Open Primary Isn’t Reform, It’s Open Season on Reason

I’m not going to say “I told you so!”

But I must admit I’m amused at all the sudden hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing in California now that a federal judge has upheld the constitutionality of the “blanket primary” approved by voters as Proposition 198 in March 1996.

Back in the spring of 1996, as state Democratic chairman, I joined my Republican counterpart, John Herrington, in trying to warn voters about the chaos that would result if California junked its existing political system, which had worked well since 1909, in favor of an untried, unsound political “experiment.” Why fix it, we said, if it ain’t broke?

Nobody wanted to listen. Our news conferences were sparsely attended, and even more sparsely reported. The Times editorialized against us and in support of 198. Most political analysis of the initiative amounted to little more than the sophomoric conclusion: “If both parties are against it, it must be OK.”

Now Republicans and Democrats alike lament the mess they have made.

Make no mistake about it. The blanket primary is change, but it is not reform. It is change for the worse, in all the ways John Herrington and I predicted.

Republicans now will be able to vote in Democratic primaries, Democrats in Republican. Party members, in other words, no longer will choose their parties’ candidates. That’s like letting the Bruins choose the Trojans’ coach. That’s not reform. It’s change for the worse.

With this new freedom, Democratic mischief-makers can easily encourage Democrats to gang up and vote for the most extreme, least likely to get elected Republican in a primary. And vice-versa. Sabotaging the opposition is not reform. It’s change for the worse.

Because they must now appeal to all voters of every or no party, candidates will have to raise and spend more than twice as much money to win a primary. Which, of course, gives an advantage to multimillionaires like Al Checchi who can finance their own campaigns. Making our political system even more dependent on special-interest money or personal wealth is not reform. It’s change for the worse.

And because they’re now forced to appeal to all voters in a primary, all candidates will trim their sails and rush for the meaningless center. George Wallace will finally be proved correct: There won’t be a dime’s worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats. That’s not reform. It’s change for the worse.

Since both national parties prohibit blanket primaries in presidential primaries, California Democrats and Republicans will have to nominate their candidates for president in closed conventions or caucuses. Only a relative handful of activist party members will be invited. That, of course, will exclude millions of Californians, who in primary voting might have made a different choice. This is a giant step backward to the days of the closed-door, smoke-filled “King Caucus” which California rejected in 1909 as undemocratic. That’s not reform. It’s change for the worse.

How did California get into this mess? Blame the initiative process. Proposition 198 illustrates what’s wrong with it. California’s initiative process--itself once a reform, but no longer--enables anybody with enough money to put a dumb idea on the ballot. And if nobody pays much attention, they can even get it passed.

That’s exactly what happened with Proposition 198, Tom Campbell’s dumb idea. Peeved at losing the 1992 Republican U.S. Senate primary to Bruce Herschensohn, Campbell wrote 198, persuaded computer mogul David Packard to finance it and sold it to unsuspecting and uninformed voters on the grounds that California’s one-party primaries prevented moderates like him from getting elected.

Ridiculous! Campbell himself was elected to the state Senate and is now a member of Congress. Dianne Feinstein’s a moderate. So’s Bill Clinton. In fact, it’s hard today for anybody who’s not a moderate to get elected. Even Bob Dornan was booted out by moderate Loretta Sanchez.

So much for Tom Campbell’s phony theory. Still, thanks to our initiative process, he got his revenge. And now we get stuck with the unworkable, unthinkable, unmanageable results.

All right, I will say it. I TOLD YOU SO!