Last week, I disputed three arguments against Initiative 872 which would establish a top-two primary. Here are some more:
Objection 4: The purpose of a primary should be to choose party nominees.
Response: This is the true difference between supporters of the partisan primary and supporters of the top-two primary, who believe the main purpose of the primary should be to narrow the field for the general election.
Objection 5: The top-two system would lead to parties’ picking nominees at conventions.
Response: The parties would be free to hold caucuses and conventions to anoint their favored candidates, but other Republicans, Democrats or Libertarians would be free to run in the primary. Party officials have said they would sue for control of their party names, but court precedent is against them.
Objection 6: Most states pick their nominees in a partisan primary.
Response: States use at least four different forms of primaries. In a federal system, different states do lots of things in different ways.
Objection 7: We don’t want to borrow a system from Louisiana, a state known for corrupt politics.
Response: The proposed system is different from that in Louisiana. Louisiana has no primary; its general election is open to everyone, with the top two vote-getters running off in December only if no one gets a majority in November.
Louisiana was known for its corrupt politics long before it adopted its current electoral system. We can find corrupt and clean politics under almost every kind of electoral system.
Objection 8: We shouldn’t adopt a new system by initiative because it can’t be changed for two years.
Response: The proposed system was passed by the Legislature, then vetoed by Gov. Gary Locke; that forced proponents to push the initiative. The former blanket primary was adopted by initiative 70 years ago but has been tweaked several times.
Objection 9: If we’d had the proposed system in 1980, former Gov. John Spellman would not have made it to the general-election ballot.
Response: The 1980 primary was a referendum on the governorship of Dixy Lee Ray, which meant that many people voted for a Democrat in the primary, then turned around and voted for Spellman in November. I believe that under a top-two system at least 34 percent would have voted for Republican Spellman, meaning that no more than one candidate could have finished ahead of him.
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Lynnwood, Wash. 98036
E-mail: entopinion@heraldnet.com
Fax: 425-774-8622
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor.
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