Washington State’s Top-Two System is Correlated with Dysfunction in Legislature

Washington state’s legislature is in the ninth day of its third special session this year. The legislature has sat more days in 2015 than in any previous calendar year since Washington became a state in 1889. The extended sessions are mostly related to deadlock over the state budget. Special sessions are called when the regular legislative session can’t get its work done. Usually the work that doesn’t get done in regular sessions is passing the budget.

Washington has been using the top-two system starting in 2008. There were two special legislative sessions in 2010, two in 2011, two in 2012, three in 2013, and three this year. Prior to the onset of the top-two system, there had only been six years in Washington history that needed three special sessions. Here is the data going back to 1889.

Political scientist Boris Shor showed in August 2014 that Washington state has the nation’s fourth most polarized legislature. Here is a story about the current special session.


Comments

Washington State’s Top-Two System is Correlated with Dysfunction in Legislature — 4 Comments

  1. Announcing the video of the “USA and International Parliament Picnic/Convention 2015”!

    See video of the gathering of United Coalition candidates for President of the United States (POTUS) which was held at a meeting between both USA and International Parliament participants on July 4th, 2015.

    http://youtu.be/5SVQC9gKXU4

  2. I suspect that a more thoughtful analysis would attribute the extra sessions to (1) The recession causing revenue to drop; plus the early federal stimulus drying up; and (2) more competitive legislature control.

    After the last election under the unlamented Pick-A-Party primary, Democrats held a 62:36 House majority, and 31:18 Senate majority. At present, the Democratic House majority is 51:47, and the Senate has a 26:23 (majority coalition majority).

    Incidentally Washington did not have annual legislative sessions until 1980.

  3. Voters like the 50/50 tie broken with one vote and in California towns like Paradise have civic groups closely tied on a choice between districts or at-large elections.

    The establishment media is interested in the division and polarization and hostilities.

    Now there is a new way; unity under pure proportional representation (PR).

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