Va. GOP Abandons Loyalty Pledge

Previous efforts to demand that voters sign loyalty pledges have resulted in controversy.

In the 1995 Republican primary for chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, GOP officials required voters to sign a pledge agreeing to support the eventual nominee in the general election.

Many voters objected, leading to shouting matches with Republican officials who tried to block people from voting if they refused to sign the form. At one point, police were called to escort a man from the polling place after he balked at signing the pledge. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a Fairfax resident, questioned the legality of the oath but eventually signed it. Many voters wrote nasty notes on their pledges, according to election officials.

In more recent years, squabbles have erupted in Loudoun County after Republican leaders began requiring loyalty pledges for primary voters and activists who attend nominating conventions.

Pressure had been building all week for the party to avoid a similar controversy next year.

Paul Siker, a former member of the Loudoun Republican Committee, said Thursday that loyalty pledges "have a chilling effect on participation" and send a signal that the GOP "isn't a big tent."

G. Tracy Mehan III, a former Bush administration official who lives in Vienna, wrote a column in the American Spectator this week speculating that the pledge might violate voters' First Amendment rights.

"What is pretty clear is that the [State Board of Elections] is going to lose the inevitable lawsuit on this matter, and it should," Mehan wrote. "This oath is an unconstitutional infringement on any GOP voter's right to vote given that it extracts a promise to vote in the general election for candidates unknown and unknowable as of the primary election day."

Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said he thinks the pledge is legal because Virginia allows the political parties to choose how they select nominees.

But David Ray, a member of the GOP central committee, said the pledge was creating a "perception problem" that was too complicated to explain to angry voters.

Instead of requiring primary voters to sign a pledge, Hager said, the GOP committee passed a resolution yesterday expressing support for party registration in Virginia.

State Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William) has filed a bill that would initiate party registration in Virginia. The General Assembly will consider it when it convenes in January.