Can Prop. 14 end gridlock? Let's see
We see the phenomenon in political campaigns all across the country: Candidates striving to appeal to the polar extremes of their parties, sometimes ignoring their own previously held priorities and positions in the process. Why? Because our primary system encourages the election of the most ideologically extreme candidate in the race -- an outcome that leaves the great moderate middle of the electorate without a champion.
Worse, the system locks in a perpetually stalemated Legislature. Budgets are not approved on time (and sometimes not at all) because legislators refuse to compromise over fears -- valid fears -- that they'll pay the price in a primary challenge from their own party.
What can Californians do about their dysfunctional Legislature, filled with hard-line conservatives and intransigent liberals? For starters, they can vote yes on Proposition 14, the open primary initiative reluctantly placed on the June ballot by state legislators as part of a 2009 budget deal.
The new system would work like this: All candidates for a given office would be listed together on a single primary ballot, with or without a party affiliation -- but instead of the top vote-getter in each party moving on to the November election, the two top overall vote-getters would advance. As a result, some legislative and congressional districts would have two Republicans or two Democrats fighting it out in the general election.
Without a doubt, most Kern County races would fall into that category. As it stands now, Republicans race to the right for the primary nomination -- and the privilege of crushing an underfunded Democrat in the November general. The opposite is true in liberal districts such as the 2nd, on California's north coast, where in November the surviving Democrat will trounce a Republican and head to Sacramento with a no-compromise mandate.
What that gives us, besides never-ending deadlock, is a highly partisan Legislature that every day grows more out of step with an increasingly independent body of voters.
Minor parties, like the Greens and the American Independents, don't like Proposition 14 because it would likely keep them off the fall ballot. But their registration numbers and actual vote counts are tiny in comparison to the two major parties, so how much influence are they losing? This system might even help them, because they need only finish second in a primary in order to achieve prominent, equal billing in the general.
Some say Proposition 14, if passed, will simply be struck down in court, a fate that befell a previous attempt at a "blanket primary." But Proposition 14, modeled after a Washington state law that has already survived court challenges, is sufficiently different in nature.
Proposition 14 won't fix everything in California government, but it's a step toward eliminating a major source of legislative inflexibility. We urge a yes vote.
