[Vision2020] Idaho GOP Continues to Eat Their Own

[Saundra Lund]

"There are some within the party who want the central committee to say who
can be the candidate, who can say they're in the party, who is pure enough,"
Corder said.

Huh -- and I guess according to the Idaho GOP, someone who served in the
Army National Guard for 22 years isn't pure enough, and they think it's just
fine to try to overrule the voters who actually ELECTED him.  I'm
hard-pressed to see the difference between the Idaho GOP & the Taliban.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/09/05/2258206/controversy-simmers-over-id
ahos.html

Controversy simmers over Idaho's closed primary
Published: September 5, 2012 
By DAN POPKEY - dpopkey at idahostatesman.com


 Precinct Committeeman Geoff Schroeder so loathes the new closed primary
that he withdrew his GOP affiliation the morning after he won his second
term as an Elmore County precinct committeemen in May. The 46-year-old
former Mountain Home city councilman re-registered as "unaffiliated."

Idaho GOP Chairman Barry Peterson, who served six years as Elmore County
chairman before his election to the top state office in June, noticed. As a
precinct committeeman, Peterson remains a member of the Elmore County
committee.

"He's chosen by his own actions which way he wants to go," Peterson told the
Elmore GOP Central Committee at its Aug. 23 meeting. "Let him go."

Schroeder says he's never been anything but a Republican, but objects to the
closed primary that set a record low turnout of 24.4 percent on May 15.

He said the GOP is "leering over ... a list of who is and who isn't declared
as a Republican, a creepy aspect of government that is done by people like
Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler. I'm not going to be a part of it."

Schroeder cites his 22 years' experience as an Idaho Army National Guard
soldier, including a year in Iraq where he helped provide security for the
landmark 2005 election. "It's made me very passionate about voting." 

Schroeder, retired from the Army, is now a Boise State philosophy student.
He sports "ATHEIST" personalized license plates and wore a Charles Darwin
T-shirt as he sat next to Peterson at the August meeting. In tow was a
friend, videotaping the proceeding.

Chairman Peterson said Schroeder's conduct is the sort of "pirating" that
prompted the GOP to close its primary to non-Republicans. Peterson himself
once switched parties to run as a Democrat to highlight the indiscipline of
Idaho election law.

"He took himself out of the party," Peterson told the committee. "He put it
in writing."

But Peterson failed to persuade the 18-member Central Committee to remove
Schroeder, who came armed with an Aug. 16 letter from Attorney General
Lawrence Wasden's office saying the committee didn't have authority to
remove a duly-elected committeeman.

"There's nothing that we can do," said Committeewoman Courtney Ireland,
making a motion to end the discussion after 45 minutes. "This is exactly
what he wanted to do: get people in an uproar."

The committee agreed and dropped the matter, though it passed a motion by
Peterson to censure Schroeder for "behavior unbecoming" a member of the GOP.

Schroeder, who put the video of the meeting on YouTube, pronounced himself
satisfied for having brought attention to the GOP's internal conflict.

Among those long opposed to the new law are Gov. Butch Otter, Secretary of
State Ben Ysursa and Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill. The Idaho
Association of Commissioners and Clerks, which represents elected officials
from the 44 counties, urged the GOP to lift the party rule that closed the
primary. For the 2014 primary to be reopened to independents, the party must
act by December 2013.

Instead, the party - at the same June meeting that elected Peterson chairman
- passed a non-binding resolution asking the state Central Committee to
study the impact of the closed primary and its effect on turnout and GOP
success in the Nov. 6 general election.

Peterson said he'll review the resolution after the election, but senses no
erosion in support among party regulars. He estimates just one-quarter to
one-third of the state committee backs returning to an open primary.

Peterson has alerted colleagues to Schroeder's caper and said a legal fix
may be necessary in the 2013 Legislature. 

Sen. Tim Corder, R-Mountain Home, has clashed frequently with Peterson, who
engineered the Elmore County GOP's endorsement of Sen. Bert Brackett,
R-Rogerson, in the GOP Senate primary against Corder that the more
conservative Brackett ended up winning.

Corder requested the attorney general's letter that aided Schroeder and
predicts the fight over party loyalty is far from over. While some may seek
to repeal the open primary, Corder said other Republicans wish to further
narrow the nominating process, shifting authority to pick general election
candidates to party committees. 

"There are some within the party who want the central committee to say who
can be the candidate, who can say they're in the party, who is pure enough,"
Corder said.

Dan Popkey: 377-6438, Twitter: @IDS_politics