Michigan Primary delayed? I hope...

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200771107020

Court strikes down Jan. 15 primary
Voter participation lists called unconstitutional
November 7, 2007

By DAWSON BELL

FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU

UPDATED AT 12:25 P.M.

Michigan's star-crossed bid to leap to the head of the presidential primary nominating process appeared to go up in smoke Wednesday as an Ingham County Circuit Court judge ruled that a provision in the law giving the Democratic and Republican parties exclusive access to voter lists from the Jan. 15 primary was unconstituional.

Judge William Collette said giving the parties exclusive access to the lists was equivalent to transferring public property to private interests and would have required 2/3 votes in the Legislature when the law was enacted last summer.

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The list provision presented "a clear injury to the public interest," Collette said, shutting out citizens, journalists and activists for the benefit of the two major political parties.

Collette also said he was forced to suspend the primary, rather than merely invalidate the list provision, because the Legislature chose to include a "non-severability" clause in the law, making the entire act void if any part of it was struck down.

The lawsuit challenging the primary was brought by a group headed by Mark Grebner, an Ingham County commissioner and political list broker, that also included former Free Press political columnist Hugh McDiarmid.

Grebner said after the judge's ruling that he thought it unlikely the two parties, the Legislature and Gov. Jennifer Granholm would be able to enact a new primary law in time to go ahead with the Jan. 15 primary, which was already under a cloud of doubt because the date violated national party rules. Both Democratic and Republican national committees have moved to disqualify some Michigan delegates from the nominating process, and several of the leading Democratic Party presidential candidates had pledged to boycott Michigan over the rules violation.

Granholm spokeswoman Megan Brown said Wednesday morning that Collette's ruling was under review, but that efforts would be made "to make sure Michigan remains relevant within the presidential primary."

A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said no decision has been reached about how to proceed.

State Democrats have the alternative of holding a presidential caucus, and had set a Feb. 9 date for a caucus before the primary law was enacted. But influential leaders in the party, including Granholm, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and national committee member Debbie Dingell, have pushed for an earlier date to ensure candidates address Michigan issues.

Michigan Republicans earlier considered nominating a presidential candidate at a party convention in late January.

Democratic Party leaders were not immediately available for comment, but Michigan Republican Party chairman Saul Anuzis said Collette's ruling makes it clear there is no problem with holding a presidential primary in early January.

"This is just a hiccup in the process and Michigan Republicans still plan to hold their presidential primary on Jan. 15, 2008," Anuzis said.

Michigan Assistant Attorney General Patrick O'Brien attempted to salvage the Jan. 15 primary in arguments Wednesday, telling Collette the voter lists were only a small part of the pubic record created by the election and that the public would have access to information about who voted in the primary and could contact individual voters to inquire whether they voted on the Democratic or Republican ballot.

Michigan GOP lawyer Eric Doster also told the court that access to the list was accorded to the political parties as "right of free association."

But Grebner's lawyer, James Wright, said voters participating in the primary were not necessarily members of either party. Closing off access to the voter lists would shut out ordinary citizens and the minor political parties at a cost of millions of dollars to the general public, he said.

Collette was unpersuaded. Exclusive access to the voter lists in a public election is "clearly ... unconstitutional," he said. "Public money is being used for a private purpose."