On May 12, the Montana Republican Party voluntarily withdrew part of its lawsuit concerning the Montana open primary. The party had asked the Ninth Circuit to rule that the state cannot force the party to elect local party officers in an open primary. The recent Republican Party notice to the Ninth Circuit says, “On May 5, 2015, Montana Governor Steve Bullock signed into law HB 454, which allows political parties to establish their own rules regarding the selection of their internal leaders. Appellants’ preliminary injunction appeal is therefore moot.”
However, the part of the case over whether the party can be forced to let members of other parties vote in its primaries for public office is still alive in the U.S. District Court.
The Republicans were talking about how they supported local control on issues but supported HB 454 that will allow the state to appoint those central committee people. Remember in 2008 the Montana Republicans had a presidential caucus, with Ron Paul folks looking to take control of those committee’s. The state Republicans didn’t like that fact and were doing what they could to rid the Republican Party of Ron Paul types. At the lat Senate hearing on HB 454 several people spoke about local control of central committee’s. The Republican Party wants to close it’s primary but they still want our money to pay for their private affair.