'Top two' primaries cripple political system

WASHINGTON — Under the current imperfect administration of the Universe, most new ideas are false, so most ideas for improvements make matters worse. Given California's parlous condition, making matters worse there requires ingenuity, but voters managed to do so last Tuesday.

Actually, 8.9 percent of eligible voters did. By a margin of 54.2 percent to 45.8 percent, they passed Proposition 14, the Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act. Proponents outspent opponents 20-1. Of the approximately $4.6 million spent promoting the measure, $2 million came from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political committee. He seems to consider this reform his defining achievement, which, in a sense, it is. The percentage of Californians who today approve of Schwarzenegger is a number beginning with 2. But now California has adopted a candidate selection process that is intended to nominate candidates like him.

Proposition 14 is an attempt to change government policies by changing the political process. Henceforth, in primary elections that select candidates for most state and federal offices — including almost one-eighth of the U.S. House of Representatives — all voters, regardless of party registration, or those who have "decline to state" status (no party identification — 20.2 percent of Californians), will receive the same ballot. All candidates for a particular office will be listed, regardless of party affiliation, if any, which they may choose to state, or not. The two receiving the most votes will be on November ballots, regardless of the desires of the political parties the nominees claim to represent.

Proposition 14's purpose is to weaken and marginalize parties, traditionally the principal vehicles for voter education and mobilization. It would strip them of their core function of selecting candidates who represent the preferences of their members. It infringes on the First Amendment protection of freedom of association, which includes the right of parties not to associate with candidates they do not select.

Supporters of "top two" primaries think parties are too representative — too responsive to their "ideological" members. These are usually the parties' most interested, informed and active members. But such people are, say Proposition 14 supporters, tiresome because they are not congenial centrists. Being "partisan," they do not practice the bipartisanship that enables government to "get things done." Among California "centrists," getting things done usually means raising taxes to pay for other things government has done.