[EL] Good-faith party affiliation

[Richard Winger]

Yes, New York has a law like that, and technically the Hawaii procedure bars members.  Its just that it was only applied to get rid of a member because he filed for the primary, but the law itself relates to members, not just candidates.
The Conservative Party of New York went to court some years ago to invalidate enrollment into its ranks by hundreds of police and/or fire employees of some jurisdiction on Long Island.  The party charged they all enrolled into the party at the advice of their union, hoping to influence which candidate would win the Conservative Party primary for a particular office.
 Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
      From: Doug Spencer <dougspencer at gmail.com>
 To: Richard Winger <richardwinger at yahoo.com> 
Cc: "law-election at uci.edu" <law-election at uci.edu> 
 Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 12:54 PM
 Subject: Re: [EL] Good-faith party affiliation
   
Thanks, Richard. All of these cases appear to deal with parties excluding candidates for lack of good faith affiliation. Do you know if there are similar laws and cases about parties excluding members from the party registration list for lack of good faith affiliation?
Thanks,Doug


On Wed, Apr 15, 2015 at 3:45 PM, Richard Winger <richardwinger at yahoo.com> wrote:

New York has one.  Also Alabama major parties routinely bar candidates from their primary on the grounds that the party doesn't think they are sincere members, and the Alabama state and federal courts generally uphold the parties.  See Alabama Republican Party v McGinley, 893 So 2d 337 (2004); Swanson v Pitt, 330 F Supp 2d 1269 (m.d.Al 2004); Dow v Alabama Dem. Party, 897 So 2d 1035 (2004).
Also Hawaii state courts permit parties to remove candidates from their primary ballots.  The Green Party went to court to keep some pro-life candidates out of its primary.  The party successfully argued that any candidate who wants to forbid abortion is not a bona fide party member because that stance contradicts the party platform.
 Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
      From: Doug Spencer <dougspencer at gmail.com>
 To: "law-election at uci.edu" <law-election at uci.edu> 
 Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2015 12:24 PM
 Subject: [EL] Good-faith party affiliation
   
The Connecticut Republican Party recently called an "exclusion hearing" for a married couple that the party believes are not sincere members. The wife ran for local office as a Democrat, both donated money to a Democratic PAC and attended the Democratic headquarters on election night in 2013, etc.. State law (Conn. Gen. Stat. § 9-60) permits the party to remove members for lack of "good-faith affiliation" with the party. 
News coverage of the hearing is here.
Does anybody know how many states have a "good-faith affiliation" law? I suspect that many parties have similar clauses in their bylaws, but I'm curious how many states have enacted these restrictions into law.
Thanks in advance for any leads.Doug

-----Douglas M. SpencerAssociate Professor of Law & Public PolicyUniversity of Connecticut315 Chase Hall55 Elizabeth StreetHartford, CT 06105http://www.dougspencer.org
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