The state Republican Party's loyalty rules, being a decade old, are presumably well-known to its office-holders and candidates. Which is why the party found itself in something of a fix this past week.

On Monday, U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama's most powerful politician, announced that he hadn't voted for fellow Republican Roy Moore when he cast his absentee ballot for the Dec. 12 election.

Democrat Doug Jones' campaign seized on the issue in social media posts and paid TV advertising, seeking to wield Shelby's words against Moore. That, in turn, thrust the Alabama GOP's 2007 loyalty resolution into the spotlight.

"I didn't vote for him" Alabama's senior U.S. Senator Richard Shelby said of fellow Republican Roy Moore https://t.co/iFtDehhPPw — Doug Jones (@DougJones) November 28, 2017

The resolution empowers the state GOP steering committee to deny ballot access for up to six years to anyone who, in a prior election, "publicly supported a nominee of another party."

In Shelby's case, he didn't endorse Jones, instead casting a write-in vote for a Republican whom he did not identify.

In a statement, Alabama GOP Chairwoman Terry Lathan lauded the state's senior senator as a "very good and supportive friend of the Alabama Republican Party" and a "staunch conservative on issues."

Lathan went on to explain: "If an elected official or candidate, for example, said publicly, 'Please write in XYZ' ... 'Here is how you write in the name of XYZ' or champions this procedure, that could be a ballot access problem." She continued, "Another example may be if an elected official or a candidate publicly said, 'I am voting for XYZ of another party and ask you to join me.' That could be an issue."

She stated, "If an elected official, or possible candidate, is not publicly supporting a nominee of another political party or openly involved in a write-in campaign for an individual, then this rule is not applicable. A person's personal vote is just that, personal."

[All Roy Moore coverage]

'Split off'

Perhaps the most high-profile ballot access denial in the Republican Party in recent times came in 2010, when Harri Anne Smith was disqualified as a Republican candidate for actively campaigning for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright in 2008.

Smith, who hails from Slocomb, has twice won re-election to her state Senate seat as an independent and is mulling another run in 2018. All in all, she's spent 20 years in the Senate.

Smith applauds Shelby for doing what he felt was right. "I'd like to commend Senator Shelby for standing up against the elitist roles of the Republican and Democratic parties," Smith said. "I believe the voters are smart enough to make the right decision in this race. They will be well-educated and will have their own opinions."

In 2008, Smith lost a bitter runoff campaign for the Republican nomination for the 2nd District U.S. House seat to then-Rep. Jay Love of Montgomery. The acrimony stemmed from campaign ads accusing her of being soft on taxes.

Smith thrust her support behind Bright in the general election, which Bright won. He went on to be one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress during a brief two-year tenure.

"There was a lot of publicity of me being removed from the party for endorsing someone who was not the nominee," Smith recalled. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I got kicked out of a party.' But it was one of the best things that happened to me. I haven't really looked back since that time."

Smith was rated as the "most conservative member" of the Senate in 2004, and enough time has lapsed for her to be reconsidered for membership back into the Republican Party. But Smith said she has no interest in returning into the state GOP fold.

Sen. Harri Anne Smith on the floor of the Senate Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, during regular legislative session in Montgomery, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

"I believe today there a lot of people who don't like the party lines with agendas and being told, 'You will do this,'" Smith said. "We are elected by our constituencies. The party agenda in Montgomery might not be conducive to my rural area in south Alabama. There are times when I need to split off."

She added, "The Republican Party would be better off if they would consider doing away with that rule and letting people who are very smart voters and who are educated in Alabama make their own decisions instead of who or what they can vote for or who they will allow on their ballot. That is not the Republican way."

'Mouth shut'

Shelby's decision has some longtime political observers wondering if the curtain is soon to fall on his Senate career. Shelby, who has served since 1987, will be 88 years old when he would have to seek re-election to another term in 2023.

"I interpret Shelby's vociferous opposition to Moore to be an indication that he does not plan to see another Senate term," said William Stewart, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama, adding that Shelby did nothing to violate the state GOP's rules.

Steward said, "Senator Shelby wrote in the name of a Republican who he preferred as U.S. senator. He did not urge other Alabama voters to vote for a candidate whom he recommended nor violated any of the other rules" in the state GOP bylaws.

Jess Brown, a retired political science professor at Athens State University, said what Shelby did was "out of character" for a senator who has long attempted to avoid conflict within his own party.

Brown said he doesn't believe the state party rules will be weakened anytime soon. He described the GOP's view this way: "You are expected to support the Republican Party nominee or, at a minimum, you keep your mouth shut."

Brown suspects that Shelby will face backlash from pro-Moore factions within the party, and from party loyalists. "Many of these party activists ... some of them are far more fanatical than the most fanatical Alabama football fan that I know," he said.