Conservative push for constitutional convention homes in on primaries

DENVER — The fliers piled up in mailboxes in central South Dakota like snow during a highplains blizzard: “Transgender Sex Education in Schools?” one asked. “Vote Against Sex Ed Radical Mary Duvall for State Senate.”

The mailers were part of a $58,000 campaign against the five-term Republican lawmaker, an enormous sum of money in a place where the cost of running for a statehouse seat is typically in the low five figures. Despite the subject of the attack ads, Duvall was targeted not for her stance on sex education but for her opposition to a long shot bid by some conservatives to force a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution.

“I knew they were angry at me, but I had no idea this was going to be coming during my primary campaign,” said Duvall, who ended up losing her race.

Duvall opposed legislation that would have added South Dakota to 19 other states calling for a gathering known as a convention of states, following a plan mapped out by a conservative group that wants to change parts of the United States’ foundational document. When that number hits two-thirds of the states — or 34 — under the procedure laid out in the Constitution, a convention would meet with the power to amend the 235-year-old document.

The campaign against Duvall was part of a more than $600,000 push in at least five states earlier this year by the group, Convention of States Action, and its affiliates in Republican primaries to elect sympathetic lawmakers who could add more states to its column. Much of the money comes from groups that do not have to disclose their donors, masking the identity of who is funding the push to change the Constitution.

Mark Meckler, the group’s president and former head of Tea Party Patriots, issued a brief statement saying the group was committed to being active in the midterms “in a big way.”

For years, Convention of States Action has been a staple of the conservative political scene. But its engagement in primary campaigns marks an escalation at a time when parts of the conservative movement are testing the limits of the nation’s political rulebook, pushing aggressive tactics.

The track record of the convention group’s spending is spotty. In South Dakota, where the group and its affiliates spent more than $200,000 targeting four state Senate seats, Duvall was the only one of its targets to lose. And the challenger who beat her, Jim Mehlhaff, said in an interview he thinks the group’s intervention hurt him.

“I didn’t appreciate the negative tone of their mailers. It probably cost me some votes,” said Mehlhaff, a former member of Pierre’s city commission who had his own base of support in the district before the intervention of Convention of States. “This is South Dakota. People don’t like negative campaigns.”

Supporters of a convention argue it’s the best way to amend the Constitution — especially to take power from Congress, which has to approve by a two-thirds vote any proposed amendments that don’t come from a convention. Still, no amendments have been implemented through a convention since the Constitution was ratified in 1788.

Backers argue any amendments that emerge from the convention would have to be approved by even more states than required to call it — three-quarters, or 38 of them — ensuring the only changes would be measures with broad support.

One liberal group is pushing for a convention to change campaign finance laws that has won backing in four states, while another effort by conservatives seeks one to impose a balanced budget amendment. The Convention of States group is more vague on its goals, stating that it seeks a gathering that could pass amendments only to “limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, impose fiscal restraints, and place term limits on federal officials.”