Eye brows should instantly rise whenever the politicians within both the Democratic and Republican parties oppose a particular political reform. Politicians – especially incumbents – don’t like anything that makes elections harder and more competitive. That’s the case with Proposition 14, the initiative passed by voters in 2010 that turned California primaries into an open primary, or top-two system, instead of a partisan primary.
At this weekend’s state GOP convention, some Republicans want to have the party formally oppose Prop. 14. That’s ill-advised. Reverting back to a closed primary system puts more power in the hands of party bosses and consultants than the actual voters.
The arguments against an open primary are always the same – they claim the system hurts the Republican Party, but that’s not the case. The system is designed to make elections more competitive and allow any voter to support any candidate during the primary. This gives Republicans the opportunity to persuade not only their own but also Democrats, Independent and decline-to-state voters. And, let’s face it, in statewide races Republicans cannot win a general election without non-Republican votes considering only 25.9 percent of registered voters in California identify as Republican.
If the GOP cannot earn enough votes in a primary to make a Republican candidate one of the top-two vote-getters, it should not have a candidate on the ballot for the general election. If the Republican Party can get a viable candidate through the primary, then it might have a chance to actually win a general election.
Instead of complaining about the primary and trying to change it, the GOP should focus on persuading voters and running good candidates with broader appeal.
In a pre-CA GOP convention interview Friday on 790 KABC’s The Catch-Up radio program, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., told opinion editor and host Brian Calle, “When you go to try and spread the faith you don’t go among the converted. You have to go out into the wilderness.”
He was jokingly referring to coming to speak in such a Democratic stronghold as California. But his words should also be a reminder that if the California Republican Party wants to grow its ranks, it cannot do so by limiting participation.