The Indiana Supreme Court will hear State and John Rust v Morales on February 12, 2024. This is the case over the Indiana election law that says a party can bar someone from its primary ballot if the candidate did not vote in two of the most recent primary elections held for that party. The Republican Party is using that law to try to block John Rust from running for U.S. Senate in May 2024. The lower state court held the law unconstitutional, and the State Supreme Court has not stayed that ruling. So if Rust submits 4,500 valid signatures by February 9, he will be on the ballot unless the State Supreme Court reverses the lower court. Thanks to Mitch Harper for this news.
I thought someone in the previous discussion of this here, or one of them, claimed the Republican Party wanted him in their primary, which should be 100% their decision either way (along with him of course, I’m not suggesting drafting unwilling candidates), and the state government was trying to interfere. This sounds like what I thought before that, which is the Republican Party does not want him in the primary. Was I correct?
If so, no judge or bureaucrat should ever be allowed to interfere in the right of the candidate and party to freely associate or dissociate. Association should never, ever, ever be allowed in any way shape or form anywhere on anything. No exceptions. If government ballots are deemed to be an exception, the only acceptable solution can be to get rid of government ballots completely.
There is nothing in this universe more important than the right of any person or group of people to force anyone to associate with him/her/them in unwanted ways, regardless of what any moron judge or bureaucrat anywhere says, and any rapist, robber, murderer, judge, mob, politician, political body, gang, cartel, or whatever they call themselves or get called by others, can and should be resisted by any means necessary, regardless of whether those means are legal or illegal. By any means necessary means exactly that.
* that tries to force people to associate in any will with a person or group of people
PUBLIC NOMINATIONS OF PUBLIC OFFICERS BY PUBLIC ELECTORS
— NOT BY INDEPENDENT FACTION EMPIRES.
Gotta agree with P. Nothing should ever trump freedom of dissociation for any reason whatsoever, and any means necessary are justified to prevent forced association of any kind.
HOW MANY FORCED ASSOCIATIONS IN PUBLIC SKOOOLS ???
IN DRAFT MILITARIES ???
IN DRAFT JURIES ???
COMMON POINT ???
Communists.
@P.,
The State of Indiana dictates who may run in primaries of political parties. The primaries are paid for by the State.
It used to be that someone who voted in the previous party primary could run in the primary. There is an exception where the county party potentate could grant an exception.
The law was changed to look back two elections, and Mr. Rust did not vote in 2020 because of Covid. He did vote in the 2012 Democratic primary. His county chairman won’t grant a dispensation.
It is likely that this is done to clear a path for the candidate chosen by the party elite.
In Indiana the Republican Party has to tug on its forelock and beg the legislature to grant it a primary. It is a fiction that the party controls the association or even that is a private body.
The February 12th date is clearly a ploy to get mootness. (If Rust doesn’t submit the signatures, there’s no reason to decide on the merits of the case.)
The law was changed to voting in 2 previous primaries due to Trey Hollingsworth, who parachuted in from Tennessee and effectively bought a southern Indiana seat to get in Congress. As I’ve said previously, this is a dumb law and effectively acts as incumbent protection. In 2022, Congressman Jim Baird had Charles Bookwalter file to run against him. Bookwalter had not voted in 2 Republican primaries in a row and had to go to his county chair to get blessing to run. The county chair did not dispute Bookwalter’s conservative bona fides upon production of evidence, but did not understand why Bookwalter wanted to run against Congressman Baird and refused to sign for him. This reaks of corruption to have all this power in one individual who may have ulterior relationships with incumbents for all offices, not just Congress.
In Rust’s case here, his voting primary history shows he doesn’t vote in primaries (the primary being held against him is voting in a Democrat primary back in 2012).
I’m all for the Republican Party having their own rules for who gets to run for their office. The Libertarian Party of Indiana likewise has its own rules of you must be a party member of the state party to run for its offices. The Libertarians unlike the Republicans we pay for our own “primary” via our county party and state party conventions that get held where candidates are nominated. The Republican and Democratic Parties of Indiana do not practice party membership and has the state foot the bill for its selection of primary candidates. Therefore the state law applies here because both parties are using a state-sanctioned process. There’s nothing stopping the Republican Party of Indiana from opting out of the primary, practicing party membership registration, and paying the costs of holding a primary themselves.
The obvious answer to me is for the Republican state legislature where they have a supermajority and can pass whatever they want to implement party registration electorally.
That’s a whole lot of confusion but to me the preponderance of the evidence doesn’t change my interpretation. The way the libertarians do it makes more sense to me. But the Republicans are the dominant party in the state and I find it hard to believe that a Republican controlled legislature is passing and not repealing laws to keep candidates the Republican Party wants in its primaries out of those primaries. It seems much more plausible that the legislature and county chairmen are overall acting to keep outside interlopers the party does not want out of its primaries, even if the process sometimes yields counterintuitive, ill thought out, or even corrupt results. No process is perfect; each has its downsides.
The law per the judge makes 80% of the residents of Indiana ineligible to run for public office as either a Republican or Democrat, unless they get a county chair signature.
“It seems much more plausible that the legislature and county chairmen are overall acting to keep outside interlopers the party does not want out of its primaries, even if the process sometimes yields counterintuitive, ill thought out, or even corrupt results.”
The judge’s ruling states that if the legislature wants to change the requirements to run for public office, they should do that via state constitutional amendment. This is the same reason residency requirements are unconstitutional. They’re adding on extras in addition to what is stated in the Constitution. Why the Republicans are in my opinion full of BS on this matter is if they want to stop insincere candidates from running for their offices, why does the state not practice party registration?
One could make the argument that this law if it was applied universally would’ve meant Donald Trump should’ve been ineligible to run on a Republican ballot in 2016 for President.
I direct everyone to the Statehouse Happenings broadcast from last week if you want further information. http://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rust-scores-victory-as-judge-nukes-indiana-election-law/id1533805124?i=1000638486196
“The law was changed to look back two elections, and Mr. Rust did not vote in 2020 because of Covid. He did vote in the 2012 Democratic primary. His county chairman won’t grant a dispensation.
It is likely that this is done to clear a path for the candidate chosen by the party elite.”
Or they just don’t want to bother with holding a primary. It’s pretty ridiculous, Banks is going to win going away regardless the primary and the general, so him and McIntosh at Club for Growth being up in arms feels like there’s some ulterior motivation. It’s not like Banks would agree to a debate or anything. They obviously didn’t trust Rokita to argue this in court so Rokita outsourced defending state law here to powerful Republican attorney Jim Bopp, which is funny and ironic in light of Rokita’s recent legal troubles and what he’s stated.
Niederberger alleged the Marion County government office wouldn’t open its doors to count his signatures in 2022 when he ultimately fell short trying to primary challenge Todd Young. Meanwhile Democrats in this state have not had a contested primary for Governor or Senator since 2008, which is absurd, and the guy running for Senate they have is a nobody.