Republican party seeks to toss aside a challenger to Baird
Wednesday, June 7, 2006 6:54 AM PDT
By Don Jenkins
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe Republican Party's anointed challenger to Democratic Congressman Brian Baird moved this week to reaffirm his status as the official GOP candidate, while an intraparty rival said he won't withdraw even though party leaders want him to drop out.
"They're trying to eliminate primaries and decide who the candidate is," said Olympia resident Daniel Miller, dismissed as a serious candidate by his own party.
Shunning Miller, the Republican State Committee endorsed retired airline pilot Michael Messmore, 59, of Toledo in late May as the only sanctioned GOP challenger to Baird, who's seeking a fifth two-year term.
Miller said Tuesday he still will challenge Messmore in the September primary. "I'm going to put down my $1,625 (filing fee) as a Republican and be on the ballot," Miller said.
That, said Cowlitz County Republican Party Chairman Shannon Barnett, would be "unfortunate."
Miller, 36, tried and failed to win party support and should accept the outcome, Barnett said. "He was not the candidate who emerged from the process."
The process by which political parties nominate candidates for the November general election has been an issue since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that parties can control who votes in partisan primaries.
The ruling led to a change in Washington's political culture and the demise of the blanket primary, which had allowed every voter to choose freely among candidates of all parties for nearly 70 years. Voters now must opt to participate in only one party's primary.
Going a step further to dictate use of the party label, the parties are moving to qualify candidates for the primary election, though state law still allows any eligible person to declare themselves a Republican or Democrat and claim a spot on the ballot.
Barnett said self-declaring candidates may misrepresent, rather than represent, party positions.
"That person may not truly represent the values and principles of your organization, and may be polar opposites of everything your organization believes," Barnett said. "We want a system that doesn't interfere with our right to organize."
Miller and anyone else had the chance at caucuses, county conventions and the state convention to convince party members to support their candidacy, Barnett said. "It's not an exclusionary process. Anyone has a chance to participate."
Miller said a relatively small number of Republicans made a decision that should be left to voters in a primary election. "I don't think the Republican apparatus is being very fair."
Party rules allow for more than one candidate to receive the party's endorsement, though party leaders chose to support only Messmore after the previous leading contender, Olympia homebuilder Tom Crowson, withdrew, citing the inability to raise money.
Messmore, who said he will spend $10,000 of his own money to get his campaign started, announced his candidacy too late for some of the county conventions where Crowson and Miller asked for support.
To demonstrate backing among rank-and-file Republicans and not just the state committee, Messmore said he will circulate petitions, another way a candidate can qualify for the party's endorsement.
Messmore plans to collect before late July signatures from at least 8,440 voters, a figure equal to 5 percent of the number of voters the Republican Party calculates lean toward GOP candidates in the 3rd Congressional District.
Messmore said he hasn't considered whether he would withdraw if he doesn't collect enough signatures. "If I need to sit in the Wal-Mart parking lot, we'll get the signatures."
Messmore agreed someone could challenge him for the party nomination. Another candidate, he said, "stands the chance, though, of having the party take him to court."
Asked whether the party should sue Miller if he files, Messmore said, "That's between the state party and Daniel Miller."
Efforts to reach GOP state Chairwoman Diane Tebelius were unsuccessful Tuesday.
She issued a statement in May calling Messmore a "great candidate." A party press release said the state committee endorsed Messmore "after his only serious primary challenger, Tom Crowson, dropped out of the race."
Miller, who said he makes his living in miscellaneous ways -- such as managing properties and landscaping -- said he doesn't know whether the party will sue to keep him off the ballot, though he said he thinks it's a possibility.
"They ballyhoo that we're going to Iraq for democracy, but they don't want to practice democracy in their own party," he said.
Past Month's Most Commented Stories