Posted on 10/18/2004 10:06:01 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Breaking with the Legislature and his own Republican Party, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Monday endorsed a ballot proposal to dump political party primaries, a change he said would send more moderates to Sacramento.
"People deserve to have an open primary so that they can vote for whomever they like, no matter what party a candidate represents," the governor said in a statement.
"Both political parties have asked me not to support Proposition 62. ... I didn't come to Sacramento to make the political parties happy," Schwarzenegger said. "An open primary is an important reform that will lead to more mainstream legislators from each party coming to the Capitol."
The initiative, Proposition 62, would toss out the state's primary election system in most state and federal races in favor of a so-called "top-two" primary - a kind of candidate soup in which all contenders for an office would appear on a single primary ballot.
The two top finishers, regardless of party affiliation, would advance to a general-election runoff. It would not alter presidential elections.
(Excerpt) Read more at montereyherald.com ...
Gee, Arnold what are they making you drink in Sacramento?
PING
Where is the real Arnold?
I knew that once the budget mess was put away, Schwarzenegger would be a major problem for the state.
He will be pushing homosexual marriage before we know it.
This is the real Arnold. Maybe now you'll believe those people who tried to tell you back during the recall campaign, that Arnold was NO conservative! He is a liberal RINO!
He made a lot of good decisions, and the last month he comes up with these ridiculous decisions one after another.
I can't believe it.
I know and everyone knew Arnold isn't a conservative, but you have to look at the realistic choices we had: Davis, Bustamante or Arnold.
Arnold makes good decisions about important things at least half the time. Arnold is supposed to be sensible, but lately he has been making some amazingly naive decisions.
Find a good Republican candidate who has a chance of winning.
Why can't people understand the simple fact that a primary is designed to let a PARTY decide who from among ITS MEMBERS will be selected as a candidate for the general election?
That would have been the real republican running in the last election.
If (R)nold would have pulled out, he could have had a direct race with bustamove, who was tarred with his association with davis.
Instead, republicans drank the coolaid and annoited (R)nold 'THE ONLY CHOICE'.
Arnold WAS the only choice.
Much as I am irked with his recent decisions, in fairness we need to give him credit for the good decisions of getting CA's fiscal house in order, repealing the illegal alient driver's licence bill, and vetoing the one the Dems tries to ram through just recently.
We mustn't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Davis or Bustamante would have been a real disaster for CA.
Blah blah blah blah blah. Even though Arnold has proven himself a political neophyte, you still won't face reality. There is NO hope for you. One more time. The California GOP could have pulled all their resources together and pushed for Tom McClintock. You passed on a rare opportunity to elect a real conservative. Instead you elected a liberal RINO. Remember, in the closing days of the campaign, the Gallup poll showed McClintock beating Bustamonte, 56%-37%. So don't give me your usual red herring response.
From Gazelle Grange #380
Therefore be it resolved that the California State Grange urge the implementation of legislation allowing the reinstatement of the open primary which would allow a California voter to vote for candidates of their choice regardless of the candidate's party affiliation.
Adopted at the 132nd Annual Session of the California State Grange
October 14th - 16th, 2004
Sparks, Nevada
And before anyone asks, we do have a Grange in Sparks, Nevada that is under the California State Grange because there is no state Grange in Nevada.
Can someone explain to me what's the problem with his idea? It seems that with an open election San Francisco will vote for a bisexual transgendered black female communist atheist, and the remainder of California will elect more midstream politicians who will outvote her. That seems like a sensible result to strive for.
In a very Republican state this would be a great way to ensure that a Democrat never gets the opportunity to run and get elected, Republican for Republican nominee vs Republican for Democrat nominee.
In a very Democrat state, this would be a great way to ensure that a Republican never gets the opportunity to run and get elected, Democrat for Democrat nominee and Democrat for Republican nominee.
Very. Bad. Idea.
CA would go the whacky way of LA (Louisiana) ... oy vey!
It makes sense that Arnold would support the open primary proposal.
He won his election in what amounted to an open primary, and he probably believes in his heart that it would wrest control over California politics away from the extremist fringes of the state's two parties.
Arnold knows that he could never win a Republican primary in California. Perhaps his support has something to do with him wanting a second term. I'm not voting for the open primary, but I do understand why Arnold would.
I'm willing to give it a try. How could we be worse off? The RATs have had control the legislature for decades, with no end in site.
The Republican primary gave us the WORST candidate for senate I have ever seen. The guy is invisible. I bet 75% of Californians don't even know there is a senate election in two weeks.
The Republican Primary gave us 6 more years of that shrill weasel from Brooklyn.
Ummmm.... In case you haven't looked, the State's fiscal house is NOT in order! We issued $15 Billion in bonds over 15 years (vs. Davis' $6B over 5 years) and we still have looming deficits. We are continuing to spend in excess of revenues. There were literally no cuts in spending. Internal borrowing and transfers are just as rampant as previously. And the number of deferrals in expenditures is astounding.
Arnold seems to think as long as we don't have to pay it this year, everything is AOK. The Prop 71 bonds are interest only for 5 years, and then capitalize the interest, turning the $3 Billion into a $6 Billion dollar obligation when payment is due in 5 years. Oh.... not to worry... that will be on someone else's watch. Whoever follows Arnold into office is going to have a huge mess to clean up.
One of the problems is that party politics may influence the vote in undesirable ways.
One way can be illustrated with a hypothetical open seat in a slightly GOP-leaning district. If two Democrats (A,B) run while four Republicans (C,D,E,F) run in the "primary," then the general election may be between two Democrats even though C might be more popular than A or B in a pairwise matchup. To avoid this scenario, party bosses may discourage some potential candidates from running at all.
Or, if C is significantly more popular, political bosses might encourage some GOP voters to choose D in the "primary" to effect a C-D matchup instead of a more costly C-A general election. If they miscalculate, however, the election might be A-D.
With the advent of computerized voting, alternate voting methods such as instant runoff or ranked-choice become more feasible. The purposes of those are to elect a candidate better liked by more voters. I'm not sure how great an idea they are, given that voters were confused recently on a ranked-choice ballot in a municipal election, but something along the lines of instant runoff voting would much better reflect the voters' will than Prop 62, which may even be less desirable than the current system of modified open primaries.
FairOpinion I share your disgust but not your naivete. Schwarzenegger is exactly the man that many conservatives voted for. They simple didn't listen to him closely.
Remember the predictive "to save our programs" which Schwarzenegger uttered on the steps of the Santa Monica Court House after he filed his application to run for governor.
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