By Kevin Lundberg | Guest Columnist, Rocky Mountain Voice
As chairman for the Colorado GOP lawsuit committee, following is an update on the progress of our case challenging the semi-open primary in federal court.
Our contention is that political parties, being a private organization, should not be required to allow non-party members to vote in that party’s elections, selecting their nominee for general elections. This legal standard was actually established by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Jones case in 2000.
In 2021, the State Republican Central Committee unanimously approved a resolution calling for a legal challenge of Prop. 108. That ballot initiative was approved by a narrow majority vote in the 2016 general election and was first applied to primary elections in 2018. It is instructive to note that the counties with a plurality of Republican voters rejected Prop. 108 in the 2016 vote.
Prop. 108 allows unaffiliated voters to vote in the primary for either major party in Colorado. Since all party-affiliated voters are still only allowed to vote in their party’s primary or participate in nominating assemblies (for minor parties), this primary system is considered a semi-open primary.
The state party leadership for 2021-2022 did not file that lawsuit, so I and a handful of Colorado Republicans raised the money to file a suit on our own. The judge threw the case out, saying that since the Colorado Republican Party was not officially a part of the suit we did not have legal standing to file that suit.
In 2024, new leadership for the party did file the suit and I was appointed the chairman to oversee the process. The attorneys we hired for the case were John Eastman and Randy Corporan. Mr. Eastman had participated in the Jones case back in 2000 and Mr. Corporon also serves as the Republican National Committeeman for the Colorado Republican Party.
We filed the lawsuit in July 2023.
Federal court cases take a long time to wind through the legal system. Early in 2024 we requested a preliminary injunction to apply to the 2024 primary election. The judge denied our request for the injunction, but the case has continued on. We are currently at the stage of conducting depositions in preparation for the actual court hearing later this year.
Most legal scholars agree that our contention is legally sound, the only real question is can we continue to fund the case to its final conclusion.
Lawsuits of this kind are very expensive. We have raised more than $100,000 for this effort, as many Colorado citizens recognize the significance of the issue. But, much more is needed to finish the project.
Two separate funds have been established. The state party has a fund that can accept contributions and the Claremont Institute, a 501(c)3 non-profit, has a fund that can accept tax-deductible donations.
Investing in this lawsuit is one of the most efficient ways to support conservative values in our political system. Since Prop. 108 has been the law in Colorado, the Republican Party has lost the majority in all statewide elected governing bodies and statewide elected officials. There are several factors that have contributed to this dismal situation, but a key factor has been the semi-open primary and we can fix this in the courts if we can stay the course.