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In 2010, California voters approved Proposition 14, which fundamentally changed how general elections are conducted in the state. Prior to Prop. 14, the general election ballot would include the names of every qualified party’s nominee. The new system created the “jungle primary,” an open primary in which all registered voters could vote for any candidate running, regardless of party affiliation, with just the top-two finishers appearing on the ballot in November.

Two members of the same party will square off in more than 20 legislative or congressional elections this November. The oddity was created by California's new top-two primary system, in which voters could cast ballots for candidates of any party and the two highest vote-getters advance to the general election. Seven California congressional, 13 Assembly and one state Senate race are sure to feature candidates from the same party. In a handful of other races, vote counts were too tight this morning to declare which two candidates will advance to the November ballot. Most of the same-party head-butting this fall...

A group of voters from minor political parties is challenging California's new top-two primary system in the courts, arguing that the election process established under Proposition 14 is unconstitutional. A lawsuit filed Monday in Alameda Superior Court claims that the new system, which sends only the two candidates who get the most votes in the primary, regardless of political party affiliation, to the general election, "severely burdens voter, candidate and party associational rights." "By limiting access to the general election ballot, Prop. 14 effectively bars small political parties, their candidates, and their members from effective political association, precisely at the...

California GOP rejects divisive open primary plan SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California Republicans on Sunday approved a compromise that leaves in place the current nominating system for GOP candidates in 2012 and will let party members use mail-in balloting to endorse candidates for office starting in 2014. The party was beset by infighting at its weekend spring convention in Sacramento over how to respond to Proposition 14, the voter-approved ballot measure that was intended to produce more moderate candidates for office from both political parties. Under that system, the top two candidates advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. The GOP...

State GOP convention: Blowup, outgoing chair accused of "thuggery" Republican State Sen. Sam Blaskeslee of San Luis Obispo, leading the charge against a conservative move to revise the party's endorsement of candidates, sharply criticized the outgoing GOP chair Saturday as a failed leader who has "resorted to thuggery." Blakeslee made the comment after walking out of a heated meeting of the state GOP Rules Committee at the start of a 3-day day statewide Republican Convention which brought 1,000 delegates to the Sacramento Hyatt. His comments come on the heels of efforts by outgoing GOP chair Ron Nehring, who has lead...

In last November’s election California voters approved a ballot measure, Proposition 14, under which only the two candidates receiving the most votes -- regardless of party -- would advance to the general election. Proponents claimed the new system would force candidates to moderate their views, though there is no evidence of that in states where it’s been implemented. The likely result, as I pointed out in an earlier column, is the institution of one party rule in most of the state, and the elimination of third party candidates. The new primary system effectively creates Republican ghettoes, California’s minority party –its...

DeVore Slams Backroom Deals, Only Republican To Oppose Maldonado Confirmation FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- (SACRAMENTO) – California State Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, (R-70-Irvine), today spoke out against the backroom deals involved in the effort to confirm state Senator Abel Maldonado as California’s Lieutenant Governor. He then voted against the motion to confirm Maldonado and urged other lawmakers to do the same. DeVore cited Maldonado’s vote for the higher taxes included in 2009’s Proposition 1A in exchange for an agreement by the Governor and Democrat leaders to place Proposition 14, the open primary measure that infringes upon the rights of partisan voters...