The chief proponent of closing Idaho’s Republican primary says changes are coming, despite a recommendation from a slim majority at last weekend’s state GOP Party Convention to keep it open. Despite the 199-192 vote to recommend maintaining an open primary, Rod Beck pointed out the very same delegates approved a plank to the party platform that calls for a closed primary.

Norm Semanko, the new Idaho GOP chairman, has pledged to meet with factions to discuss the issue. Still, Beck thinks a federal judge will first have to act on a lawsuit filed in April by the state Republican Party against the state before the Idaho Legislature agrees to a law change. (AP)

The Idaho Republican Party has a new chairman.

Executive director of the Idaho Water Users Association and Eagle city councilman Norm Semanko was selected by GOP members Saturday at their state convention in Sandpoint. By a 227-169 vote, Semanko beat two-term incumbent Kirk Sullivan, who earlier in the day had been endorsed by Governor Butch Otter.

Dissatisfaction with Sullivan gained momentum in the last two weeks, when Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna and U.S. Rep. Bill Sali and backed Semanko. Sullivan was opposed to closing Idaho’s GOP primary election, as most Republicans had called for to lessen the chances of Democrats, Independents and others influencing the election of more moderate candidates.

Meanwhile, a separate 199-192 vote among delegates in Sandpoint supported retaining the state’s open primary - that vote is a reversal from two years ago, when delegates at the 2006 convention in Idaho Falls overwhelmingly voted to close the GOP primary election.

Asked whether the Republican Party would proceed with its federal lawsuit over the primary against Secretary of State Ben Ysursa, Semanko said he first planned to bring the sides together. The party’s central committee meets again in October.

(AP)

A former candidate for Congress says he’ll run for the Idaho Republican Party chairman post Saturday because current Chairman Kirk Sullivan doesn’t have the votes necessary to win a third term.

Eagle City Councilman Norm Semanko says he’s concerned the rivalry between the two other candidates - Sullivan and closed-primary advocate Rod Beck - will hurt the party, and he’s asking both Sullivan and Beck to withdraw.

Beck has since withdrawn and is backing Semanko in his campaign.

Semanko lost in a five-way GOP primary in 2006 to Bill Sali in the 1st District U.S. House race.

(AP)