Mixed Condorcet-Plurality

[LAYTON Craig]

>Myself, I'm not sure about primaries, not clearly against them. Primaries
>are somewhat strange because a party will endorse a candidate before the
>primary and then anyone can run in the primary, but in practice only
>candidates with lots of money and/or general name-recognition/fame can
>afford to go against the endorsed candidate.

US primaries are a very unique phenomenon, especially where people who
aren't part of a particular political party can rock up and vote for who
will be the official candidate of that political party.  For those of us who
are more used to the Westminster tradition, this seems a little silly.  It's
like letting anyone (not just shareholders) vote for the board of directors
of a company.  I nominate Fidel Castro to be Director of Microsoft.

The very public profile of primaries is both an advantage and disadvantage.
The advantage is, of course, that party candidates are selected openly, and
without question of corruption, backroom deals or branch stacking.  The
disadvantage is that candidates without the big money support can't mount
the kind of public campaign required to win a US style primary.