[EL] question for the list on whether the South Dakota Republican Party can do this...

[Richard Winger]

South Dakota is one of the states in which certain party officers are elected by the voters at the primary in June of even-numbered years.  A former chair of the Minnehaha County Republican Party, Lora Hubbel, was re-elected to the state central committee from Minnehaha County on June 4, 2014.
But on July 8, she agreed to be the running mate of an independent gubernatorial candidate, Michael Myers.  South Dakota elects Governor and Lt. Gov. on a joint ticket.  Myers' original Lt. Gov. running mate resigned and Myers chose Hubbel for his new Lt Gov running mate.
South Dakota lets anyone be an independent candidate, regardless of how they are registered to vote, and Hubbel continued to be a registered Republican and still considers herself a Republican.
On October 16, 2014, the Republican Party passed a bylaw saying anyone who runs as an independent candidate (in an election with a Republican nominee running also) and who was a party officer automatically forfeits his or her party post, even if the position is won in a party primary.  I agree the party could do that for the future, but would Hubbel have a claim that she can't be removed now because she won the primary for party office before the rule existed?
I vaguely remember a California state court case when a county central committee removed an elected member because he was gay.  But I don't remember if that case involved retroactivity.

Richard Winger
415-922-9779
PO Box 470296, San Francisco Ca 94147
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