On Thursday, Republican Primary House District 30 candidate Robert McKay filed suit in Etowah County asking the court to have his Republican primary runoff opponent, Brandon Craig Lipscomb removed from the November 6 general election ballot and that he be placed there instead.
Lipscomb beat McKay in the July Republican primary runoff election.
McKay is suing B. Craig Lipscomb, Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan, Secretary of State John Merrill (R), Alabama Ethics Commission Director Thomas Albritton and any other individuals or companies that had some involvement in the decision to allow Lipscomb to remain on the ballot.
The plaintiff is contending that as candidates are required to file a Statement of Economic Interests form with the Alabama Ethics Commission and Lipscomb did not file his 2017 statement by the April 30 deadline he should be removed from the ballot by the court and that Robert McKay instead be placed on the ballot as the Republican nominee in House District 30.
House District 30 is composed of parts of St. Clair and Etowah Counties. Incumbent Representative Mack Butler (R-Rainbow City) is not running for another term.
Etowah County Republican Party Chairman Phil Williams told the Alabama Political Reporter, ““As the Chairman for the Etowah County Republican Party I take great interest in Robert McKay’s attempt to manipulate the outcome of the recent election. Craig Lipscomb is a good candidate who ran a solid race to earn the right to be the GOP nominee for House District 30. He has been certified by the Alabama Ethics Commission and the State Republican Party. It is unfortunate that Mr. McKay would pursue such a fruitless action here at the 11th hour. But in the end I believe that the Court will affirm Craig Lipscomb’s standing as our candidate.”
It has been recently reported that certain candidates did not file their 2017 statements by the deadline. Under Alabama law failure to file a Statement of Economic Interests means removal from the ballot. On Saturday, the Republican Party told the Alabama Republican Reporter that they will not be removing any candidates from the November 6 ballot.
“There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation disseminated on this topic,” Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan told APR in a statement. “The ALGOP has received compliance clearance for all of our candidates from the Alabama Ethics Commission. There will be nonec removed by our Party as they have met our qualifications.”
“If an official filed late, after April 30 while they had a form already on file with the Alabama Ethics Commission, it is not ballot removal,” Lathan added. “They may incur a small fine but that is a decision the Commission may or not make. There is also a grace period for filing.”
Brandon Craig Lipscomb is a Gadsden architect.
Robert McKay is the former Mayor of Ashville.
Secretary of State John Merrill told APR that Public Service Commissioner Jeremy Oden (R), State Senator Clay Scofield (R-Guntersville) and State Representative Dimitri Polizos (R-Montgomery) all also did not file their 2017 Statement of Economic Interests by the April 30th deadline and were given the opportunity to file late recently.
This lawsuit does not directly impact those candidates.
Lipscomb is being represented by former Assistant Alabama Attorney General and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Algert S. Agricola Jr. with the Montgomery based firm of Ryals, Donaldson, and Agricola, He has 40 years of legal experience.
Merrill said that the candidates could be subject to a fine of $5 a day at the Discretion of the Ethics Commission; but that missing the deadline did not rise to the level of removal as long as the candidate filed the current statement within ten days of receiving a notice that the filing needed to be made. Merrill said that all of the candidates were approved by the Alabama Ethics Commission.
In Gadsden’s City election three candidates (two council candidates and a mayoral candidate) were recently disqualified because they did not file their Statement of Economic Interests when they qualified.
The Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan said, “The certification date is Wednesday, August 22. There can be no ballot changes, edits or deletions after 5:00 pm CST.”
The general election will be on November 6. The Republican nominee, whoever that is, will face Jared Vaughn (D).
Editorial note: This article has been edited to changed the certification date. An earlier version of this article erroneously had August 25th.
