Ralph Nader’s independent candidacy for president makes a good point: That the political system should not belong just to the Democratic and Republican parties. But the way to make this point is not by running for president.
No independent or third-party candidate has been elected as long as we’ve had parties.
But several states have elected independent and third-party governors, and almost every modern Congress has had at least one independent or third-party member.
The way to change the system is to elect independent and third-party candidates first to state and local offices and then to Congress.
Such changes could lead to a proposal for a Constitutional amendment to change the way we elect presidents. The electoral-college system encourages a two-party system. A better system would allow for a multi-candidate election in which everyone could vote his or her conscience, followed by a runoff between the top two vote-getters.
As it is, all an independent or third-party candidate can do is keep either major candidate from getting a majority of the vote as Nader did in the close 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, Ross Perot did in the 1992 election between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, and George Wallace did in the 1968 election between Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. In all those cases, the loser was left thinking he should have won and the winner was left wondering if he had really won.
Delay on primary hits home
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday not to review a lower court decision that Washington’s blanket primary is unconstitutional leaves the state Legislature only two weeks to come up with an alternative.
That’s too bad because the Legislature has had three and a half years to come up with an alternative. It was in the summer of 2000 that the Supreme Court struck down a similar system in California. Since then, state officials have clung to the faint hope that the courts would save them from having to decide among several alternatives on the table.
Now, we may end up with no primary at all, with every qualified candidate on the November general-election ballot in what officials call a “jungle general” election.
Even if officials do act, the state will be introducing a new system in the year in which we elect a U.S. senator, a governor, other state officials, nine U.S. representatives, half our state senators and all our state representatives. Whatever the new system, there are bound to be problems or confusion. How much better it would have been to have tried a new system last year when few partisan positions were on the ballot.
The skinny on the ‘Cajun’
An article in last week’s Seattle Times pointed out the problems with Louisiana’s “Cajun Primary” and asked whether it would work here.
Much of what it said was wrong, and would not apply here.
First, the modified blanket primary favored by Secretary of State Sam Reed, the State Grange and many legislators is different from Louisiana’s system.
It’s different because Louisiana doesn’t really have a primary. It has a November general election with everyone on the ballot, with a runoff a few weeks later among the top two vote-getters if no one gets a majority in November.
The modified blanket primary proposed for Washington, on the other hand, would give us a September primary that would look just like the outlawed blanket primary we are accustomed to, with the exception that it would narrow the field to the top two candidates rather than pick party nominees. It would also give us a one-on-one general election because third candidates would no longer be able to advance merely by getting one percent of the primary vote.
Second, it is credited with contributing to Louisiana’s corrupt politics.
But, Louisiana was known for its corrupt politics long before it adopted the Cajun system in 1975. Washington has always had a “good government” reputation and would under any system.
Third, it is credited with advancing extremist candidates. The oft-cited example is the 1991 runoff for governor between a felon and a Ku Klux Klansman. But, recent examples have produced better matchups such as last fall’s race for governor that produced the South’s first contest between a woman and a minority man, one a Democrat and one a Republican.
In Washington, the proposed system would be like our non-partisan primaries for judgeships, school directorships and other local positions that tend to produce very good candidates.
Fourth, it is charged with weakening political parties, but a study by Reed shows that more than 96 percent of recent legislative races would have matched a Democrat and a Republican just as they did under our traditional blanket primary.
Don’t close the bus tunnel
So, Sound Transit is going ahead with building its line to Tukwila, despite a state Supreme Court ruling that its major source of tax money is illegal.
Then, let’s make the project as worthwhile as possible. That means forgetting about closing the downtown bus tunnel until the agency can stretch the south end of the line to the airport. A line from the south downtown area to the airport would be worthwhile, especially if Sound Transit will copy Cleveland’s Regional Transit Authority and run the line right into the airport terminal. Imagine being able to take light rail from the stadium area, near the railroad and ferry terminals, the end of the bus tunnel and a future monorail station, and riding it right into the Sea-Tac terminal, a few feet from the ticket counters.
Do that before you start construction in the tunnel, construction that will send the buses onto city streets where they will add to traffic congestion.
Sound Transit says it will eliminate bus traffic from the tunnel earlier than previously planned. Many of us will accept that only when we see some value in the plan.
And, if the line actually gets to the airport, Sound Transit will no longer hear its plan called “The Rail Line to Nowhere.”
Say it ain’t so, Dave
King County Sheriff Dave Reichert’s announcement that he will run as a Republican to replace retiring 9th District Republican Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn is disappointing.
It’s a disappointment, first because many had hoped that Reichert would run for governor.
But it’s also a disappointment because it spoils what had made Reichert the area’s most popular political figure: that he was a non-partisan reluctant politician.
Reichert, a career law-enforcement officer was appointed sheriff by a Democratic county executive, but had to run for office when voters made the position a non-partisan elective position a few years ago.
He has been popular because he appeared to be above the partisan political fray. That is no longer true.
We’d like to know what you think. If you have a comment send it to
The Enterprise
P.O. Box 977
Lynnwood, Wash. 98036
E-mail: entopinion@heraldnet.com
Fax: 425-774-8622
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor.
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