As expected, the Nevada Republican Party is suing Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller (D) for the right to select candidates for the special election to replace recently appointed Sen. Dean Heller (R) in his House of Representatives seat, after Miller announced that the election would be a wide-open, single-round race in which anybody could file.
The initial expectation had been that party leaders would select nominees for the race, without a primary — a scenario that would likely hurt the chances of unsuccessful 2010 Senate nominee Sharron Angle — but that there was also the possibility of a wide-open race. Then on Monday, Miller announced that his interpretation of the law was that it allows for the multi-candidate race, rather than party insiders picking the candidates.
As Jon Ralston says, the lawsuit “should forever be known as The Stop Sharron Angle Lawsuit.”
Roll Call reports:
The lawsuit states that the Nevada GOP “will prevail” because “the Secretary of State has failed to interpret and construe Nevada’s election statutes in a manner that harmonizes all election statutes or provisions to avoid unreasonable or absurd results.”
The secretary of state’s office said it would not comment further on the complaint. But at a news conference Monday, Miller said, “Had the Legislature intended for the central committees to appoint, they could have simply said that. They did not do so.”
