Righeimer to file suit for candidacy

Kenneth Ma

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Fountain Valley businessman Jim Righeimer said he

plans to file a lawsuit this week asking the state to declare him the

winner of the March Republican primary election for a local state

Assembly seat.

The lawsuit would follow a Supreme Court decision last week to strike

down California’s blanket primary, in which a voter can choose from all

candidates regardless of the voter’s political affiliation.

Righeimer lost the 67th Assembly District primary to Councilman Tom

Harman, who received 42,570 votes compared to Righeimer’s 32,971.

Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) is leaving the seat because

of term limits.

The California Republican Party also plans to decide this week whether

or not to file suit, said John Fleischman, executive director of the

state Republican Party. The party was awaiting word from Secretary of

State Bill Jones, to whom they sent a letter Friday requesting that

winners in the Huntington Beach, Fullerton and San Bernardino Assembly

districts be the candidates who obtained the most Republican votes.

Counting only Republican votes, Righeimer gathered 2,837 more votes

than Harman, according to an unofficial recount by the Orange County

registrar of voters.

“You simply cannot have people not affiliated with a group pick its

leadership,” Righeimer said. “Basically, the Supreme Court’s decision was

very clear that people who are not associated with a political party

should not be in a position to pick the leader from that primary.”

The suit, which will be filed against Jones, seeks to have the Supreme

Court’s decision applied to the March primary.

Harman said the suit does not worry him.

“I think it is a frivolous lawsuit,” Harman said. “I don’t think there

is any chance ever that it will be successful.”

In 1996, state voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 198, which

allowed voters to cast ballots for any candidate in primary elections,

with the winners from each party advancing to the general election.

The justices ruled that such a system violates the political parties’

constitutional right of free association. In its decision to overturn

Proposition 198, the court asserted that having a party nominee

determined by members of an opposing party is “a clear and present

danger.”

Not everyone is happy about the high court’s decision.

“I am sort of disappointed. I think a blanket primary is preferable

because it allows more people to participate in the election process,”

Harman said.

Charlene Bauer, wife of Councilman Ralph Bauer and a Harman supporter,

also credits the system with letting more people vote.

Blanket primaries “bring out the independents who usually don’t get a

chance to vote at all in primaries because they are neither registered

Republicans or Democrats,” she said.

But, it is constitutionally fair for political parties to be able to

pick their own candidates without having nonparty members vote for them,

said Devin Dwyer, a registered Republican who supports Righeimer.

“In the general election, we all vote for a candidate of our choice,”

Dwyer said. “But in the primary election, the party should be able to

pick their own candidate to represent them.”With the court’s recent

decision, Dwyer said he believes Righeimer will have a 50-50 chance of

being the Republican candidate in the November elections.

“I think [Righeimer] has a good chance of getting his name on the

November ballot as a Republican nominee, but I also think that Tom Harman

has a good chance of keeping his name on the ballot because he played by

rules at that time.”