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  • 8 GOP candidates can’t run as Republicans, MO judge rules. They’d refused morals test

    8 GOP candidates can’t run as Republicans, MO judge rules. They’d refused morals test

    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.

    Attorney Mark McCloskey and spouse, Patricia, made national headlines in 2020 when they brandished guns to allegedly protect their property during a Black Lives Matter protest. McCloskey has filed suit on behalf of the Vernon County Republican Committee in a dispute over who determines who can run as a Republican.

    Attorney Mark McCloskey and spouse, Patricia, made national headlines in 2020 when they brandished guns to allegedly protect their property during a Black Lives Matter protest. McCloskey has filed suit on behalf of the Vernon County Republican Committee in a dispute over who determines who can run as a Republican.

    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.”

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  • County Dems to choose Yarbrough replacement

    County Dems to choose Yarbrough replacement

    Members of the Cook County Democratic Party meet Friday to choose an interim replacement for the late county clerk Karen Yarbrough, who died earlier this month.

    Seventeen interested applicants sent their credentials to the party by the Wednesday deadline, including several county board members, a sitting state senator and the current clerk of Evanston.

    Yarbrough’s passing came too late for Democratic voters to choose from a slate of candidates — as they did for Mayor Brandon Johnson’s replacement on the Cook County Board in the March primary. Instead, the party will choose both an interim clerk who will serve through December and a candidate to be placed on the November ballot.

    The clerk’s office is a sought-after countywide position. It has a roughly $75 million annual budget and 350 employees. It handles vital records like birth, death, and marriage certificates; suburban elections; legislation and proceedings of the county board; and property transfer paperwork. The clerk earns just shy of $119,000 a year.

    Party members have signaled they prefer another suburbanite to take over the role, given the office’s responsibility handling suburban elections.

    And they told the Tribune there is strong support among members to appoint Cedric Giles to the role on an interim basis. Giles was Yarbrough’s top deputy and had already been acting as clerk since her hospitalization.

    Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who was unanimously selected to continue as party chair earlier this week, argued Giles would be a steady hand to handle the upcoming November election. Party members will each have one vote on the interim clerk position.

    The more heated debate will be choosing a candidate to place on the general election ballot: interested contenders have jockeyed in recent weeks to win over fellow Democrats and several early favorites have dropped out entirely. The dropout list includes Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner Kari Steele, 4th Ward Ald. Lamont Robinson and county Commissioner Stanley Moore.

    Still in the race: county commissioners Monica Gordon, Donna Miller, and Kevin Morrison; state Sen. Napoleon Harris, Water Reclamation Commissioner Yumeka Brown, Evanston City Clerk Stephanie Mendoza and 11 other candidates.

    Gordon’s name emerged shortly after Steele withdrew. If Steele was appointed clerk, the party did not have a clear mechanism in county or state code to appoint a fresh candidate to fill her MWRD slot on the November ballot. The threat of a potential lawsuit raised sufficient concerns within the party for Steele to step back.

    Gordon quickly snapped up labor support, with SEIU Local 73, Operating Engineers Local 150, Operating Engineers Local 399 and LIUNA endorsing her Tuesday evening. Elected to the county board in 2022, Gordon is the former executive director of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, trustee at Prairie State Community College and director of government relations at Chicago State University.

    But there are other candidates from the south suburbs, including Miller, elected to the county board in 2018; Brown, former Matteson village clerk and water commissioner since 2022; and Harris, elected to the legislature in 2018.

    Harris’ candidacy earned a swift rebuke from two outside progressive organizations earlier this week: the abortion rights group Personal PAC and the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Illinois.

    Personal PAC said Harris had “repeatedly shown through his no votes in the General Assembly on the Reproductive Health Act, HB 40, and the repeal of parental notification that he does not support the right to bodily autonomy” or stood with the group “to expand abortion access in Illinois.”

    It warned those who support Harris’ candidacy “will not be considered as 100% pro-choice incumbents in their next race for Committeeperson.”

    Equality Illinois similarly said in a statement that Harris “refused to vote” for marriage equality, birth certificate modernization laws, or gender identity in death laws – all issues that touch on clerk responsibilities.

    “Given his refusal to support the full dignity of LGBTQ+ people in these critical areas, we are alarmed over the possibility that he might serve in a position with tremendous authority over birth, death, and marriage certificates,” Equality Illinois CEO Brian Johnson said in the statement.

    Commissioner Morrison — who has support among a number of party progressives — has pitched members on his youth and potential to be the first countywide LGBTQ+ official.

    Mendoza, Evanston’s current clerk, also has support from progressives and the Latino contingent of the party, who have been pushing for stronger representation countywide. With Iris Martinez’s defeat in the 2024 primary, there will not be any Latino elected officials serving countywide.

    The winner will be decided based on a weighted vote of committeemen that is calculated based on turnout in the most recent primary. The party typically votes behind closed doors, sometimes over several rounds. Sen. Harris and house Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, who succeeded Yarbrough as Proviso Township Committeeperson, have the largest share of the vote, at about 2.75% each.

    Yarbrough, a Maywood Democrat, was previously a state representative, the county’s recorder of deeds, and a Democratic committeeperson in the county and state party. Her home township, Proviso, had some of the highest voter turnout of any in the county. She was the first woman and African American elected clerk.

    aquig@chicagotribune.com

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