Open primary gambit. (Politics).As the budget crisis continues to play out in the state Capitol, both Democrats and Republicans are sticking to their ideological guns and showing no signs of compromise. Sacramento observers point to two reasons for the impasse: safe seats that force the real election contests into the primaries, and closed primaries that lead to the selection of party candidates on the ideological extremes. Since tinkering tin·ker n. 1. A traveling mender of metal household utensils. 2. Chiefly British A member of any of various traditionally itinerant groups of people living especially in Scotland and Ireland; a traveler. 3. with redistricting redistricting: see legislative apportionment. is now out of the picture -- at least until after the next Census -- attention now focuses on opening up the party primaries. State Controller Steve Westly Steven Paul Westly (born August 27, 1957, in Arcadia, California) is an American businessman and politician. He was the State Controller of California from 2003 to 2007 and was one of the top two candidates in the Democratic primary for Governor of California in the 2006 election. has said he intends to fund an initiative for either the March or November ballot next year to set up open primary elections in California The number of elections in California varies by year. California has a gubernatorial election every four years and, in 2003, it had a recall election. Primary elections are held in March or June and general elections are held in November. , meaning voters of any political persuasion can vote for a party's candidates in the primary. "The closed primary, combined with redistricting, tends to leave us with a serious lack of moderates, with very liberal Democrats Liberal Democrats, British political party Liberal Democrats, British political party created in 1988 by the merger of the Liberal party with the Social Democratic party; the party was initially called the Social and Liberal Democratic party. and very conservative Republicans," Westly said. "An open primary, where crossover voting is available, tends to encourage moderate politics." This isn't the first time California has tried the open up party primaries. In 1996, California voters passed an initiative to open up the party primaries -- and they were open for the 1998 elections. But both the Democratic and the Republican political parties sued to overturn the measure, saying they had the right to pick their own candidates. In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed and overturned the open primary initiative. So in the 2000 and 2002 elections, the primaries were closed once again. Earlier this year, the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Business Roundtable Business Roundtable (BRT), an association consisting of the chief executive officers of major U.S. corporations that was founded in 1972 through the merger of the three preexisting business organizations. tried to reopen the primaries, but pulled their proposal after opposition from Democrats and Republicans. With both groups seeking so many reforms in other areas, they opted not to push the issue. Westly is unconcerned about such opposition. "I will not only support it, I will raise money for it," he said. "If necessary, I will write a check." So how does he plan to get around the Supreme Court's ruling? "We are looking at other states that do have open primary systems that have passed constitutional muster," said Westly's chief of staff, Greg Larson Gregory Kenneth Larson (born November 15, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota) was an American football center in the National Football League for the New York Giants. He played college football at the University of Minnesota and was selected in the sixth round of the 1961 NFL Draft. . |
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