Posted on 04/14/2023 5:30:28 AM PDT by cotton1706
HELENA, Mont. — Republicans typically cry foul when accused of rewriting election laws to benefit their candidates. But as the Montana legislature debates a new voting bill, even some GOP lawmakers concede that this one appears designed to help them win elections — more precisely, one very important election.
The bill would rewrite the rules for the state’s next U.S. Senate race and only that race. The 2024 fight to oust Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat, is expected to be one of the tightest in the country.
The legislation would shift the contest from a traditional election into a “top two” primary system, making it exceedingly difficult for third parties to reach a general election ballot. Some believe the system would keep the state’s vibrant Libertarian Party from siphoning votes from the Republican nominee.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
See California and Alaska. Rank choice voting in any form is a disaster
Good.
So Montana Republicans are going to adopt a California style Jungle Primary thinking that it will help them in the next election (by knocking the libertarians off the ballot) and don’t realize that the long term effect will be to have the undisciplined Republicans out of power forever.
Ain’t that special.
Rank choice voting? That doesn’t sound like a good idea.
Sound like the Montana GOP wants make sure they get their chosen RINO nominated.
Exactly right. The resulting one-party rule has destroyed California.
Cross-over and jungle primaries should be banned.
Montana GOP wants to turn Democrat. That is the trajectory of Ranked voting.
Slippery slope is unleashed in this system.
Good. The only way that Republicans can win elections now is if they cheat better and harder than the Democrats, and they had shown no inclination to do that in the past.
Wealthy liberals abandon the states they mismanaged and run to these Midwest states to enact their leftist social agenda.
Why would a Republican controlled state seek to enact a policy which undermines their own control? Because Leftists play to win while Republicans want to be lazy and sit around saying only “slow down”
Different from the Ranked Choice Voting fiasco, the Jungle Primary, placing only the top two candidates on the ballot allows Democrat Party disipline to have two Democrats run against seven Republicans (or fake stalking horses out up by the Dems) and thereby no Republican appears on the ballot at all.
Someone please remind these pearl-clutching Rs that the enemy would not think twice about the moral implications of legislating anything to their advantage.
Paraphrasing Sun Tzu: Unless one is prepared to be more ruthless than your enemy, your victory is not assured.
Also, do *NOT* go the way of Ranked Choice Voting. It is too easy to manipulate. All the proponents of RCV who tout how RCV saves taxpayers money, etc are full of Schiff. In the few places where RCV has been implemented I doubt that any R has emerged victorious. I am probably wrong about any absolute numbers but I doubt that RCV has produced a 50-50 product over all. Think 90D - 10R.
Hell, why not change the rules. The far-left Dung Beetle Party does it all the time. It’s the only way to win in this third world, banana republic these days. Play by the rules, YOU LOSE!
Tester is slippery. I’m glad they’re doing this to get him (the incumbent) off the ballot.
He votes like a left-winger until election time is coming up, then he goes “moderate”
Committing a mortal sin to combat mortal sin simply lands you in hell.
Top two “jungle” primary voting is not the same as ranked choice! Democrats used it successfully to completely destroy Republicans in California.
If Republicans want to get serious about winning, they need to start employing the same cut throat techniques as Democrats.
It’s time to take this battle up a notch. I am all for this. Please do not confuse this with crap like the ranked choice debacle in Alaska.
And the NYT wouldn't want that!
A Jungle Primary will not fix the GOP problem in Montana.
It seems the Libertarian Party has enough clout in Montana to take away votes for a GOP candidate in the General Election.
The GOP and Libertarians need to join and not continue fighting each other.
Otherwise, leftist Democrats get elected.
“A Jungle Primary will not fix the GOP problem in Montana.”
It’ll fix the Tester problem, from getting him off the November ballot, and slipping into office again.
Lol. Montana isn’t the mid-west, it’s the west. Everyone I know who has moved here from big cities is super right. The lefties I know are mostly homegrown from the Missoula area or associated with one of the universities. Montana is lurching hard right, but with a libertarian undertone (weed, guns, gambling all good to go). Montana is large, rural and full of tough, self-reliant people. The winters run the weak out of here. I know plenty who have left after one winter.
I do agree with you that this policy is a bad idea though!
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