The Montana Senate State Administration Committee will hear HB 454 on Wednesday, April 8. This bill would permit parties to stop holding public elections for party committeemember. Instead the bill would let parties choose these officers in caucuses, or any other method provided by party rules. The bill has already passed the House by a vote of 53-46. Republicans, who hold a majority in each house of the legislature, are split on this bill. Democrats support the bill.
The Republican Party is currently suing the state to put a stop to using open primaries to elect party officers. The case is pending in the Ninth Circuit. If the bill passes, the lawsuit will be moot. The lawsuit says the party doesn’t want outsiders helping choose its party officers. Obviously if the bill passes, then the party’s complaint will have been satisfied, since these public elections will be voluntary, not mandatory.
It sounds like they also want to take over local control. If a state chair doesn’t want a Ron Paul controlled County central Committee, that chair will be able to appoint who he or she wants to those committee’s. Now I think those committee’s must be started at the primary process and candidates must submit applications. After the Central Committee has been established then the chairman of those local committee’s can appoint members to those committee’s. Under HB 454 it seems the state party will be controlling those committee’s. The Republicans want my money for their primary, just not my vote, if I’m not a Republican.