A group of Republican precinct delegates in Kalamazoo has taken a complaint against local party leadership to the state attorney general. But it's not clear that their argument will hold up in court.
The Republicans in question are party precinct delegates elected during the August primary.
The Kalamazoo GOP excluded 46 of the newly elected delegates from the county convention on August 15, by denying them full participation and voting privileges. That decision, the excluded delegates said, disenfranchised the voters who elected them.
First-time delegate Ashlee Miller said she was told she had to be a paid KGOP member in good standing for six months to fully participate in the Kalamazoo County Republican Convention on August 15. She said no one told her that before the convention, not even months earlier, when party members helped her fill out the paperwork to become an official candidate.
“As a new delegate who’s just getting involved in the process, like, this is extremely disheartening,” said Miller.
Though the Kalamazoo GOP relented under orders from the state party and held a second convention over Zoom a few days later, at which those delegates could vote, delegates like Miller said what the local party did is a misdemeanor under state law.
The group took the complaint against local party leadership to the Michigan Attorney General last month and asked the department to investigate.
But it is not clear that they have a case.
Attorney Mark Brewer specializes in election law. For 18 years he was the chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.
Brewer said a 1954 Michigan statute cited by the delegates probably does not apply.
“The United States Supreme Court has made clear in a series of decisions starting in the 1980s that the state, with very rare exception, may not regulate the internal functions or disputes of a political party.”
Brewer said the SCOTUS decisions make earlier laws unenforceable.
As for the delegates’ complaint that the KGOP thwarted the will of the people, “When you're running for precinct delegates, you are not running for public office," Brewer said.
"And so, all the rights that may attach to somebody who got elected to public office don't apply.”
He added that the Supreme Court rulings make it clear that the internal workings of a political party are protected by the First Amendment.
Local precinct delegates are elected to vote on a variety of party issues, including which local delegates will go to the state convention. State supreme court judges and board of education candidates, as well as some university board candidates are nominated at the state party convention.
