On April 14, the Montana Republican Party said it no longer wishes to participate in the lawsuit against the open primary. See this story. Some of the party’s county organizations will continue with the lawsuit, however.
On April 14, the Montana Republican Party said it no longer wishes to participate in the lawsuit against the open primary. See this story. Some of the party’s county organizations will continue with the lawsuit, however.
If there is any cross-over voting it is in local races.
Remember the case came about because an extreme faction won control of the Ravalli County county commission. They appointed a county treasurer to fill a vacancy, who then caused long-time employees to quit. Eventually it was found that the treasurer had skipped on a civil judgment in Florida or Georgia (not a good thing for someone who controls the county checkbook), and had been fired from her previous job. The county was later considering hiring a bounty hunter to track her down, but weren’t sure that even if found, that they would recover anything.
They had also appointed a state senator, under Montana’s goofy law to appoint legislators. In the next primary, the insurgents were swept out, and the appointed state senator was defeated by a perviously- elected state representative.
It would be better for Montana to make county and local offices non-partisan, and to adopt Top 2 for legislative, congressional, and statewide offices.
This gets the state of Montana out of interfering in party matters.