Presidential GOP candidate, Donald Trump’s Virginia Campaign Chairman on Wednesday, threatened legal action against the State GOP to stop the “statement of affiliation” that voters must sign to cast ballots in the March 1, 2016 Republican Primary.
Corey Stewart, Chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, said Trump’s campaign believes the requirement is an attempt by the GOP establishment “to confuse and scare off” new voters Trump is attracting. “If this is not corrected we’re not going to sit back and tolerate it,” Stewart said in a telephone interview.
He said Trump’s campaign hopes to persuade State GOP officials to drop the requirement without taking legal action. But he said it is discussing legal recourse, adding that a suit would likely “involve Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) and the State Board of Elections.”
The state GOP declined to comment on the legal threat.
The State Board of Elections, at the behest of the GOP’s State Central Committee, certified Dec. 16 that voters in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary will have to fill out a form that says: “My signature below indicates that I am a Republican.”
Trump “is attracting a new breed of voters who are not establishment Republicans” and who “want to upset the apple cart,” Stewart said. He asserted that it is “highly suspicious” that the State GOP is requiring the statement at a time that Trump’s insurgent supporters pose a threat to the party’s establishment.
In his first of five tweets Sunday, Trump intimated that State GOP officials are targeting his campaign and he also blamed the Republican National Committee. “It begins, Republican Party of Virginia, controlled by the RNC, is working hard to disallow independent, unaffiliated and new voters. BAD!” In subsequent tweets Trump called the requirement “a suicidal mistake” and “stupid.”
RPV’s response: On Tuesday, as criticism about the statement of affiliation mounted among Trump supporters and some other Virginia Republicans, John Findlay, Executive Director of the State GOP, emailed a letter to the party’s 128 unit Chairmen, rebutting the charges. Findlay noted that the Republican Party of Virginia reached out to GOP Presidential campaigns about the proposed statement in September, but heard nothing from the Trump campaign for more than three months. “For reasons unknown to our party at this time, Donald Trump has decided that this is an attack against his campaign,” Findlay wrote. “Let me be very clear, the statement of affiliation is not designed to favor or hurt any candidate whatsoever. “The purpose of the statement is to build our party and prevent Democrats from voting in the March 1st Republican Presidential primary. Had the Trump campaign responded prior to the meeting, our party would have alerted our members to their feedback at the September State Central meeting when the statement of affiliation was voted on.” Findlay also asserted: “The fact is the Democrats are terrified that our new statement will give us an opportunity to develop a large statewide voter list for future party building.”
Stewart, who in November won a third full term as head of the Prince William board, has had a good relationship with the state party. The state GOP has donated nearly $146,000 in cash and in-kind services to his campaign committee since 2007, mostly in vendor payments for direct mailings. Stewart’s committee has donated nearly $87,000 to the state GOP since 2007, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Stewart noted that Virginia Republicans did not require voters to sign such a statement before voting in the 2008 or 2012 Presidential Primaries. The State GOP’s governing body did vote to require loyalty pledges ahead of those primaries, but scrapped them before voters went to the polls.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
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