SANDPOINT, Idaho — The mayor of Sandpoint will not show up on the primary ballot for Idaho governor after an issue with filing his candidacy.
Shelby Rognstad, a Democrat, wrote in a statement that the Secretary of State and the Idaho Attorney General are breaking the law by refusing to include him as a candidate.
Rognstad said that he submitted the paperwork to be included on the ballot on Friday ahead of the deadline, declaring in his filing that he was affiliated with the Democratic Party. The mayor, who said he switched his affiliation from Republican to Democrat in October 2021, checked party registration records the same day to find that he was still listed as a Republican.
Campaign manager Ethan Shaffer wrote in a letter to the Secretary of State's Office that Rognstad immediately used the Secretary of State’s online tool to change his party registration to Democrat again, but was not included in the list of candidate declarations sent out by the Secretary of State's office Friday night.
"As you know, we have repeatedly asked the Secretary of State’s office to explain its reasoning for excluding Mayor Rognstad from the unofficial list of candidates," Shaffer wrote. "Thus far, we have been told only that Mayor Rognstad was excluded from the list because the Secretary of State believes that Section 34-704 of the Idaho Election Code requires that a candidate’s party registration, as reflected in the registration records, must match the candidate’s party affiliation in the candidate’s declaration of candidacy at the time the candidate files his declaration of candidacy."
Rognstad and his campaign manager argued, however, that the statute does not require a candidate’s party registration to match their declaration of party affiliation at the moment of filing.
Barring Rognstad from the ballot is a violation of his rights, the mayor argued.
"Today a Republican Secretary of State worked with a Republican Attorney general to illegally prevent a Democrat candidate from running for Governor, based on a technicality that has no basis in Idaho law. When I filed my candidacy on Friday, I declared as a Democrat on the filing form, which is exactly what the state law requires. Unfortunately, it's not enough for Idaho Republicans to win almost every election, now they're wanting to prevent elections from happening in the first place. I'm reviewing my options on how to fight this gross injustice that deprives Idaho voters of a choice on the primary ballot."
The Secretary of State's Office has not responded to the campaign's letter, Rognstad said.
A fourth-generation of Idahoan who has served two terms as Sandpoint's mayor, Rognstad has been outspoken about the "extremism" he believes is taking root in North Idaho and within the Republican party.
In a series of tweets Sunday, he took aim at Gov. Brad Little, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, and the followers of the American Redoubt movement, who he said "openly stoke fear, anger and divisiveness in our communities."
"And let me tell you, being from North Idaho, which is considered ground zero for the ReDoubt, it’s pretty unrecognizable from how it was 10 years ago," he tweeted. "These folks have moved in and they've taken over county commissions, school boards, library boards, and Republican county central committees. They have run off regular community minded people and they've radicalized and broken everything they have touched. They threaten, harass and intimidate community leaders and public servants."
The deadline to declare candidacy as a write-in is March 25.
Currently just one candidate - Stephen Heidt of Marsing - is officially registered as a Democratic candidate for the 2022 governor's race.
Little, McGeachin, Steven Bradshaw, Ben Cannady, Edward Humphreys, Ashley Jackson, Lisa Marie, and Cody Usabel have declared in the Republican field, while candidates Chantyrose Davison, Ammon Bundy, John Dionne Jr. and Paul Sand have declared for the Independent, Libertarian and Constitutional political parties.
Election Day is set for Tuesday, Nov. 8.
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