Facing the 2000 Primary Snafu

The California Legislature finally is beginning to deal with an unintended consequence of the state’s open primary law, approved by voters in 1996: the likely elimination of a meaningful presidential primary in the year 2000.

State Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange) has proposed a ballot measure for this fall’s general election that would provide for Republicans, Democrats and members of other parties to have their own separate presidential primary elections for the purpose of choosing delegates to their national nominating conventions.

Presumably, action needs to be taken this year by initiative since the language in Proposition 198 can be changed only by another vote of the people.

In the past, only registered members of a party could vote in a primary to nominate that party’s candidates for the general election. Democrats got a ballot listing Democratic candidates, Republicans got one with GOP candidates and so on. In a primary, registered independents could vote only on nonpartisan offices or state and local ballot issues.

Proposition 198 provides that all voters get a ballot listing all candidates for every office. They can vote for whomever they want, regardless of partisan affiliation.

Overlooked in the pre-election debate over Proposition 198 was the impact it would have on the direct presidential primary that California has conducted since 1912. National party rules provide that only Democrats can choose delegates to the Democratic National Convention and Republicans to theirs.

California party officials speculated that they would be forced instead to select their convention delegates either through a series of regional caucuses or a state convention.

To do that, argues Lewis, would be to return to the days of “party bosses and back-room deals.” He says he has the support of the Democratic leaders in both houses. A Democratic Party official said party leaders were awaiting the outcome of a court challenge to Proposition 198 before deciding what course to pursue. But a final ruling may come too late to restore the direct presidential primary in 2000 by ballot measure.

The parties should work with Lewis to move his measure along. Unless some action is taken this year, as Lewis says, the overwhelming majority of California voters will lose their voice in choosing presidential nominees in the 2000 election. No one intended for that to happen.