While Californians just can’t seem to get enough of the election process, some people here think we ought to scrap this state’s 2004 presidential primary vote — and it’s not a bad idea.
Six million dollars won’t save the world or our state’s budget, but the chunk of change will have a bigger impact on people here than a primary that won’t mean nearly as much as some people might think.
Gov. Gary Locke supports the idea of a one-day special session of the Legislature to cancel the presidential primary. As Democrats have pointed out, they’ll choose all of their national convention delegates based on votes in precinct caucuses. A presidential primary would basically amount to a "beauty contest" for their party and would be non-binding. Republicans plan to choose two-thirds of their delegates at precinct caucuses and one-third from the primary. But it’s no surprise and no contest that President George Bush is headed for renomination.
Opposition to the idea is coming from Secretary of State Sam Reed who understands the economic reasons behind the push but doesn’t want to set a precedent. That concern could be specifically addressed by legislation clarifying that this is a special set of circumstances. A one-day special session to resolve the issue might be all that is necessary and some legislators are talking about tacking it on to an already-scheduled early December gathering. That would minimize cost of a one-day session and still settle the issue in enough time to spare counties the collective $2 million they’d have to spend on printing and other pre-election costs that would occur if the Legislature decided to wait to deal with the matter during the next regular session.
This also might be a good time for the political parties to start thinking about allowing all of their delegates to be chosen in future primaries rather than precinct caucuses — an idea that might be more acceptable to them if the recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to invalidate our state’s blanket primary system is upheld (another hot topic).
Toying with Washington’s elections in any shape or form is going to be upsetting to some people. But saving millions by scrapping a presidential primary that isn’t really one after all is worth exploring, especially when the money could be used to help ease some of our state’s most serious problems.
Voters are always telling politicians they want them to look harder at ways to "trim the fat." Saving $6 million in one day does just that.
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