The Prop 14 Back-up Plan

With the passage of Proposition 14, the Open Primary initiative, in California, political parties now have little power to choose their own nominees...unless they change the way their nominees get on the ballot.  This story was written before the passage of 14, but gives the basic plan:

If the state adopts a "top two" open primary, in which only the top two candidates in June, regardless of party, advance to a November runoff, then the GOP would caucus to nominate a preferred candidate for the June ballot. This would winnow the field, and try to make sure the endorsed pick makes it to November.

"The only method that's available for any party to make that determination is a caucus or convention system where a couple of hundred delegates get together and determine who the party will officially support, as opposed to the current system which we prefer, which has literally millions of voters making that determination," said Nehring.

California Democrats may change their rules too, if 14 pass.

Currently anyone who can meet the filing requirements can get on a party's primary ballot and then the voters choose the winner. Under a caucus plan prospective nominees would make their case to party convention delegates who would then choose a nominee. Only that nominee (in theory) would appear on the primary ballot and all party advertising would be directed to that person's support in order to guarantee that they make the top two. There are a couple of problems:

1. Many of the party's voters may feel disenfranchised by having a small group of party activists choose the nominee.
2. Grumpy party candidates who lose in the caucus could still enter the primary, thus defeating the idea of having only one party member on the ballot.

This pig of a proposition was sold to ignorant voters as a way to increase participation in elections.  In fact, it will do the opposite.  The top two system will essentially eliminate third parties from the general election ballot and will discourage members of those parties from voting.  Instead of weakening the influence of the two main parties, it will make their influence even stronger as third party voters stay home.  

Let's not forget that this initiative was a payoff to Abel Maldonado in exchange for his vote for a huge tax increase.  Maldonado knows he cannot win a statewide primary for governor against a more conservative candidate, and being governor is his next goal.  He did win the nomination for Lt. Governor, a job he already holds (can you say payoff again?) against a group of relative unknowns.  

There was no pressing problem in our primary system that required a drastic change like this.  It will not fix the gridlock in Sacramento (and gridlock is not necessarily a bad thing), and it won't make for more moderate candidates if the parties go the caucus route.  It won't do anything that was promised to the voters.