MT Dems sue to remove Green candidates from ballot
The Montana Democratic Party sued the Secretary of State and the state of Montana on Thursday to remove the Green Party’s Senate candidate from the general election ballot.
Democrats are asking a judge to permanently bar Republican Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen from approving Green Party candidates for Senate races, including Darby candidate Robert Barb, who was scheduled to be on the ballot.
Supporters of U.S. Senator Jon Tester wave campaign signs as he takes the stage at the Montana Democrats’ annual Mansfield Metcalf Dinner in Helena on March 2.
THOM BRIDGE, Independent Record
However, the Secretary of State had only a few hours to certify the November ballots after the lawsuit was filed, so it is unclear how things would turn out if the ballots were finally filled out on Thursday evening.
When Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Tester last ran for re-election in 2018, Montana Democrats also filed a lawsuit to remove the Green Party from the Senate race, claiming the party had not collected enough valid signatures to put its candidates on the ballot. The Democrats were successful in this lawsuit and the Green Party was removed from the general ballot.
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This latest lawsuit is a response to a last-minute shakeup of the Green Party’s U.S. Senate candidates: To prevent Barb’s victory in the June primary, Helena resident Michael Downey also filed to run as the Green Party candidate. Downey beat Barb in the primary by nearly 25 points and was on track to become the Green Party’s nominee.
But on the last possible day, Downey withdrew his candidacy, giving the Green Party the power to choose a new candidate. Barb threw his hat in the ring again, and Steve Kelly, elections coordinator for the Montana Green Party, said the party would move forward with Barb.
In their lawsuit, the Democrats now claim that the Greens did not follow the correct procedure in selecting Barb as a candidate.
“The Green Party’s Senate candidate withdrew his candidacy in a timely manner, and the party failed to select a replacement candidate as part of the process required by its statutes,” the lawsuit states.
Kelly commented on this interpretation.
“They are not the Green Party, so they can interpret the Green Party’s commitments however they want,” Kelly said.
Although third-party candidates have virtually never won federal elections in recent years, they have the potential to play an important role. Libertarian candidates are widely believed to capture votes that would otherwise go to Republican candidates, while Green Party candidates can do the same, but only to Democrats.
Accusations fly through the air, candidate changes in Montana’s Green Party
The 2024 U.S. Senate election in Montana is one of the most closely watched elections in the country because it will likely predict which party has control of the Senate. Tester — who is only one of two Democratic senators running for re-election in states Donald Trump won in 2020 — is being challenged by Republican candidate and former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy. Recent polls show the race as a statistical tie, and Downey previously told the Montana State News Bureau that he dropped out of the race because he feared he would take votes away from Tester and damage the senator’s chances of victory.
Democrats in Montana want to remove the Green Party from the ballot because they did not receive enough valid signatures
In the lawsuit, the Democrats claim that putting a Green Party candidate on the ballot would harm them because the party “will be forced to devote its staff time and resources to developing new messaging strategies that will appeal to voters who must choose between the Democratic and Green Party candidates.”
“They want to eliminate the competition,” Kelly said. “This is voter suppression and a power struggle, plain and simple.”
The importance of third parties in close elections is well understood by both major parties, and this dynamic can lead to both Democrats and Republicans becoming involved in the world of third parties.
Earlier this month, several leading Republicans in Montana were accused of encouraging the Libertarian Senate candidate to drop out of the election and support Sheehy. Former President Donald Trump called out the Libertarian candidate to speak out against him before a huge audience in Bozeman. And in 2020, the Montana Republican Party bankrolled efforts to get the Montana Green Party on the ballot this election cycle by funding petition groups in the state’s major cities that collected signatures to get the Green Party on the ballot, even though the Green Party made it clear that it had done nothing to qualify for the ballot this year and had no plans to field candidates.
Downey said he entered the race – just 90 minutes before the March filing deadline – because he did not feel Barb embodied the principles of the Green Party.
“I felt that if we were going to have a Green candidate, at least we wanted one who was Green,” Downey said, adding that he found out online that Barb had donated money to Republicans in the past.
Barb has accused Downey of working with the Democrats and Tester, while Downey has accused Barb of doing the same with the Republicans. Neither has provided evidence, but what we do know is that Downey and Barb were not always Green through and through.
According to federal records, Barb made several small donations to the Republican National Committee on a number of days in April 2021. And while Barb’s campaign materials and court statements align with Green Party ideals, he spreads conspiracy theories on social media that are popular with the far right.
Downey has maintained close ties to the Democratic Party for many years. According to federal election records, Downey has donated to several Democrats, including the 2020 presidential campaigns of President Joe Biden and Cory Booker, as well as Kathleen Williams’ 2018 run for Montana’s U.S. House seat.
Neither the Montana Democratic Party nor the Secretary of State’s office immediately responded to requests for comment.
This story will be updated.
Victoria Eavis is a reporter for the Montana State News Bureau.
