Voters Get Actual Choice of Candidates : * Reapportionment Has Taken Party Officials’ Back-Room Plotting Out of the Picture

Republican party officials in Orange County can’t be very happy about the primary election contest that reapportionment has created in the county’s 67th Assembly District. Democratic party leaders no doubt would be just as upset if they faced a similar situation.

But from the public’s point of view, the contest between the three incumbent state legislators who have indicated their desire to run in that district is really what primary elections are about.

A primary allows candidates who think that they are qualified for office and want the opportunity to serve to offer party voters a choice in picking their champion for the general election. In this case, there can be two winners in the race: the candidate who gets the most votes and the nomination, and the voters who get contested primaries--and a choice--instead of orchestrated game plans.

As part of their partisan strategies, the parties sometimes attempt to steer clear of the open confrontation inevitable in contested primaries. That may serve the parties’ interests, but it doesn’t necessarily serve the public’s.

Unfortunately, the search for order and predictability also keeps the party faithful from getting the healthy give-and-take discussions on issues and qualifications that should take place in a primary--and in the election day showdown in which the voters decide their party’s candidate.

Party officials, however, too often choose to channel funds to selected candidates, so that they can have more control over the outcome of the race and also protect incumbency.

Redrawing the state’s political district boundaries fell to the state Supreme Court last year when the Legislature, bogged down in partisan interests, couldn’t come up with lines that would satisfy both sides of the aisle. The judges didn’t worry about incumbency or party lines.

The result is that the court-designated districts have set the stage for some so-called “open” primaries in Orange County, elections in which there is no incumbent. And for the three-way incumbent fight between Republican legislators Doris Allen, Nolan Frizzelle and Tom Mays for the Assembly nomination in the county’s 67th District.

Some might not like that, but it is good for the system. Anyone who feels qualified should be able to seek their party’s nomination and not be driven away by back-room plotting geared to preserve the status quo. That way, voters in Orange County have a chance at a full and robust campaign debate.