Special election: What role will major parties play?
Sometime this week Dean Heller will resign from his 2nd Congressional District seat in order to be sworn in as Nevada's junior senator, having been appointed by Gov. Brian Sandoval to fill the office being vacated by Sen. John Ensign, who resigned to avoid facing an ethics committee probe.
To fill Rep. Heller's vacant seat, Republican Gov. Sandoval on Friday called for a special election to be held Sept. 13, a Tuesday. The congressional seat, which covers all of 16 counties and part of Clark County, has always been held by a Republican.
The tactical question hanging over the whole process is: How will Democratic Secretary of State Ross Miller choose to accept candidates for the ballot? The law clearly states "no primary may be held."
Some have suggested Mr. Miller could cut the political parties out of the process and allow any and all comers ballot access so long as they gather the appropriate number of signatures and pay the established fee. Under this scenario, the pundits suggest, a large number of Republican aspirants might split the party vote and allow a Democrat to win with a small plurality.
(It is not a farfetched plot. Thirty years ago, the Democratic governor of Louisiana hatched a plan to destroy the already weak Republican Party by switching from partisan to open primaries. The first governor elected under the new system was a Republican.)
But a 2003 amendment of state election laws clearly anticipates and outlines a role for both major and minor political parties in a congressional special election.
A section of the law states, "A candidate of a major political party is nominated by filing a declaration or acceptance of candidacy within the time prescribed by the Secretary of State A minor political party that wishes to place its candidates on the ballot must file a list of its candidates with the Secretary of State ..." etc., etc.
In another section of the Nevada Revised Statutes, the procedure for filling a vacancy is outlined: "a vacancy occurring in a major or minor political party nomination for a partisan office may be filled by a candidate designated by the party central committee of the county or State, as the case may be, of the major political party or by the executive committee of the minor political party "
It would appear it is up to the parties how they do that. A state-run primary is proscribed, but there is nothing to prevent any major or minor political party from deciding how and whom it will nominate. Their central committees could choose or they could even conduct a self-financed shirt-tail primary of their registered members, or draw high card, for that matter.
Independents, meanwhile, could gain ballot access by simply following the existing procedures outlined in the statutes.
We don't see how Mr. Miller has any option other than to accept the qualified nominees of all the political parties who choose to designate a standard-bearer. There probably will be litigation no matter the decision, but allowing the parties to designate their own candidates has firmer legal footing.
Mr. Miller said he would announce procedures Monday.
