Voters are responding to the local Republican Party’s plans for a qualifying committee to decide if candidates wishing to appear on the May GOP Primary ballot are “real Republicans”.  On Monday of this week, the local GOP posted a notice at the Chattooga County Courthouse saying any candidate wishing to be on the ballot would be vetted by a five-person committee to decide if they “uphold the values” of the Republican Party.

WZQZ has spoken with several local Republican office holders who said that they were not aware of the plans for a qualifying committee to determine if they would be able to appear on the ballot as Republicans.  Currently, all elected office holders in Chattooga County are Republican except for Coroner Earl Rainwater and Chattooga County Board of Education Chairman Eddie Elsberry – both Democrats.

WZQZ News reported the story on Tuesday and there was a swift backlash from voters.  One posted online, “This reeks of the corruption that we see on the national level where the Democrat National Committee and Republican National Committee dictate who can be on the ballot and participate in debates. The people of Chattooga County should decide who’s elected, not a ‘five person committee’.”

Local Republican Party Chair Jennifer Tudor replied, “There is no dictation of whom can be on the ballot. Anyone wishing to run has three options to run: as Republican, Democrat and independent. There is nothing blocking anyone from running. Political parties have the constitutionally protected right of association. Do you recall about 10 years ago when the local Democratic party stopped Jason Winters from running as a Democrat?.”

Tudor’s comments did not explain that in order for a non-incumbent candidate to appear on the ballot as an independent, that candidate would have to gather thousands of signatures to be eligible to run as an independent candidate. (See this article from WZQZ in 2015 about Commissioner Winters’ decision to run as a Republican GOP Chairman Spencer Hogg’s Comments On Winters Running As A Republican).

Other voters commented:

 A “committee” can’t decide on who runs and don’t. They can decide their support for sure.

My opinion is this. If anyone qualified wants to run as a Republican then so be it. The Party can surely decide where their support lies. But to say you have to satisfy an appointed Committee just to have an R by their name. 

Isn’t this similar to what the Communist party is currently doing in Hong Kong? I vaguely remember a quote about democracy being fine as long as they control who runs.

Who’s the 5 person committee?

Excellent argument here for opening the process to more than two parties.