Washington State Senator Craig Pridemore, who had been running a strong campaign for the open U.S. House seat in the 3rd district (southwest Washington state), has suddenly dropped out of the race. This commentary from the Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate believes Pridemore’s decision is because there is a possibility that if he stayed in the race, the Washington state top-two system would create a general election with no Democrat on the November ballot.
Although the 3rd district is currently held by Democrats, primary turnout in Washington state is higher among Republicans than among Democrats. Thanks to Dan Meek for the link.
What is that X percent of ALL voters in a party hack gang who have a constitutional *right* to have THEIR party hack candidate on the official general election ballots with the party hack gang label ???
P.R. and App.V. = NO primaries are needed.
The current representative for the 3rd district, Brian Baird, and Governor Christine Gregoire have endorsed another candidate. When another candidate dropped out this spring she indicated that she thought Pridemore was too far left for the district. With the Republicans pushing to take the district, Pridemore probably found himself being cut off from campaign funds.
The filing period is next week, so this was probably a good time to back out.
Under both the old blanket primary and the open primary in effect from 2004 to 2007, it wouldn’t have mattered if Pridemore split the Democratic vote in the primary election. So much for Top Two taking power away from The Political Gangs and giving it to The People.
That’s not how I heard it.
Right, Tom, because under the old blanket primary, the top Democrat and the top Republican both advanced to the general election, so there was no incentive for political operatives to recruit ringers to run under the other party’s label to dilute their votes. The minor parties also had spots on the November ballot.
Good point! If top-two was to eliminate party bosses influencing the elections, it just failed the test. However, let the party bosses influence the primary and vote for independents instead. The only problem is is that the voters still vote for the Demorepublicratican Party no matter how much manipulation, election control, bribery, and underhanded backroom deals are revealed. Its an addiction to a two-party system.
Addiction: the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.
Since 1986, there have been 181 instances when someone who was not the nominee of either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party was elected to a partisan state gubernatorial or legislative post. There will be more this year.
# 7 The 181 is what percentage of the total number of offices involved ???
O.1 percent — more or less ???
P.R. [lots more non-D/R folks) and nonpartisan App.V.
#7 There will be around 125 in Washington alone.
#3 Have Pennsylvania and Colorado adopted a Top 2 Open Primary?
#10 No, they haven’t, and Obama’s attempts to dissuade competition for Bennett (D-CO) and Specter (D/R/D-PA) didn’t work out.