California election law requires candidates for partisan public office, or for party office, to have been registered members of their own party for at least three months, before they file in their own party’s primary. Also they must not have been a member of any other qualified party for the preceding year.
In this year’s June primary for party office, some candidates for Republican County Central Committee were placed on the ballot, even though they did not meet the prior affiliation requirement. They were elected. Now, the chair of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee is trying to get them removed. The case was filed July 25, 2008 and is Cummings v Stanley, Alameda County Superior Court, no. 08-400144. Here is a San Francisco Chronicle story about the case. A hearing will be held November 12.
Generally, when candidates who were elected were then charged with having been placed on the ballot improperly, courts hold that the matter is moot. On the other hand, there have been instances when an initiative passed, and was then held to have been placed on the ballot improperly, and sometimes courts have then invalidated the initiative.
In the article above it reads…
“In this year’s June primary for party office, some candidates for Republican County Central Committee were placed on the ballot, even though they did not meet the prior affiliation requirement.”
First of all, it is alledged that we (I’m one of the eight defendants) did not meet the qualifications. If you read the court papers, you’ll see that the Chairman and his attorney can’t even seem to get the dates right.
The real reason behind this lawsuit is that the Republican establishment does not want Ron Paul supporters joining the ranks of the Republican Party, especially when we won half the seats on the Central Committee. They were unaware that we were all Ron Paul supporters until right before the election. Instead of welcoming us onto a Central Committee that can’t even fill enough of the seats to transact official party business, they hit us with a lawsuit. A lawsuit, I might add, that was filed after the statute of limitations had expired regarding contesting Primary elections.
The Chairman of the Alameda County Republican Central Committee is a do-nothinger, and will only be remembered by his legacy of lawsuits, which I might also add, was the peak of his political career.
It’s also important to note that Central Committee members are un-paid volunteers that are elected by the party voters in their county.
If you would like to see what the defendants are all about… take a look at the Constitutional Republican website at:
http://www.ConstitutionalRepublicans.org
http://www.meetup.com/constitutionalrepublicans/
Read the SF Chronicle article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/25/BAJM13JKBT.DTL
The first comment makes things clearer. If Obama and the Democrats win really big, I think it will be an interesting to follow the struggle between the Ron Paul Republicans and the religious right Republicans for dominance of the remnants of the GOP. I can’t really see movement being comfortable in a GOP dominated by the other?
How would this case in practise effect John McCain?
He was born in Colon, Panama at the Colon Hospital
(owned by the Panama Rail Road Company)at 6:35 PM
on August 29, 1936. His mother Roberta Wrignt on
January 21, 1933 states she went to TJ Mexico to
wed Ensign John Sidney McCain II of the USS Oklahoma (a battle ship). However, the tall tail
about getting married at Ceasar’s Bar is not true.
In fact there was no legal marriage in Baja California. Because of the language in 8 USC 5e
{Act of August 4, 1937}, since Roberta Wright was
not employed by the United States Government nor the Panama Rail Road Company or their successor in
title, John McCain could not be a citizen of the
United States (unless a court naturalized him) and
therefore he should not be a US Senator or tack the
office of President.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman, American Independent Party
With reference to Mark Seidenberg’s post–which doesn’t really seem to relate to Richard’s article, but what-the-hey–a friend recently told me that she was born (in the 50s) in that same hospital to a US Navy family and when she applied for some federal jobs was told she wasn’t eligible because she’s not a U.S. citizen.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch has ruled in favor of the Constitutional Republicans!
It is so ordered,
–The Statement of Election Contest is barred by applicable statute of limitations–
The Court concludes that it lacks jurisdiction to entertain the Election Contest because the Chairman’s Statement was untimely filed. It was not filed within the time limitations set forth in California Election Code section 16421; those time limitations are applicable to Contests of PRIMARY Elections such as the election on June 3, 2008, and they are jurisdictional in nature.
As this Contest concerns a PRIMARY Election, and because it was filed more than 5-days after the certification of the official canvass, IT IS UNTIMELY.
If the legislature intended the time limitations of Election Code section 16421 to apply to Contests of Elections, excepting and excluding those PRIMARY Elections where candidates are elected to a party central committee it could have said so, but it did not.
The result reached makes it unnecessary to rule on the defendants’ evidentiary objections challenging the admissibility of the Chairman’s evidence, or the Chairman’s evidentiary objections to various documents provided by the defendants.
The oral motion by the defense to strike the amicus brief is GRANTED. The amicus brief filed on November 10, 2008 by Charles H. Bell for the California Republican Party on behalf of Contestant Chairman Paul Cummings is hereby stricken as UNTIMELY. Moreover, it does not appear that this brief was served on all parties of this action in violation of C.C.P. 1013.
CONGRATULATIONS CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLICANS! We were able to prevail against all odds. Chairman Paul Cummings and the California Republican Party had all the resources at their disposal, but that couldn’t compare to our drive and determination. You should all be extremely proud of yourselves… You deserve it! Way to pull together as a team. I would like to thank you all for working so hard!
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Please click on the links below…
SF Chronicle Article: (11/27/08)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/26/BA9414DDN1.DTL
SF Chronicle Article: (10/26/08)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/25/BAJM13JKBT.DTL
Tri-City Beat Blog:
http://www.ibabuzz.com/tricitybeat/2008/11/26/minutemen-win-lawsuit-against-county-republicans-thank-media/
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Our Website:
http://www.ConstitutionalRepublicans.org
Join Our Meetup Group:
http://www.meetup.com/constitutionalrepublicans/
Our YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TakingBackTheGOP
Our Latest Press Release:
http://www.constitutionalrepublicans.org/documents/CR%20Press%20Release%202008-11-26.pdf
We won the lawsuit! Now the fake conservative, Chairman Paul Cummings has filed an appeal.