If you follow me on Twitter or have the Gem State Chronicle homepage bookmarked, you surely remember that the Democrats attempted a switcheroo in district 11. Toni Ferro was unopposed in the Democratic primary for Senate while Anthony Porto was unopposed in the primary for House seat A. On the Republican side, Camille Blaylock defeated Sen. Chris Trakel and Kent Marmon defeated Rep. Julie Yamamoto.
Four weeks after the primary, Ferro and Porto switched places. On June 18, each submitted withdrawal paperwork to the Secretary of State’s office, while on the same day the District 11 Democrats appointed Ferro to the now vacant House race and Porto to the now vacant Senate race.
Blaylock, Marmon, and Lucas Cayler, GOP candidate for House seat B, eventually got wind of the switch. Marmon submitted a complaint to the Secretary of State’s office, as reported at the Gem State Chronicle. By then, Ferro had raised nearly $40,000 to campaign against him for the House seat, compared to only $2,565 for Porto.
According to Idaho law, a candidate for office can withdraw from his or her race for a certain period prior to the election, whether primary or general. The deadline to withdraw prior to the general election is September 7.
Idaho law also gives parties the opportunity to fill vacancies that occur, whether due to withdrawal or death. Legislative district committees are responsible for filling vacancies for legislative candidates. However, Idaho statute 34-717, paragraph 2, specifies that:
Any candidate who has filed a statement of withdrawal pursuant to this section shall not be allowed to be appointed to fill a vacancy unless such vacancy occurs because of the death of a previous candidate.
It is clearly against the law to switch two candidates as Ferro and Porto did. However, Marmon told the Chronicle that he was told by the Secretary of State’s office that the error was on their end, that someone in the office had given the go-ahead to the Democrats and then processed the change.
District 11 Republican chair Greg Stuck sent a letter to Secretary of State Phil McGrane calling for the candidates to be removed from the ballot and McGrane himself to resign. The District 11 Republican Central Committee also unanimously passed a resolution to that effect last week.
After laying out the facts of the case, the resolution says:
Be it resolved the Precinct Committeemen of Legislative District 11 ask Secretary of State McGrane for his immediate resignation due to this incompetence in an effort to protect the election integrity in the state of Idaho, and the removal of both appointees.
Secretary McGrane joined Nate Shelman on KBOI Radio this afternoon to discuss the affair, explaining that the error was indeed in his office and that he was working on an equitable solution. McGrane brought up a legal concept called entrapment by estoppal, which says that citizens should not be held responsible for violating a law when they were acting on the advice of a public official charged with interpreting or enforcing that law.
Democrats have made a habit of playing fast and loose with elections lately. This year, someone made the decision to push President Joe Biden aside and replace him on the ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris, despite Biden having won nearly every single state primary contest.
In 2022, Idaho Democrats booted attorney general nominee Steven Scanlin in favor of Tom Arkoosh, who they hoped would fare better against Republican nominee Raúl Labrador. They also swapped out their primary winner for state treasurer, Jill Ellsworth, in favor of Deborah Silver.
While a strict reading of the law suggests that since the swap was invalid, and the statutory deadline to fill vacancies has passed, both candidates should simply be removed, that does not appear likely. McGrane reiterated his desire to let voters make the choice rather than taking candidates off the ballot for technical reasons. He indicated that the most likely solution would be to reverse the swap, putting Ferro back in the Senate race against Blaylock and Porto back in the House race against Marmon.
As of this writing, the candidate list on the Secretary of State’s website shows Ferro running for House and Porto for Senate, however the Sunshine website shows the opposite.
This will likely not satisfy the Republicans in district 11. Kent Marmon spoke to the Chronicle following Shelman’s show, saying:
Shelman said that he didn’t think either Blaylock or I care who runs against us. If the candidates are “legal” and not breaking election law, he’s probably correct. However, Ferro and Porto withdrew as part of their trying to disregard 34-717, I care. They withdrew. Neither should be on the November ballot.
We all know that ignorance of the law is no excuse, but we also need to be able to trust our elected officials charged with interpreting and enforcing that law. Hopefully the office takes steps to make sure something like this does not happen again. In the meantime, it’s up to the voters of district 11 to decide if they want to reward dirty Democrat tricks.
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