The San Rafael, California, Independent-Journal, has this op-ed by Joel Smolen, discussing how Califoria’s Proposition 14 worked in practice in June. The Independent-Journal had strongly supported the top-two measure when it was on the ballot in June 2010.
On July 18, the Justice Party nominated Luis Rodriguez for vice-president. He is the author of fifteen books, and is co-founder of the Network for Revolutionary Change. Here is more about him.
Now that California has held its first regularly-scheduled top-two open primary, there have now been 81 minor party members who have run in top-two open primaries, in races that also had at least two major party members running. In all 81 instances, the minor party candidate did not place first or second in the primary and therefore was blocked from the general election campaign.
Besides the California examples, there have been such races in Louisiana and Washington state. There were 21 California minor party members who appeared on the California primary ballot last month. Here is a list of those candidates, and their percentages, and the order in which each placed:
1. Marsha Feinland, Peace & Freedom, US Senate, 14th of 24, 1.19%
2. Gail Lightfoot, Libertarian, US Senate, 9th of 24, 2.09%
3. Don Grundmann, American Independent, US Senate, 18th of 24, .68%
4. Kabiruddin Karim ali, Peace & Freedom, US Senate, 24th of 24, .25%
5. Douglas Arthur Tuma, Libertarian, US House 7, 4th of 4, 3.07%
6. Barry Hermanson, Green, US House 12, 3rd of 6, 5.36%
7. Carol Brouillet, Green, US House 18, 4th of 4, 4.08%
8. Eric Petersen, Green, US House 20, 5th of 7, 2.07%
9. Michael W. Powelson, Green, US House 30, 6th of 7, 2.06%
10. David William Steinman, Green, US House 33, 6th of 8, 3.48%
11. Steve Collett, Libertarian, US House 33, 5th of 8, 4.35%
12. Howard Johnson, Peace & Freedom, US House 34, 3rd of 3, 6.66%
13. Anthony W. Vieyra, Green, US House 35, 3rd of 3, 18.64%
14. Michael Benoit, Libertarian, US House 50, 4th of 5, 5.41%
15. John H. Webster, Libertarian, State Senate 13, 3rd of 4, 15.45%
16. David Edwards, Green, Assembly 1, 4th of 5, 6.11%
17. Charley Hooper, Libertarian, Assembly 1, 5th of 5, 5.38%
18. Pamela Elizondo, Green, Assembly 2, 3rd of 4, 8.77%
19. Janice Marlae Bonser, Libertarian, Assembly 8, 5th of 6, 4.33%
20. C. T. Weber, Peace & Freedom, Assembly 9, 6th of 6, 3.01%
21. John Paul Lindblad, Green, Assembly 39, 5th of 6, 7.60%
Many supporters of the California top-two ballot measure in 2010, including some newspaper editorial writers, claimed that top-two would be good for minor parties.
The web page www.isidewith.com lets anyone answer questions about his or her opinions on current political issues. Then the site tells the reader which of eight presidential candidates the viewer most agrees with.
The eight presidential candidates included are Stewart Alexander (Socialist Party), Virgil Goode (Constitution Party), Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Jimmy McMillan (who declared for the Republican presidential nomination in 2010 but who does not seem to be running in the general election), President Obama, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Jill Stein (Green Party).
The ballot-qualified Peace & Freedom Party of California will hold its state convention, which also functions as a presidential nominating convention this year, on August 4-5 at the Vermont Square United Methodist Church, 4410 S. Budlong Ave., Los Angeles. The meeting starts at 10 a.m. on August 4, Saturday.
The ballot-qualified American Independent Party of California still has not set an exact address for its convention, but it will be somewhere in Sacramento on August 11.
