Initiative fight for California this fall

There are two constitutional amendments that will be on the ballot in California this fall, either will change the way the primaries are run and how our elected leaders are chosen.

The voter initiative would be an open primary system. All the people running for an office (say a State Assembly election) would be on the ballot and everyone in the district would vote for who they wanted regardless of party. If one person won over 50% of the entire vote in the district, they would automatically win the seat. If no one won a majority of the votes cast, then the top two vote getters would have a run off in the general election. Basically, the general election in a San Francisco Assembly district would not be between the winner of the Republican, Democractic and other parties, but most likely would be between two Democratic members or between a Democratic and Green party member. The political party would be irrelevant. Supporters say this would help moderates win the center instead of hard right and left wing people who win the primary and then do not offer a moderate choice to the general public. The problem with this system is what happened in France. In France the top two winners of the primary for President was Chirac (who won the general election) and a right-wing fascist (in the US, he would have been a KKK member or worse). So even the Socialists whose candidate came in third had to chose between two "right wing" candidates and basically didn't have a choice.

Because the current members of the Assembly don't like the voters initiative, they passed a competing bill that supports the idea of open primaries but keeps the current system of a general election by party in place and puts that in to the California Constitution so future changes to the system will be difficult. The Contra Costa Times has a good article on this.

My own view is not that parties are too strong but that they are too weak. The single district system we have here means too many people are disenfranchised because their political views are not in sync with the majority of the district they live in. We should move to a proportional system so every vote will count and the Parties will have to strive to get the most number of votes in the State, and not worry about drawing safe districts for their members. Its also easier to "throw the bums out" because if party A did a bad job, just vote for party B. (we did this with the recall election remember). And suddenly third parties become viable in California.