The Los Angeles Times of February 20 has this op-ed by Steve Hill of the New America Foundation, questioning whether the “top-two” election system will help California.
The Los Angeles Times of February 20 has this op-ed by Steve Hill of the New America Foundation, questioning whether the “top-two” election system will help California.
In 2006, Washington nominated its Republican and Democratic legislative candidates in a conventional partisan primary, while independent and 3rd party candidates could qualify directly for the November ballot. For the entire state, there was just ONE 3rd party legislative candidate (and NO independents). Not much choice there.
California elects its county supervisors at non-partisan elections and often has ballot initiatives at the June primary. Only 11% of independent voters and 18% of minor party registrants voted, compared to 30% of Democrats and 33% of Republicans. Because the partisan primary contests get top billing, these other voters are effectively disenfranchised from voting on these non-partisan issues.
Most voters in Washington vote by mail. They are sent a ballot and a voter’s pamphlet for the August primary. They simply mark which candidates they want to be elected. It is not a trick question to be asked, “who do you want to be your state senator?” What does a preliminary question of, “do you consider yourself a Republican or Democrat,” add to the decision making process, especially when that extraneous decision may make it illegal for a voter to vote for the candidates they would prefer that represent them?
Collectively the voters make their preliminary choice in August. They make a final decision in November.
Washington elects 3 legislators from each legislative district, a senator and two representatives, who run for 2 distinct positions. In the past, under the blanket primary, there were some LD’s where candidates from both parties were elected, perhaps because voters could choose the individual candidate that they wanted to advance to the general election. Under the pick-a-party partisan primary system used in 2004 and 2006, polarization increased, as 3 Democrats or 3 Republicans were elected.
The Supreme Court decision in Washington was handed down in March 2008. By then, persons seriously considering running for the legislature in the August primary would have already made their plans. One would be naive to expect that all legislative races would suddenly be contested by candidates who could appeal to voters without regard to their party.
Phil Sawyer Says:
February 21st, 2009 at 10:19 am
The bottom line is that a “top two†system that does not allow the nominees of all political parties to go on to the general election is a very terrible thing.
If the California voters are somehow tricked into voting in such a “top two†system (which I do not think will happen), then the smaller political parties – including the Republican Party in the year 2012 because that ship is sinking fast – will need to start working better together and form temporary coalition candidates that will oppose the Democratic Party candidates.
Prop 62 was the last attempt at this, in 2004, and it failed by about 800K votes, or 3.5%. That time around it was proposed by the same batch of losers that proposed both Washington’s system, which passed, and Oregon’s, which failed 2-1 at the polls.
The differences this time are significant. Prop 62 was on a full presidential election, not a primary. The June 2010 primary has all statewide offices, half the state senate, one US Senate seat (Feinstein), all of the House and state Assembly seats, plus this prop and whatever else shows up downticket. That’s a full slate, even fuller than in a Presidential election. That will impact turnout. Plus, this time the prop is coming out of the legislature instead from an assroots group, so that may change the support/opposition calculus some, we’ll have to see. Finally, the wild card in the equation is the state of the federal lawsuit in Washington over top-two up there, which is ongoing. If a ruling blocking it by the 9th comes down again, it may be binding on CA depending on the wording and when it comes out.
Noticeable was the silence over top-two from the CA GOP state convention this past weekend. They beat on the Sellout 6, but nothing on the top-two as of now.