Candidate vetting in Missouri was handed a victory in court Thursday.
The result is that eight candidates, all registered Republicans running for office in rural Vernon County, will not be allowed to stay on an August primary ballot as Republicans. The candidates had refused to take a “moral values” survey and undergo other vetting by the county’s Republican committee.
A circuit court judge on Thursday evening ruled that the county clerk improperly placed their names on the ballot.
“I think the judge ruled correctly,” said Mark McCloskey, the attorney representing the county’s Republican committee. “Here is the bottom line: What this means is that no one but the party gets to decide who runs on that party’s ticket. … They can file as independents.”
The ruling in Vernon County Circuit Court focused on a narrow issue, although one with broader implications.
It began in March, when the Vernon County Republican Committee, led by chairwoman Cyndia Haggard, filed suit against the Vernon county clerk, who is also a Republican.
Haggard is a self-described pro-Trump, MAGA Republican who continues to assert that the 2020 election was “100%” stolen, a contention proven false. She is a passionate proponent of candidate vetting to weed out RINOs — Republicans in name only.
Last year, she began a nonprofit, the Republican Association of Central Committees of MO, whose website describes RINOs as “a virus that infects & destroys our party’s values. Vetting is the vaccine that stops the virus cold.”
In its suit, the committee was represented by McCloskey, a conservative podcaster who in 2020 gained instant notoriety when he and his wife, Patricia, emerged from their affluent St. Louis home brandishing weapons to ostensibly protect their property from Black Lives Matter protesters.
On March 3, McCloskey filed what is known as a writ of mandamus. It essentially holds that the Vernon county clerk, Adrienne Lee, overstepped her authority in February when, after receiving candidate filing fees, she placed the names of four, then four more, Republican candidates on the August primary ballot as Republicans.
The committee argued that, per Missouri law, the sole authority for determining who runs under the Republican or Democrat banner lies with the political parties. Although the clerk can accept the paperwork and fees, they said the law required the clerk to receive a receipt from the Republican party committee acknowledging that the individuals’ fees and their candidacies had been accepted by the party.
In this instance, no receipt was received. The candidates had been rejected because they chose or failed to submit themselves for the committee’s “moral values” survey or other financial or ethical vetting. The committee refused to cash their filing fees.
Judge Gayle L. Crane on Thursday agreed. A Jasper County Circuit Court judge, Crane was chosen to adjudicate because the case involved Vernon County public officials.
“The Court finds that the Vernon County Clerk should not have received the declaration of candidacy from the eight candidates,” Crane wrote. “The Court finds that the Vernon Count Clerk should not place the eight candidates’ names on the ballot.”
Haggard said she was “thrilled to death” with the decision.
“We are so happy that the judge vindicated our position,” Haggard said. Of vetting, she said, “They waived their rights to file with the Republican party when they decided they did not want to follow the Republican party rules.”
Five of the candidates are current officer holders, all elected previously as Republicans: Vernon County Administrator Kelsey Westerhold, County Treasurer Brent Banes, County Assessor Lena Kleeman, County Commissioner Cindy Thompson and Rich Hill Police Chief Mike Buehler, running for county sheriff. The other candidates were Jimmy Dye, John Shorten, and Frank Radspinner
Travis Elliott, the attorney representing the Vernon county clerk, said they are “reviewing the decision to decide what the next options are.”
Candidates Thursday night reacted with either shock or reticence.
“It affects all of us,” Westerhold said. “It affects all of Vernon County. All of us are not speaking now, because it is under advisement with other judges.”
“Very disappointed. Very disappointed in the judge’s decision,” said Banes, who said that while the judge’s decision came down to a filing fee, the true issue was vetting.
“They were wanting us to go through the vetting process,” Banes said of the committee. ”Had we gone through the vetting process, they would have accepted the filing fees.”
The lawsuit and issue of vetting have raised ire across Vernon County.
Haggard and others hold that vetting assures that candidates prove faithful to the values of the Republican party platform. They insist they are not keeping anyone from running for office, or asking candidates to walk in lockstep. “No one is 100% in lockstep,” she said. They want to make certain, however, that individuals agree with the majority of the platform.
They insist that more scrupulous vetting is necessary state-wide, and point to the massive embarrassment that erupted in March.
That’s when the Missouri Republican Party filed suit to get Darrell Leon McClanahan removed from the ballot for Missouri governor after a photo surfaced of him saluting a burning cross and showing an affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan.
McClanahan, who has described himself as a “Pro-White man,” has said he is not a member of the racist organization, but was provided an “Honorary 1-year membership” by a Missouri coordinator. The party failed to vet him.
Others in Vernon County, meanwhile, see vetting as a means for a group of about 30 committee members — none of whom were elected — to push their own conservative agenda by keeping tight control over who qualifies as a “true Republican.”
“This was my third term,” Banes said. “I filed for my third term. I guess the only option is to file as an independent. It is kind of my livelihood at this point. The judge has made her ruling. I’ve heard a lot of people are not happy with the decision. We’ll see what happens at the polls.”