm his candidacy.
HB485 also pushes back some of the candidate filing deadlines and the deadlines for turning in signature petitions.
Some in the Senate tell UtahPolicy.com that they would like to insert language in McKell’s bill to “give some guidance” to the courts if a lawsuit over the new law is successful. That could include extending the filing and signature gathering deadlines for candidates in a judge rules all Utah Republican candidates are forced to take the signature route to the ballot. Legislative sources say that provision would face stiff resistance in the House.
Some groups, like Alliance for a Better Utah or the Utah Democratic Party, who have demanded action by Cox, may well sue even if HB485 passes this session – which endsmidnight next Thursday.
Or maybe someone inside the state GOP will sue.
But all that will be dealt with as it comes, said McKell.
It has generally been the case that state and federal court judges have ruled in favor of putting disputed candidates on the ballot, rather than keep them off, under the argument that ultimately voters should have their franchise and pick the people they want – not the courts.
McKell does need two-thirds votes in both the House and Senate, so his bill can become law upon GOP Gov. Gary Herbert’s signature.
Under different “fix” options, it was unclear if McKell could get 50 votes in the House. But with this “fix,” which doesn’t change anything for the QPP Republican Party, he should have no problems reaching that number.
Court cases could then come forward, and likely will.
McKell said his bill will be filed sometime Friday afternoon, in enough time to be scheduled for the required House standing committee hearing next Monday – the last day for such committee hearings.
HB485 is on the agenda of the House Business and Labor Committee meeting on Monday morning.
