Prop. 198 Didn’t Plan on This

One of those unintended consequences that often plague citizen-written state ballot initiatives has emerged during a federal court trial in Sacramento on the constitutionality of Proposition 198, the state’s open primary law.

If the proposition is upheld, it would prevent the major parties from holding a California presidential primary election in 2000, Republican and Democratic officials have told the court.

The California presidential primary does not directly nominate candidates for the general election, unlike some other primaries. Rather, the voters of each party choose a candidate’s slate of delegates to the national nominating convention. Democratic Party rules prohibit anyone but Democrats from participating in their delegate selection; likewise for Republicans. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the parties have the right to make their own rules for delegate selection.

If the open primary remains, the parties probably will choose their delegates in party caucuses, the officials said. The impact on the national nominating process could be dramatic; for one, ubiquitous TV ads might have to give way to intense intra-party organizing.

Proposition 198, laudably designed to give voters more choice, allows any voter to vote for any candidate in primary elections, regardless of party. You could vote to nominate a Democrat for governor, a Republican for lieutenant governor and so on down the ballot. One exception is the election of party central committees. But the March 1996 initiative, sponsored by a coalition of moderate Republicans, made no mention of the presidential primary. Nor did the voter pamphlet.

The parties seeking to invalidate 198 argue in their lawsuit that the proposition abridges their constitutional right of association. If they win, the proposition probably will be struck from the lawbooks and the problem will be moot. If they lose, California could be stuck with caucuses limited to party activists.

When Californians voted for an open primary, they surely did not intend to freeze themselves out of participation in a presidential primary for the first time since 1912. If it comes to that, the situation should be fixed with an amendment--a cumbersome process, but necessary.