In Wake of Court Ruling, Primary Losers Vow to Sue

Buoyed by Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision tossing out California’s blanket primary, three former Republican Assembly candidates said Monday they will seek to be declared winners of their respective March primary elections.

The candidates, two from Orange County and a third from San Bernardino County, said they would have won those races if only Republican votes had been counted. In each case, they were surpassed by candidates receiving more votes from people registered as Democrats, independents and with minor political parties.

In Orange County’s 67th Assembly District, Jim Righeimer of Huntington Beach gathered 2,837 more Republican votes than the primary winner, Huntington Beach Councilman Tom Harman, according to an unofficial recount by the Orange County registrar of voters. In the 72nd Assembly District, a separate recount showed Bruce Matthias, a former racetrack executive from Anaheim Hills, led Brea City Councilwoman Lynn Daucher, the party’s November nominee, by 1,330 GOP votes.

In the third race, 61st Assembly District Republican candidate Bob DeMallie of San Bernardino got 417 more Republican votes than primary winner Dennis Yates, according to a vote breakdown by the San Bernardino County registrar.

“The court on every point said you cannot hijack the party nominating process, which is exactly what happened in my race,” said Righeimer, a real estate agent.

Harman, however, said he’s confident his nomination will stand.

“Let him take a crack at it and waste his money if he wants to,” said Harman, an attorney.

Matthias and DeMallie said they are considering joining Righeimer’s suit. But DeMallie added that he may well file one of his own.

“Right now, we’re looking at the [Supreme Court] decision and going through it with a fine-tooth comb,” Matthias said.

However, the lawsuits would be opposed by the state’s highest-ranking Republican officeholder. Secretary of State Bill Jones championed the blanket-primary system after the state’s voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 198 in 1996, spokeswoman Beth Miller said.

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Reexamining the winners of the March primary “is a pretty slippery slope,” Miller said. “We don’t think that, given the wording of the opinion, that kind of lawsuit would be successful.”

Proposition 198 allowed voters to cast ballots for any candidate in the primary, with the winners from each party advancing to the general election.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that such a system violates the political parties’ constitutional right of free association.

The court overturned Proposition 198, saying that having a party nominee determined by members of an opposing party is “a clear and present danger.”

Attorneys for the California Republican Party used the Righeimer and Matthias contests in arguments in April before the Supreme Court. Attorneys for the state Democratic, Libertarian and Peace & Freedom parties also challenged the law.

Santa Ana attorney Michael Schroeder, former chairman of the state Republican Party, was co-counsel and a plaintiff in the case. He celebrated the high court ruling Monday but said attorneys “don’t have a clear answer” on whether it can be applied retroactively.

“The court upheld the simple proposition that a group of people have a right to join together around a common idea and to nominate a candidate based on that idea,” Schroeder said.

“The law was wrong, and that’s why they struck it down.”

* BLANKET PRIMARY: Supreme Court overturns state’s open-primary law. A1