Blanket primary gets a reprieve as judge balks at replacing it

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, July 24, 2001

By David Ammons

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — Washington’s popular blanket primary was given a reprieve Tuesday by a federal judge who said he refuses to substitute his judgment for the Legislature’s in rewriting the primary system.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a California case last summer that states cannot force political parties to allow outsiders to help select their nominees. The blanket primary, pioneered here as a populist initiative 66 years ago, allows just this kind of crossover voting.

California and Alaska already have adopted more closed party primaries, but the Washington Legislature was unable to settle on a replacement system.

The political parties had asked U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess to throw out the old system and adopt a new one that guarantees their right to limit primary access to self-identified members of their parties. The Legislature debated several fixes, but couldn’t agree on a plan.

The Tacoma judge’s long-awaited decision, released after court hours late Tuesday, dissolved last year’s court injunction against the blanket primary and sent the issue back to the Legislature.

That apparently means the blanket primary will be used for one more year.

"The voters win!" exulted James Johnson, attorney for the state Grange, which sponsored the original blanket primary initiative and wanted to keep changes to a minimum.

Burgess drew a distinction between California, where voters enacted the blanket primary a few years ago, and Washington, which has a long tradition of using the wide-open system. His ruling opens the door for the state to defend the blanket primary at a later trial, but gave no indication how the courts might rule.

"We argued, and the court apparently has agreed, Washington is not California," a jubilant Johnson said in an interview.

Burgess found that the political parties hadn’t proved they’ve been harmed by the old system, and said the parties’ rights and the state’s rights might be balanced differently in Washington than in California.

Pollsters and political scientists say the blanket primary is extremely popular with voters and that a switch might hurt voter turnout.

State Democratic Party chairman Paul Berendt, first to get word about the order, said, "Essentially, the judge punted. He said he as a judge doesn’t have power to write statute and that this is the Legislature’s responsibility.

"He did not make this problem go away. If anything, we are muddled further."

Berendt said his initial read is that the parties will be forced to accept use of the primary one last time — as they allowed last fall after the stunning 7-2 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But he said the battle is far from over, and that the Democrats will fight for their First Amendment rights to pick their own standard-bearers.

"This is not final. The case is still alive," he said.

Chris Vance, Republican state chairman, agreed.

"Anything that continues to allow crossover voting, we will absolutely fight," he said in an interview from Washington, D.C. "That is one central thing that’s just not negotiable. It is just unacceptable."

He said lawyers will review the decision to see if there is any opening for an appeal this summer.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.