[EM] Re: parties working to throw out top-two primary in Washington State

[Araucaria Araucana]

On 27 Apr 2005 at 13:27 UTC-0700, Russ Paielli wrote:
> So now the parties will need to have their own "private
> pre-primaries" before the official so-called "primary." And the
> general election will almost surely exclude minor parties.
>
> Or will the "we'll-tell-you-how-to-run-your-party" Nazis prohibit
> the pre-primaries? Think about the implications of that, folks.

The parties are forcing the issue.  They want a party-list primary.
Look into the context here

  - Until last year, WA had a blanket primary.  Anybody could vote for
    any single candidate in the primary.

  - The parties fought this on constitutional (membership) grounds.
    They lobbied hard and got a party-list primary.

  - Last September's primary was a party-list ballot.  You could vote
    for either Dem/Rep/Lib candidates plus non-partisan.

  - This was so unpopular that the top-two initiative passed easily
    (in protest).

>
> Gov. Schwarnegger actually supported the top-two primary system in
> California last election, but CA voters were smart enough not to go
> for it. I like Arnold, but he was "out to lunch" on that one.
>
> The people who concocted this idea have no clue about the purpose of
> primary elections. The purpose of primaries, of course, is to allow
> each party to consolidate its votes behind one candidate.

Primaries are held at the voters' expense for benefit of the parties.
There is nothing wrong with the parties using a caucus instead.

Primaries also lead to the 2-party system -- anybody who isn't
competing in the primary loses name recognition and prestige.

The length, sleaze and expense of the primary/general system tends to
discourage our best qualified citizens from running.

>
> The fact that a majority was ignorant enough to fall for this scheme
> in Washington does not bode well for the future of voting systems.

Not ignorant, just pissed off.  I think it actually bodes well.  The
voters want to vote for whomever they prefer and object to the
primary/general lock of the major parties.

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