From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary Email… (yours truly is quoted)…
What’s the Matter with California?
When he was a state legislator last year, California Lt. Governor Abel Maldonado struck a hard bargain in exchange for his vote to approve a package of tax increases that were later rejected by voters in a statewide referendum. He insisted that legislators agree to put Proposition 14 on today’s primary ballot, a measure that would ditch California’s partisan primaries in favor of a so-called "jungle primary."
Under the system, which was once used in Louisiana but has been abandoned, all candidates would compete for every voter’s ballot, regardless of party affiliation. The top two vote getters would advance to the general election — even if they belong to the same party. Mr. Maldonado, a moderate Republican, claims that since candidates would have to appeal across party lines to make the November ballot, winners would be more moderate and more likely to work across party lines.
But that’s not what political scientists who have studied polarization in legislative bodies have found. Boris Shor of the University of Chicago says it’s true that California has the most polarized legislature in the country, as well as the most liberal. But he notes that Washington State’s legislature is almost as polarized, and Washington has used a variation of the "jungle primary" for 70 of the last 76 years. Political scientist Seth Masket, an expert on political polarization, says flatly: "I doubt the initiative would have anything close to the impact its backers suggest."
Critics have their own ideas on what the proposed system would lead to: "It would have the effect of reducing the number of people with firm points of view in the Legislature and bringing in more pure politicians who don’t have a core set of beliefs," says Jon Fleischman, publisher of the conservative FlashReport. It would also almost completely wipe out the ability of third parties to field candidates in a general election, leaving the two major parties with a monopoly stranglehold.
Supporters of the Maldonado measure have outspent opponents by 20 to 1, but in the past Californians have shown an ability to reject complicated and largely untested political schemes that have been foisted on them. Here’s hoping that common sense attitude prevails again today.
— John Fund
If you haven’t vote yet, get out there and vote NO ON 14. Make sure you spread the word!