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State GOP stomped slapstick proposal

| January 19, 2022 1:00 AM

The three commissioners of Spud County, Idaho, are Larry, Curly and Moe.

In that sparsely populated but potassium-blessed county, Larry, Curly and Moe are determined to block the political aspirations of anybody who doesn’t see life in tunnel vision, black and white.

Especially white.

That includes candidates with impeccable backgrounds of dedicated public service, spotless criminal records and broad support from the people they’d be representing. If you don't think exactly what the three commissioners think, you're screwed.

Under a proposal that was pushed by the Bonneville Republican Central Committee (with Idaho Freedom Foundation fingerprints all over it), Larry, Curly and Moe could have prevented the best from even making the primary ballot.

The good news is that the Idaho Freedom Foundation — pardon us, the Bonneville Republican Central Committee — got the proverbial double eye-poke, head-bonk and ear-slap from the state GOP this month. The proposal was unanimously yanked off-air.

The only reasonable argument L, C and M could mount was that Republicans don’t want Democrats running for office pretending to be Republicans. There’s not enough room in this editorial to examine what exactly makes a Republican a Republican anymore, so we’ll stick to this: Anyone who has long been registered Republican.

Where that argument breaks down, though, is in this number: 310,084.

The 310,084 represents the number of Idaho registered voters who are unaffiliated - actual independents, you might say. After the Idaho GOP decided to close its primaries in 2007 and a federal judge OK’d the decision on First Amendment grounds four years later, voters could no longer just show up at their polling place and request one party’s ballot. Only registered Republicans could vote in the Republican primary, which you’d think makes sense.

The problem is those 310,084 independent but basically disenfranchised prospective voters. Because they’re unaffiliated, none can vote in the GOP primary — even though many likely lean right anyway.

Expert testimony from the federal case stating that the closed primary would have the “very real and immediate effect of…producing more ideologically extreme candidates” has proved devastatingly accurate.

In fact, Larry, Curly and Moe probably are far less concerned about Democrats crossing over than giving power to people who are most inclined to vote on the very best qualified Republicans running for office, rather than those who are ideologically aligned with the stooges. So here’s some direction from stage left (but only slightly left):

Kootenai County unaffiliateds (and there were 29,610 of you as of Dec. 1), register Republican so you have a say in what goes down in the May 17 GOP primary. Do it here and laugh in the stooges’ faces: https://www.kcgov.us/323/Party-Affiliation