This Los Angeles Times article says that Abel Maldonado, one of the leading forces for California’s top-two system back in 2009, now favors returning to a traditional system in which parties have nominees. But he favors a provision that says independent voters can vote in any party’s primary.

In 2009, the California legislature put the top-two measure on the ballot because Maldonado, then a State Senator, said he would vote for the budget if the legislature passed a bill to put top-two on the ballot. He had tremendous power at the time, because California was suffering a two-month old delay in passing the budget. The Constitution at that time required a two-thirds vote in each house, and Republican legislators wouldn’t vote for the budget, and they had just enough votes to stop it. When Maldonado agreed to vote for the budget, the budget passed.