Benson files lawsuit over partisan/nonpartisan issue

Lincoln County’s clerk and recorder is challenging a state law that bars nonpartisan candidates from campaigning as Republicans or Democrats.

Robin Benson used the Republican Party label in her campaign in 2014 and received different answers from the Montana Commissioner of Political Practices about whether or not she could do so legally.

In a lawsuit she filed on Tuesday, Benson is asking a federal judge to strike down a state law that bars nonpartisan candidates from campaigning under a party label. Benson believes she has a right under the First Amendment to the Constitution to call herself a Republican.

Benson’s attorney, Matthew Monforton, says the lawsuit would not affect nonpartisan judicial races.

Lincoln County voters approved nonpartisan elections in November 2009, although a study commission is recommending that be overturned.

Commissioner of Political Practices Jonathan Motl is named as a defendant in the suit. He says he disagrees with Benson’s argument and that the judge must decide whether the election standards set by Lincoln County can be overcome by one person’s First Amendment claim.

“If we do not fight laws that violate the U.S. Constitution, it has a great potential for the doors to be open to take away more of our rights as citizens,” Benson said in a press release. “While on the campaign trail in 2014, I visited with hundreds of people .... and I have come to the conclusion that people want to know party affiliation.”

She said that many times people refused to open their door or take campaign material until she told them which party she belonged to.