Posted on 10/26/2004 9:07:06 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Does Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger think that democracy is for girlie men, or does he have more pragmatic reasons for supporting Proposition 62, the so-called open primary initiative?
If passed next Tuesday, it would eliminate party primaries, except at the presidential level, with California voters supporting a candidate of any party in a preliminary election, and the top two vote-getters appearing on the ballot in the general election.
Both the state Democratic and Republican parties oppose the measure, but Schwarzenegger supports it, saying, "I didn't come to Sacramento to make political parties happy."
No, he came to Sacramento to make his ego happy in the wake of a fading movie career, and on a quest for power so ambitious it includes support for amending the Constitution so he can run for president.
Schwarzenegger's support for Prop. 62 would benefit him at the expense of voter choice. He knows he may well not have survived a Republican primary, had it been necessary to fight one, and was elected in the fluke 2003 gubernatorial recall in what was essentially an open primary type of election.
Schwarzenegger sees passage of Prop. 62 as a way of thwarting a potential Republican primary opponent in 2006. And with the possibility he will move further to the left between now and then, a challenge from some disgruntled conservative would not be out of the question.
Conservatives started becoming leery of the governor when San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom opened the door to gay marriage and Schwarzenegger did nothing to stop it. He later said it would be fine with him if Californians decided to vote in favor of legalizing such unions.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Doug Gamble, a Carmel resident and writer of this opinion piece, is a former writer for President Reagan.
Another place that this seems to work great is France. Now, if you could say that an extremist candidate who was really racist ever made it to the final round, you might have an argument...
In supporting Prop 62 and Prop 71 (embryonic stem cell research), it's clear that Arnold doesn't care much about making Republican supporters happy either.
Guess what happens to politicians who don't keep their supporters happy, Arnold? They become retired politicians.
Is Louisiana overrun with MoveOn-grade Leftist whackjobs like Califonira?
Didn't think so.
I think this is a great idea.
Hey, one man one vote, right?
Lots of ramifications. Interesting. Political parties would become rather different than they now are, smaller, more numerous. Easily could hurt the Left more than the Right.
Reminds me of Max Weber. Deep game.
You're way too cool for the room :) ...
Interesting.
The last open primary law was struck down because instead of putting the top two finishers in the general election, it put the top finishers from each party, which the courts held to make the primary a "nomination" exercise which violated the rights of parties to decide who to nominate.
Prop. 62 simply does away with nomination altogether, and the courts have long held that there's no right to partisan elections in the first place.
I like that it increases choice and competition in rural and suburban gerrymandered districts and the overwhelmingly Democratic city districts (which are collectively about 99% of the districts). After all, who's more likely to oust Maxine Waters or Henry Waxman -- some lonely, quixotic, Republican, or a Democratic moderate who is now given a shot at the entrenched radical?
I don't like the potential of perversely excluding one major party altogether in the circumstance where one party puts up two candidates and the other party puts up half a dozen, even if the party with half a dozen is the majority party in the district.
You left out the possibility of Soros, Indian tribes, etc. putting $50-100MM behind a Straw man
Anyone who can get 33 1/3% of the vote in the primary is guaranteed a slot in the general. If the "true" Republican can't pull that together against a straw man, he wasn't going to win anyway.
People who analogize to the recall to suggest that a closed primary could have resulted in Governor McClintock are making a big mistake -- had Arnold not gotten in, I think we could have counted on Dianne Feinstein to get in herself, despite her earlier protestations.
There is no way on God's green earth that the Democratic establishment would have taken on someone as threatening to their core constituencies as McClintock with such a paragon of "B"-team playerdom as Bustamonte.
From what I read here, it sounds like he's making an argument against Ah-nuld, not the proposition. Seems like a good idea to me, at least from over here in my state-that-isn't-CA.
Ok, so let's say you're right. Do you also like the idea of only having a choice between two leftist DEMOCRATS in the general election? You better re-think that, especially in CA!!!
"Does Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger think that democracy is for girlie men, or does he have more pragmatic reasons for supporting Proposition 62, the so-called open primary initiative?"
What Ahnold thinks is that it will move candidates toward the center, opening up the stalement he's faced with in Sacredtomato.
That's what he *thinks*. Whether this method works for or against Louisiana I can't really say. The fact that both parties are against this doesn't really serve to discount the argument, at any rate.
But if we want to criticize Ahnold, we could do so in complete fairness by attacking his endorsement of 71, the billions for *embryonic* stem-cell initiative, which even some stem-cell scientists have balked at. 3 billion, (more like 6 when paid off), that money thrown at elite scientists at a time when the state is as bankrupt as a state can be, with no provision for auditing, all for an endeavour which has heretofore had absolutely zero benefits, Edwards promises notwithstanding.
It's a complete waste, and the motive can only be either egregiously misguided hopes or shameless posturing.
But Arnold's vaunted celebrity "star power" will change that 9 point poll deficit into a 9 point winner in a New York minute, right? That's why he doesn't have much time for helping the President... He's gotta "git right back to where he started from..." to protect his endorsement of Prop 62!!!
Richard "dirty little girl" Riordan also supports 62. The whackjob-RINO primary-bypass proposition.
I agree. 1/3 of voters, the independents have been disenfranchised too long.
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