On April 3, officers of the state Alabama Republican Party voted to prevent State Senator Harri Anne Smith from placing her name on the June 1 primary ballot. She wants to run for re-election to the State Senate, 29th district, in southeast Alabama.
The party said she was denied the right to file because in 2008 she endorsed a Democrat, Bobby Bright, for U.S. House. Alabama law gives parties the ability to bar “disloyal” members from running in party primaries.
Smith says she may run for re-election as an independent. If she does, she will need approximately 1,100 valid signatures by June 1. She was elected as a Republican to the State Senate in 1998, 2002, and 2006. In the 2002 general election, she was unopposed. In the 2006 general election, she received 26,507 votes and her Democratic opponent received 8,710. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
That sounds like an idea to discuss at the California State Central Committee meeting of the American Independent Party. In 2007, on July 20th the AIP SCC
removed Rayna P. Mike-King from office and the SCC for
being a register Republican in Los Angeles County and having the title of Republican Busineess Woman of the Year. Even Dr. Don J. Grundmann voted to remove Rayna
P. Mike-King from the SCC and party office. It should be noted that the Taliban banker Michael Mixon who received the title of Republican Business Man of the Year was convicted on September 9, 2009 in the US Distict Court for the Southern District of New York
as a terrorist banker.
Sincerely, Mark Seidenberg, Vice Chairman, American Independent Party
I might have thought that the vice-chair of the American Independent Party would be able to put together a paragraph of simple English that actually made sense. But I guess I would have been wrong…
If we the taxpayer are paying for this primary, how can they keep her off the ballot. She can still file can’t she. In most places the party’s bylaws may say one thing, but usually if a non party candidate does run in the primary, then you just run someone against them.
She should run as an independent and split the vote. Serves them right.
The Republican Party will NOT tell me who I can vote for. I will write Harri Anne Smith in as a write-in canidate. I did not vote for Mr. Love when he ran before and will not vote for him now especially after the Republican Party pulls this little trick. In fact, I will NOT be voting for any Rebublican. I DO NOT LIKE NOR APPRECIATE this DIRTY UNDERHANDED TRICK and hope that a lot more of you voters join me in rejecting this ploy of the Republican Party. Vote for Harri Anne Smith by writing-in her name on the ballot!
Perhaps she should get a lawyer with some brains about —
Separate is still NOT equal.
Brown v. Bd of Ed 1954.
Is anybody who less than 100 percent *loyal* to a regime DISLOYAL ??? — think back to the EVIL rotted divine right of kings regimes in the EVIL past.
Disloyal to the regime — OFF with your head ???
I.E. How STONE AGE primitive are some of the party hacks in some States in the year 2010 ???
Harri Anne Smith is a proven conservative Senator who is in touch with her constituents, This travesty perpetrated by the Alabama Republican Party is a perfect example how both the Democrats and the Republicans have lost the bubble on reality. To take this action to a proven vote-getter on such a flimsy excuse smacks of politics at its worst This is not about endorsing Bobby Bright. That happened two years ago. This is because she supported letting the people decide the electronic bingo issue in a state-wide vote. Bob Reilly views her as a threat to his “kingdom”, therefore she must go. I will take a step this morning that I have been contemplating for many years. I had not had sufficient motive to actually do it until this fiasco occurred. I am going to the Courthouse when it opens for business, and change my decades-long Republican registration to Independent. I hope she runs as an Independent because she’d have my vote. It would be justice personified if she were to win her seat as an Independent, and the GOP lose that seat. Both major Parties need to take a step back and do a serious review of their platforms. They are completely out of touch with the wishes and desires of the American people.
Fred Griffin
Fred- why not register as a Libertarian or a Constitutionalist instead of as an independent? Doesn’t it accomplish the same thing but send a resounding message to BOTH major parties that you are really fed up with them and looking for a NEW party? I sympathize with you completely.
Senator Smith would be free to be the nominee of any party other than the Republicans and Democrats, if she wished to. The number of signatures would be the same. However, if she circulated a minor party petition, she would need to be sure that minor party wanted to nominate her. All party petitions in Alabama just are in the name of the party, and they don’t carry the name of the nominee. If she felt like being the Libertarian Party nominee, the petition would simply be for the purpose of putting the Libertarian Party on the ballot in that one district, and then it would be up to the Libertarian Party of that district to decide whom to nominate. This is all highly theoretical since I’m sure the label “independent” suits Senator Smith best, under these circumstances. Or maybe should could create her own party and call it “Moderate Republican Party”. Alabama has no law barring one party from using a word in its name that is also part of the name of some established party. Also if she had a party, instead of just being an independent, she would have a better spot on the ballot, and a straight-ticket device. In fact if she called it the “Alabama Moderate Republican Party” it would appear on the ballot above the “Alabama Republican Party”, because Alabama puts parties on the ballot in alphabetical order, and “Alabama Moderate Republican” comes before “Alabama Republican” in the alphabet.
This reminds me of the 1986 brouhaha which led to the election of Alabama’s first Republican governor since Reconstruction. The Democratic Party disqualified the winner of the Dem primary for governor and declared the second-place finisher to be the nominee. The voters were so mad that they elected Guy Hunt.
#7: If she’s such a great conservative, why would she support a candidate who, if elected, would vote for Nancy Pelosi for House speaker? Also, you cannot register with a party, or as an independent, since Alabama is one of the 21 states that does not register voters by party.
Alabama is one of the 10 or so states that has party runoff (or second) primaries. Since state law does not prohibit it, the Republicans invite people who voted in the Democratic primary to cross over several weeks later and vote in the Republican runoff. To my knowledge, this is the only example of this in the U. S.
#9: If she wanted to create her own party, I would suggest “Independent Republican Party,” which would also be placed above the Republican Party on the ballot.
Of course, if she does this, don’t be surprised if the law is changed to prohibit it from happening again.
BTW: Isn’t Minnesota’s Republican Party officially named the “Independent Republican Party”? If memory serves, the Republicans merged with the Independent Party and changed the party’s name.
I am going to the Courthouse when it opens for business, and change my decades-long Republican registration to Independent.
At which point you will discover that the state already did it for you (and everyone else) quite a while ago. Alabama has not had partisan voter registration in over a decade.
Fred- why not register as a Libertarian or a Constitutionalist instead of as an independent?
For the same reason you can’t register as a Democrat or Republican: there is no longer any such thing as registering with a political party in Alabama. The space on the form is just not there to choose or write in any party designation.
Pingback: Sitting State Senator rejected by Alabama Republicans for primary, ponders running as an independent | Independent Political Report
The Minnesota Republican Party is just “Republican” now. It gave up “Independent-Republican” some years ago.
The Republican and Democratic Parties in Alabama both put “Alabama” as the first word in their party name, so “Independent Republican Party” would be below both major parties on the ballot.
In that case, she should call it the “Alabama Independent Republican Party.”
More Alabama voters identify with “independent” than with “moderate.”
Maybe if she is re-elected she will sponsor an open primary bill.
Well, I would think that a political party would be able to say who it wants to represent it and who it does not want to represent it. Personally, this particular case sounds a bit silly/petty, but so does what the Boy Scouts of America says about gays.
#12: What years did Alabama register voters by party? (I’m assuming that they had closed primaries when they had party registration.) Several years ago, a former Alabama resident told me that he had registered with a party when he lived there.
#17: Alabama already has open primaries.
Richard: Doesn’t Alabama give parties the option of nominating by convention?
#19 A real open primary like in Louisiana or Washington.
#20: According to the US Supreme Court, a real open primary is one in which the party’s ballot is available to any voter. In almost every state where one major party has an open primary, the other major party does too– which means that each voter picks a party on primary day.
The Louisiana system is a general election with a runoff.
The Washington state system is a preliminary general election with a runoff.
Remember when Louisiana held the first round of its congressional elections on the first Tuesday in November of even-numbered years, with a runoff at a later date if necessary?
Was that first election a “primary”??