Both houses of the Washington State Legislature have now approved versions of a "Louisiana-style" primary, which would let voters cast ballots for any candidate and would send the top two finishers to the general election.
The "top two" strikes me as a terrible idea, as it would undermine the parties (all of them) and give a big advantage to candidates who have either their own organizations or substantial name recognition. Why is this a good thing?
Hopefully Gov. Locke will veto this one and we'll get the more sensible "Montana-style primary", which lets the voter secretly declare their party affiliation at the ballot box and vote in exactly one party's primary per election.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 09, 2004 12:10 PMA terrible idea. It undermines the two party system. We are a two party country which has worked better and been more stable than the coalition government paradigm found elsewhere.
Primaries make sense as a vehicle for people of each party afflitiation to select their best candidate. I've always felt they were attended, though fewer in numbers, by people who have put more thought into the candidates and issues.