Primary reform will hurt California democracy

[question everything]

By Steven Hill and Roy Ulrich
April 7, 2004

California voters may be asked to vote again this November on our primary election system. The popular blanket primary passed by voters in 1996 was lost to an unfavorable U.S. Supreme Court ruling. So, well-intentioned state leaders such as Leon Panetta, Richard Riordan and state Controller Steve Westly are pushing a voter initiative suggested by, oddly enough, the most conservative justice, Antonin Scalia. The result, unfortunately, is political deform masked as reform.

Their voter initiative would adopt a version of Louisiana's "top-two" primary which, like the blanket primary, allows voters to choose any candidate, regardless of political party affiliation, in primary elections for state and federal office (except president). But there are important differences with the blanket primary that proponents are fudging.

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What impact will this have on California's already low-turnout elections, to have even fewer choices on the November ballot, often only two candidates from the same party? And what impact will this have on California's vibrant third parties, where in Louisiana they have been mostly wiped off the ballot? This hardly seems like a step forward.

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Ex-Klansman David Duke made it into Louisiana's 1991 governor's runoff with only 32 percent of the vote. His core of rabid supporters held together while moderate candidates split the rest of the vote, allowing Duke to make the runoff with a low percentage. His opponent with 37 percent, Democrat Edwin Edwards, had been twice-indicted and eventually was convicted for bribery and fraud. One bumper sticker read "Vote the Crook, not the Klan."

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While California may not have to worry about ex-Klansmen candidates, we have our own version of polarizing candidates and demagoguery around issues of immigration and race. The "top-two" system has a track record of exaggerating these divisions.

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Hill is senior analyst for Center for Voting and Democracy (www.fairvote.org) in San Francisco and author of "Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner Take All Politics." Ulrich is a public interest lawyer in Los Angeles.

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