A federal judge rejected a fringe Republican faction’s attempt to oust four candidates from a rural Georgia county’s ballot Tuesday in a closely watched decision that dealt a blow to the movement’s efforts to purge “traitors” from the GOP.
U.S. District Judge Billy Ray’s ruling found the Catoosa County GOP’s attempt to disqualify four candidates for the county Board of Commissioners is not in the “public’s best interest” and dismissed arguments that allowing the quartet to qualify infringed on the party’s free speech rights.
It doesn’t mean the end of the legal fight, as state and federal cases are still pending. But the federal ruling struck a blow at attempts by ultraconservatives to pass “accountability” rules aimed at giving grassroots activists the final say over who can run on the GOP ticket.
It marked the latest decision that has gone against the Catoosa GOP, which sought a legal ruling that could embolden other local party organizations to pass rules aimed at purging the party of more moderate Republicans.
It came as little surprise. While wrestling with the implications of the case last week, Ray seemed skeptical that the First Amendment’s freedom of association applied to parties seeking to ban certain candidates from running.
His nine-page ruling also rejected an attempt to allow a pair of nonbinding ballot questions defining the four as “anti-Trump Democrats,” calling it an “improper attempt to use the ballot to influence voters.”
Ray’s order also noted the time crunch in the run-up to the May 21 primary. Overseas and military ballots have already been mailed, and early voting begins Monday, leaving little time for election officials to overhaul the ballot.
The legal fight broke out in March when party officials blocked County Commission Chairman Larry Black, Commissioners Jeff Long and Vanita Hollander, and former Commission Chairman Steven Henry from qualifying as Republicans.
All four had previously won their seats running as Republicans in Catoosa, a county of about 70,000 along the Tennessee border so conservative that even many Democrats vote in the GOP primary.
Superior Court Judge Don Thompson ultimately ordered the Catoosa election board to allow the four to qualify, and he threatened to slap a major fine on the Catoosa GOP if it doesn’t heed his order.
The party appealed the ruling and filed a separate lawsuit asking a federal judge to block the election board from qualifying the quartet as GOP candidates, saying Republicans would be “significantly harmed” if the four won election as Republicans.
While it might seem a parochial battle in a deep-red corner of Georgia, the outcome of the legal case has major consequences.
The group crusading for the new rules, the Georgia Republican Assembly, unsuccessfully pushed last year for policies that could have given the Georgia GOP the final say over who can run as Republicans for governor, legislative seats and other state offices.
The organization vilifies Gov. Brian Kemp and other state incumbents who rejected then-President Donald Trump’s demands to overturn his 2020 defeat, and it has targeted legislative leaders deemed unworthy of the party’s brand.
But the movement has gained more traction in smaller, conservative counties, where most races for commission seats and other local offices are decided in GOP primaries.
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