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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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Insight: Why Republicans oppose Prop. 14
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | Jason |
| Last Edited | Jason Apr 27, 2010 12:28am |
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| Category | Analysis |
| Author | Matthew Cunningham |
| Media | Newspaper - San Francisco Chronicle |
| News Date | Tuesday, April 27, 2010 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | While its advocates drape it in the rhetoric of openness and reform, Proposition 14 is actually a radical restructuring of California's traditional primary. This initiative tramples freedom of association and robs political parties the right to decide their own nominees. It does so by imposing a "blanket primary" system identical to that employed by the politically dysfunctional state of Louisiana.
Currently, political parties select their nominees in the June primary election, and the respective winners go on to the November general election. It is a system that has served this state and this nation well for more than a century.
Prop. 14 replaces it with a system in which the two candidates who received the most primary votes advance to November -- regardless of party. Because California's legislative and congressional districts have been drawn to heavily tilt toward one party or another, Prop. 14's Top 2 system will restrict most voters' general election choices to between two Republicans or two Democrats. Third-party candidates will be finished as far as the November election goes.
Prop. 14 seeks to gerrymander the primary system by ensuring only a certain kind of candidate makes it to the general election ballot. Regardless of what one thinks of the types of nominees our current primary system produces, we should all agree that in a free nation, political parties, as private organizations, ought to have the right to decide who their nominees are, and set their own rules for selecting them. |
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