EDITORIAL: Open primary sure worth a try
We’ll let professional political pundits dissect the array of primary election outcomes Tuesday, the largest single day of elections in the land aside from the general elections this fall. However, we admit being intrigued by one development: the passage of Proposition 14 in California, allowing for wide-open primaries in that sprawling state.
It would hardly be the first such primary in the nation — Washington state and Louisiana have variations of it, as well. But one reason we’ll be watching it in the future is because it focuses, and in a big way, more on the candidates and public policy, less on party loyalty and partisanship.
The thinking is an open primary will finally force candidates to cater less to the fringe and extremist elements, which currently dominate political parties, and shape their campaigns more to the Great American Middle, where polls repeatedly suggest most of us prefer to roam.
Political parties would have to shape up, which explains opposition by some party activists to the proposition (which passed with 54 percent of the vote). All primary election voters would get the same ballot, listing all candidates for an office, regardless of party. The two getting the most votes would proceed to the general election, even if of the same party.
We’ll withhold judgment on its usefulness in Texas, but we do like its intent — making our candidates more accountable to the mainstream and marginalizing those prone to rabid rantings rooted in divisive ideology. We only hope it works as envisioned.
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