Federal Judge to Rule on County Defendants' Motion to Dismiss Flawed Arizona Green Party Suit Against Qualified Candidates

Very soon, Federal District Judge David G. Campbell will be ruling on a motion to dismiss in the case of Arizona Green Party v. Bennett, et al., in which we are defendants.

The motion has been filed by Maricopa, Greenlee, Mohave, Navajo, and Yuma Counties. It asks that the case be dismissed on grounds of laches.

This essentially means that the plaintiffs sat on their rights for far too long and filed this eleventh-hour suit at an unreasonably late time when the deadline for printing ballots is early tomorrow morning.

As the motion states, the Arizona Green Party knew by July 15 who had filed as write-in candidates for Green Party primary elections. Yet they did nothing.

In my case, as the Secretary of State's records show, I filed as a candidate for Arizona's Sixth Congressional District Green Party primary on May 28, 2010. I know that date well because it was my parents' 61st wedding anniversary. Yet the Arizona Green Party did nothing to challenge me.

In fact, they gave me access to their Yahoo Groups listserv of candidates and party documents; allowed me to vote at a party meeting on endorsement of other candidates; and interviewed me.

Yet their complaint filed with federal court lists me with ten other "sham" candidates and says we all registered with the party just a few days before filing, which they contradict in my case in another part of the document, though the complaint admits it doesn't actually know when I registered as a Green voter. In fact, all the other candidates' registration changes are listed as exhibits, but mine is curiously missing.

Anyway, back to the motion to dismiss. It goes on to say that the Arizona Green Party had notice of all they are alleging regarding the qualified (not "sham") candidates were by mid-July, but they did nothing. You can see that in that document I posted here back on August from Claudia Ellquist, one of the plaintiffs.

As the motion states, "Though the plaintiffs were well aware of these candidates before and up to the Primary Election, the Plaintiffs waited two weeks, till September 6, 2010, to file their Complaint. and motion for TRO [temporary restraining order], all on the eve of the General Election ballot. This delay will create significant problems for Maricopa County and the other counties if the Court orders deletion of these candidates from the General Election ballot.

Then it explains the difficulties, which some stupid people are oblivious to or ignorant of.

The motion says the complaint must be dismissed under the doctrine of laches, something every first-year law student learns. (And we've taught plenty.)

It quotes an Arizona Supreme Court case that says "a party's failure to diligently prosecute an election appeal may in future cases result in a dismissal for laches," then says:

This is one of those 'future cases.' See also McClung v. Bennett, 235 P.3d 1037, 1040 (Ariz. 2010) (Arizona 2010) (Arizona Supreme Court rules that dilatory conduct which unnecessarily accelerated litigation and jeopardized election officials' timely compliance with statutory deadlines, supported dismissal of the appeal)

Laches generally bars a claim when the delay is unreasonable and results in prejudice to the opposing party. . .

In this case, the Plaintiffs offer no justification for their delay. They had ample advance knowledge of the write-in status of the challenged candidates by at least mid-July, of their nominee status since August 24, 2010. However, they failed to file their Complaint for two weeks, a large and critical time period that will prejudice the Counties, given the printing deadlines and other statutorily mandated deadlines. . .

Further, the record reflects that while Plaintiffs have had many weeks to prepare, research, and perfect their lengthy Complaint and motion for TRO [our comment: not enough to catch the misstatements of facts or pure lies contained in it], the County defendants have been afforded less than two days (September 7 and 8) to review the Plaintiff's lengthy pleadings and the record, and to draft their Response - at the same time their clients are attempting to finalize the ballots on a timely basis. . .

Plaintiffs let these issues languish for weeks and months (as early as mid-July) before bringing it to the Court's attention. They should not be rewarded for their delay.

That was filed yesterday. Just this morning an answer to the Arizona Green Party complaint was filed by Laura Dean-Lytle, in her official capacity as Recorder for Pinal County, and Bryan Martyn, Pete Rios and David Snider, in their official capacity as members of the Board of Supervisors for Pinal County (hereinafter "Pinal County Defendants").

The Pinal County Defendants stated they were "without sufficient to form a belief as to the truthfulness" of most of the allegations, specifically including the allegations about my own party registration as a Pinal County Voter, and thus were denying the allegations.

Richard Grayson, Registered Member of Arizona Green Party Since 2008, Wins Green Primary for Congress, Then Sued for Being "Sham" Candidate

Two apparent developments in this electoral comedy caused by the lack of due diligence on the part of the Arizona Green Party, in which I have been a registered voter in Apache Junction, Pinal County, since 2008 (longer than some of the candidates "endorsed" by the party):

(1) I've apparently "won" the primary for the Sixth Congressional District Green nomination with six write-in votes (more than any other congressional or legislative Green write-in candidate, including those "endorsed" by the Arizona Green Party).

See the official state canvass of the primary, released a few hours ago.

(2) I am apparently being targeted in an Arizona Green Party lawsuit against "sham" Green party candidates along with those who registered just before filing their write-in candidacies in July. (See this Arizona Republic article by Mary Jo Pitzl.)

This despite my two-year membership in the Arizona Green Party, my public adherence to the Green Party Ten Key Values, and the Arizona Green Party's vetting me and interviewing me at a party meeting over a phone conference on Sunday, August 22 (at which time they allowed me to vote on the endorsement of other candidates) and the AZGP's statement the following day that, unlike in the cases of the other candidates, they were not "opposing" me, just "not endorsing" me and they would reconsider endorsing me pending the results of the primary.

I was called at my house and told a subpoena is on its way. I still represent the Green Party's values and platforms, whatever anyone else thinks.

Make of this what you will. Stay tuned for more.

Arizona Republic article discusses Richard Grayson's Green Party campaign for Congress in AZ-06

Today's Arizona Republic has an article that discusses our campaign for Congress in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District. Relevant portions highlighted:

Green Party is opposing 12 primary
write-in hopefuls

by Mary Jo Pitzl


Green Party candidates who won their party's primary last week say they don't want to be confused with a slate of write-in candidates being dismissed as "sham" candidates.

The Green Party is actively opposing 12 write-in candidates from last week's ballot. They include candidates for secretary of state and treasurer as well as seven legislative candidates. These candidates switched their party registration just before the filing deadline for the primary and have been called out by the Arizona Democratic Party in a complaint seeking a voter-fraud investigation. Many of the candidates were Republicans until mid-July; one was a Democrat, another was a Libertarian and two others were not registered.

Democrats argue that the candidates are not standard-bearers for the Green Party and could attract the support of Democrat-leaning voters.

"We strongly advise all registered Arizona voters to not waste their votes on these individuals," party co-chairman Claudia Ellquist wrote on the Green Party's blog.

But the party has backed a slate of candidates, including Leonard Clark, who won a spot on the Congressional District 5 ballot as a write-in candidate.

Clark said he switched his voter registration from Democrat to Green at the beginning of the year, disenchanted with the Democratic Party, and does not want to be confused with the so-called "sham" candidates.

Richard Grayson, a write-in candidate for Congressional District 6, might still win the Green Party's seal of approval. Party officials said they vetted him but decided to withhold an endorsement decision until they see if he qualifies for the Nov. 2 election. It took only one vote to qualify, under a provision of Arizona election law, so if Grayson voted for himself, his name will be on the November ballot. Candidates are not certified for the general-election ballot until the state does its canvass Tuesday.

The Arizona Republican Party ridiculed the Democrats' request, claiming the party is trying to limit voter choice. . .

Congratulations to Democratic and Republican Primary Winners in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District

We would like to congratulate Rebecca Schneider on her victory in the Democratic primary on Tuesday. She ran a valiant, basically DIY campaign in 2008 without any discernable help - indeed, little notice - from either the Arizona Democratic Party (which at one point did not even list her on its website with the other congressional candidates) or from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. With little funding, she managed to get about 34.5% of the vote.

We would also like to congratulate Rep. Jeff Flake on his victory in the Republican primary on Tuesday. He beat his opponent by about two to one, but his opponent was clearly inferior to the incumbent in numerous ways. We certainly think Rep. Flake is a right-wing extremist, but at least he is intelligent whereas his opponent was clearly stupid and never made a compelling rationale for his candidacy even among the troglodytes who vote in East Valley Republican primaries.

Rep. Flake is assured of election to his fifth term in November. Arizona's Sixth Congressional District's PVI is +15R, making it all but impossible for any candidate but a Republican to win. Given that 2006 (when Flake had no Democratic opponent) and 2008 were elections in which Democrats made huge gains and 2010 is shaping up as a wave election in which the Republicans should recover their House majority and Arizona Democrats need to defend threatened incumbents in the First, Fifth and Eighth Congressional Districts, no one but Jeff Flake - who's never gotten less than 63% - can win in November.

The status of the Green Party primary is unclear at the moment. The unofficial election returns from the Secretary of State show that 40 write-in votes were cast, but we don't know who they were for or how the Secretary of State will interpret the statutes regarding write-in primary candidates. In 2008, Green Party write-in candidates who did not receive the same number of votes as petition signatures they would have needed to get their names on the primary ballot were not placed on the November general election ballot.

Although the statutes haven't changed, the Secretary of State's Election Division has apparently decided - in what seems an arbitrary and capricious manner - to interpret the write-in statutes differently in 2010. We'll see what happens.

As noted in an earlier post, we have been "vetted" but "not endorsed" by the Arizona Green Party, which says it will consider endorsing us if we go forward to the general election. We will not seek their endorsement. To say that we are not impressed with the leadership and candidates of the Arizona Green Party would be an understatement.

With the exception of the Sixth Congressional District race - where we're waiting to find out if we'll be on the ballot - we will be voting a straight Democratic ticket in November.

A state canvass to certify official election results for federal, statewide and legislative races is scheduled for September 7. Stay tuned.

Richard Grayson Super-Official State-Certified Candidate for Congress in Green Party Primary in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District

Blog for Arizona's Craig McDermott is reporting

Richard Grayson of Apache Junction has filed as a Green

for the Congressional seat currently held by Republican Jeff Flake in CD6. As no other Green candidates have yet filed for the seat, Grayson needs 221 votes

in August's primary to qualify for the general election ballot (221 is the number of sigs he would have needed to appear on the primary ballot).

A look at the Arizona Secretary of State's listing of all candidates in the August 24 primary confirms this.