Bill Whalen, of the Hoover Institution, has this commentary on the California U.S. Senate race and the top-two system. He is a Republican and was once part of Governor Pete Wilson’s administration. He says he has been a supporter of the top-two system in the past, but that this year, the system is failing the state, with regard to the U.S. Senate race.
He says that the three leading Republicans running for U.S. Senate this year each represent different shades of the Republican Party, and in a normal system, they would be debating each other over the direction the Republican Party should take. But because California has a top-two system, they don’t interact in debates or other public fora with each other. Instead, because each hopes to place second on June 7, they instead attack their Democratic opponents.
The piece would be better if Whalen did not refer to the top-two system as an “open primary.” “Open primary” has been defined in political science textbooks for over 100 years as a system in which, on primary day, any voter may choose any party’s primary ballot. But each party has its own primary ballot and its own nominees. In California, there are no party nominees or party primaries (except for President). In effect, California has a trial run general election in June, five months before the election itself. And people who don’t place first or second in the trial run are then barred from the election itself.