Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki made what I think was a tough but good decision not to throw his hat into the free-for-all Ballot Royale for the CD2 special election. But I found this particular paragraph in his official announcement particularly interesting:
“I firmly believe that political parties have a role in elections and I fully support the Nevada Republican Party’s lawsuit to protect their ability to nominate the candidate of their choice. Voters rely on parties to vet candidates and put their best choice forward.”
First, doesn’t that sound an awful lot like a good party chairman? But I digress.
Secondly, the second sentence isn’t true. Since the GOP has a rule banning pre-primary endorsements, the Nevada GOP actually has NOTHING to do with vetting candidates. Indeed, any and all Republicans can and do simply file to run on the ballot in the primary and Republican voters, not the party, decide who their nominee is gonna be.
That said, the law specifically says that there will be no primary. So to allow the GOP’s central committee to select its one and only candidate for the special election would, in essence, be making a sorta pre-primary endorsement….which the party’s own rules preclude.
Frankly, I don’t see how the party has a leg to stand on.
Now, if the party was smart (oxymoron alert!) it would listen to Dan Burdish and immediately adopt an official party rule mandating that the GOP nominee for any special election be selected by the party’s Central Committee.
You see, there’s already a Supreme Court ruling that says party rules can trump state law. Alas, the party has no such rule in place right now, so unless they get one before filing opens and the court hears the case….tough luck, Charlie.
One final note: With regard to the regular party primaries, why are non-Republican and non-Democrat taxpayers paying for the party primaries of Republicans and Democrats, hmmm?
