[EM] primary election thoughts

[Bart Ingles]

Daniel Bishop wrote:

>> I'm curious what advantages of full Condorcet might be lost by 
>> reducing the
>> options to only 3 ranks.

There _is_ no advantage to full Condorcet in primary elections.  The 
trivial example, with only two candidates for a given party, is actually 
a common one:

(loosely taken from 2002 California gubernatorial race:

Republicans:
30 Simon
25 Riordan

Democrats:
45 Davis

Your proposal would elect conservative Simon in the Republican primary 
(the same as plurality), even though polls showed that centrist Riordan 
was the only Republican likely to defeat Davis in the general election.

If you don't like the CA 2002 example, try Louisiana 2000 [(Duke vs 
Roemer) vs Edwards] or CA 2003 [(McClintock vs Schwarzeneggar) vs Davis].

In all these examples, the Condorcet candidate in the Republican primary 
is a sure loser in the general election.  Looking forward, the Demos 
seem to be splitting into progressive and centrist factions.

Bart