OK, have we got it yet? Our political parties have the absolute and constitutional right to nominate their candidates for public office. Got that Secretary of State Sam Reed? Got that Attorney General Rob McKenna? Got that Washington state legislators?
Let’s stop wasting time and money attempting to exercise a will that is perverse, unfair and three times found unconstitutional. The overturned Top Two primary not only denied the major political parties the right to nominate their candidates – it relegated the smaller political parties to a certain oblivion.
Now we are stuck with the Montana option, which was favored by none of the major parties and was demonstrably opposed by the unaligned. Now we have an option that nobody likes. How can that be?
The major political parties were unified in their desire for a primary that required voter declaration of party affiliation and candidate qualification. Horrors! Actual people who might be the legislators’ neighbors might actually be able to exercise some influence. Clearly too populist. The legislators ignored their parties and delivered the Montana.
Who is served by this flaccid legislation? My guess is the elected politicians and the vested interests.
The less elected officials have to answer to the people (read political parties) the more responsive they can be to the transitory and established interests who have the money or influence necessary to win a majority of the unaligned voters and capture the general election (Republicans and Democrats can count on 30 percent of the total votes simply by their party affiliation).
Shame on our legislators, Republican and Democrat, for not standing up for their parties. Shame on all elected officials who compromise their oath to defend the Constitution. And shame on all of the rest of us who attempt to interfere with our political parties right to nominate their candidates.
Kent Hanson
Everett
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