A former congressional staffer for Raúl Labrador has created a group to oppose the Open Primaries initiative.
Jake Ball formed the political action committee Idaho Fair Elections on July 12, according to information from the Secretary of State’s Office. The Meridian resident, formerly a district director for Labrador while he was in Congress and campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo in 2008, created the group because he opposes the system and believes he was misled about the nature of the proposed initiative.
Ball said he signed the petition to get the initiative on the ballot because he thought it would restore the open primary system that Idaho had prior to 2012.
“I feel deceived,” he said. “I don’t feel good about the way this thing was carried out.”
The initiative’s supporters say that volunteer signature gatherers were trained to explain all aspects of the proposed election mechanism.
If approved, the initiative would create a top-four primary, open to voters of any political party, that would send the top four vote-getters to the general election.