1. How DEAD is the CA GOP ???

2. How DEAD is CA ???

   There fixed that for you.

3. Just one of numerous examples of how in 2018 the California Top Two Primary is BAD.

4. ALL politics in the USA is DEAD due to —

   party hack minority rule gerrymanders
   party hack exec/judic officers
   all sorts of FATAL violations of Separation of Powers.
   —
   Revive the DEAD system-
   PR
   AppV
   TOTAL Separation of Powers

5. I’m curious – can a write-in candidate be elected in the November general election?

6. The proponents of top-two removed write-in space from the November ballot for Congress and partisan state office in 2012. That stands in contrast to Washington, the other top-two state, which still has write-in space in all elections, primary and general.

7. Another violation of USA Const 14-2 — for the listed offices.

   Lots of evil fun for the EVIL OLIGARCH gangsters in REAL Control of the USA.

   Lots of other EVIL oligarchs in foreign regimes — setting the stage for WW III.

8. Sort of unrelated to this particular article, but I have a question about top-two that I couldn’t find anywhere else. If one of the top-two in a race were to die/resign/whatever over the summer, would the third place person advance to the general election, or how would that ballot vacancy be filled? Thanks.

9. Nick’s question is very valid. Especially given that there is 5 months between the Top Two Primary and the General Election. Louisiana’s Nov. Election with Dec. Runoff avoids this potential problem.

10. California, for decades, has been the only state in which it is impossible for a candidate to withdraw. The only way to get someone’s name off the ballot is for that individual to die.

11. One more reason to have candidate/incumbent replacement lists.

12. How many gerrymander areas with 2D or 2R this year in the Nov election ???

    = more NON-votes — NOT voting for the lesser of EVILS.

13. Based on Donald Trump’s 2016 performance, the 76th Assembly district was the 24th (of 80) most Republican districts.

    Since 2011, there has never been a Democrat on the primary ballot in the district. There were three Republicans on the primary ballot in 2012, and one of them, Rocky Chavez prevailed in the general election. Mitt Romney barely prevailed in the 2012 presidential race in the district. If we assume that all of the drop off for the Assembly race was Obama voters who did not vote for either Republican, then it is possible that Chavez was elected by cross-over Democrat voters.

    88K voted for Romney, and 88K voted for Obama. There was a 24K drop off in the Assembly vote. Let’s assume that all 24K were Obama voters. If the Romney voters split 44K for Chavez and 44K for Sherri Hodge the other Republican, then the remaining Obama voters split 44K to 20K for Chavez. The district, which includes Camp Pendleton is one where being a USMC Colonel would be a distinct advantage.

    In 2014 and 2016 only Chavez filed to be on the ballot. His opponent in both races, Thomas Krouse, qualified as a write-in candidate. Krouse finished 5th in 2018. Krouse appears to have run as being against Sacramento. Assuming voters knew anything about him, it is likely that he would have drawn more Republican support.

    I think the 76th district may be an example of the good effect of Top 2.

    If Darrell Issa had not decided to not run for re-election, Rocky Chavez would have been easily re-elected. In the Congressional race, the DCCC was running fake ads against Chavez pointing out that he had voted for the state budget and other Democrat-favored legislation.

    The Republican front-runner for the 76 District, was Phil Graham, stepson of Pete Wilson, former Governor, former senator, former mayor of San Diego. When Chavez was considering running for US senator in 2016, Graham had started collecting funds for a 2020 run at the Assembly district. Two weeks before the election there was a news story that he was under investigation for sexual battery. This would have particular resonance in the San Diego area because of ex-mayor Bob Filner.

    The woman who had filed the complaint, or someone they knew tipped the news media. Based on comments in blogs and letters to the editor on news sites, the woman may be a fabulist, and allegedly friends or an acquaintance with one of the other Republican candidates. In an interview she said that because she was a registered Democrat she would not be able to vote for Graham or another Republican in the primary (seemingly to suggest that there was no political angle). It is possible that she is stupid.

    A week before the election, the sheriff’s department announced that the allegations were unfounded based on video footage both inside and outside the bar where the events took place. It was a much stronger statement than “allegations can not be corroborated”. The SEIU and AFL-CIO were running web pages and mailers alluding to the allegations.

    http://www.votenoonphilgraham.com/mmv/

    The results were:

    Demo 1: 25.7%
    Demo 2: 25.2%
    Graham: 21.1%

    Note that the two Democrats received a majority of the vote, even though typically Republicans are more likely to vote in primaries, and parties with more candidates attract more votes.

14. @Richard Winger & Nick,

    When SB 6 was passed when there was a vacancy in nomination due to death, it copied the election code for non-partisan offices, which was to place the 3rd-place candidate in the runoff. That provision had likely been in place for decades and no one noticed, until Top 2 came along. The elections code has since (2012) been amended to provide that if a deceased candidate is elected, it is treated as if they were elected, and then had died. They did not change the rule for a non-partisan office.

    California has had a Top 3 election. Two write-in candidates tied for 2nd place with 32 votes each (the on ballot candidate had 67,691 votes).

15. Thanks Jim! Very informative

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