Amy Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report, here makes an original point…the more election laws, including campaign finance laws and laws about primaries, are altered to reduce the influence of the Republican and Democratic Parties, the more partisanship among the electorate seems to increase.
The Arizona Daily Sun of Flagstaff assembled a panel of six informed citizens, none of them elected officials, to discuss various ideas for election reform. They were Harriet Young, Joy Staveley, Holly Taylor, Carl Taylor, Dick Monroe, and Ann Heitland. See their responses. Question four concerns top-two primaries and whether Arizona ought to have one. See here.
This Stanford poll, released a few days ago, shows the huge difference in results, depending on whether pollsters list only a handful of candidates for a particular office, or whether they list all the candidates. Questions 53 and 54 ask about the U.S. Senate race. Question 53 listed only five candidates who will be on the ballot, but Question 54 listed all 32 candidates on the ballot.
When only five candidates were listed, Rocky De La Fuente, a Republican, easily placed second. That question showed Dianne Feinstein at 35%, Rocky De La Fuente at 21%, and Kevin De Leon at 9%.
But when all 32 candidates were listed, Feinstein had 36%, De Leon had 11%, and De La Fuente had 4%.
Question 14 asks about the top-two system. Support was 41%; opposition was 22%; undecided was at 37%.
Questions 50 and 51 are both about the gubernatorial race. Question 50 only lists a few candidates; question 51 lists all candidates.
Question 52 has some candidates for Lieutenant Governor, and appears to be the first publicly-available poll for that office. The poll was taken by the Bill Lane Center for the American West, part of Stanford University.
This U.S. News & World Report story on the California top-two system has an unusual amount of detail about the U.S. House races in which Democratic-leaning districts may have no Democrat on the November ballot.
On June 1, the California Secretary of State released a new registration tally, as of May 21. This will be the last California tally until October. The only categories that increased their registration are independents, Libertarians, and the ranks of voters who have never made a choice about party or independent membership.
The new percentages are: Democratic 44.36%; independent 25.51%; Republican 25.07%; American Independent 2.65%; Libertarian.745%; Green .475%; Peace & Freedom .391%; unqualified parties .60%; unknown .20%.
The previous percentages, from April 2018, were: Democratic 44.58%; Republican 25.27%; independent 25.11%; American Independent 2.66%; Libertarian .740%; Green .480%; Peace & Freedom .392%; unqualified parties .61%; unknown .15%.
