Minor parties fear extinction under Proposition 14

Sacramento Bee ^ | 5/18/10 | Torey Van Oot

[SmithL]

A combined 4.5 percent of the state's registered voters sign up with the American Independent, Green, Libertarian and Peace and Freedom parties.

Of which, only the Libertarians tend to siphon off Republican votes.

[Drill Thrawl]

Ah the joys of the progressives and their direct democracy.

Fools!

[GeronL]

This is horrible. This is the Republcrat Monopoly again.

[South40]

Tom McClintock says...

Prop. 14. Distorted Primary. NO: This was the result of the corrupt deal for the tax increase engineered by Abel Maldonado that included this measure to by-pass party primaries in a manner Maldonado believed would enhance his future election prospects. Instead of voters of each party putting their best candidate forward, this jerry-rigged system is designed to disguise the difference between the parties and force those pesky third parties off the general election ballot entirely.

soure

[darkangel82]

Big fat absolute NO on this.

[Regulator]

Reason number 9,999 to vote a big bad NO NO NO NO NO on this crap.

[cripplecreek]

I don’t vote 3rd party but I don’t have any issues with their existence. In my opinion, restricting 3rd parties is a cowardly act.

If the two major parties don’t like it, they could always try harder to represent the people.

[Touch Not the Cat]

.
bttt

[Greg123456]

Under that system in about 80-90% of cases the same candidate would win the general election.

The main problem I see is the main parties would need the same number of candidates per primary to avoid splitting the ticket and sending the top two of the other party, regardless of the makeup of the electorate, to the general election.

In highly partisan districts the top two would be the same party, but they'd win anyway.

[Jack Black]

Washington State already has this system. I don’t like it. I like closed primaries. The RNC should make tougher rules for the next set of primaries. That’s what Michael Steele SHOULD be working on, that’s his job.

[Drango]

Not sure...perhaps a YES on this. Losertarians, Greens and Peace & Freedom wackadoos will lose out...

[GeronL]

You must love RINO’s.

[Drango]

Whatever...

[darkangel82]

Anyone pushing this Lib crapola must love RINOs.

[GeronL]

Without primary the GOP establishment will back the RINO and accuse the conservative upstarts of “splitting the vote” and saying their guy is “the only one who can win”.

[GeronL]

Both of the major party bigwigs would love this, its everyone else who suffers.

[sphinx]

This may be a distinction without a difference. What is proposed is the elimination of the state-run primary, and its replacement with a two stage all-comers election with an open first round followed by a runoff. Nothing wrong with that.

Parties that wanted to have a primary (or a nominating convention) would simply have to run it privately ahead of time, with party members pledging to support the nominee in the general election. That might turn out to be an advantage for coherent parties, since the open field in the first round of the general election would tend to splinter the vote.

[onedoug]

Closed primaries. Otherwise democrats can scramble conservative results.

[darkangel82]

Arnold is for it and that says all you need to know.