Of course you realize, this means war: Stop the Top Two Primary

Former Phoenix Mayor and malcontent Paul Johnson, and the “shadow governor of Arizona” under Jan Brewer, corporate lobbyist and political consultant Chuck Coughlin from High Ground Public Affairs, have filed their deceptively named Open and Honest Elections ballot measure, aka the Top Two Primary (or Jungle Primary).

Former Phoenix Mayor and Attorney General Terry Goddard has teamed up with this oddball pair to pursue his Open and Honest Disclosure ballot measure for “dark money,” because he lacks the confidence in his ability to raise enough money on his own to support his ballot measure.

This “brain trust” are calling themselves the Open And Honest Coalition, which is funny because the bulk of the funding will come from Open Primaries, a national organization that promotes open primaries, which does not disclose its contributors (because Arizona law does not require it). Coalition files initiatives on dark money, top-two primary.

Of course, The Arizona Republican media villagers and pundits love this damn fool idea because they are dumber than dirt when it comes to political science. How do you know? Check out E.J. Montini’s powerful intellectual argument (sic) in favor of the Top Two Primary today. Montini: Time to shine a light on political cockroaches:

As you might imagine these two initiatives aren’t very popular with the political parties, lobbyists and the fabulously wealthy dark money interests. We can expect a couple of big anonymously-funded ad campaigns against them.

Is there a better reason to support them?

This is the same lame logic behind Obama Derangement Syndrome: if President Obama is for something, even ideas that were originally Republican ideas, then Republicans must be against it.

In this case, if the political parties are against something, then it must be a good idea to be for it.

By the way, one of the most influential lobbyists in Arizona, Chuck Coughlin, and what is essentially a dark money group, Open Primaries, are behind these measures, so way to overlook the obvious inconsistencies in your weak argument, E.J. I can’t believe you get paid to write such crap.

We already know that The Arizona Republican will ignore all of the political science and election data which demonstrates that the Top Two Primary is a complete fraud that does not deliver on what it promises. The Republic will heavily propagandize for this damn fool idea.

I have previously posted about the false promise and outright fraud of the Top Two Primary (Jungle Primary) system on several occasions, including in Real solutions, not top two primary snake oil | Blog for Arizona:

Donna Gratehouse posted that “As promised, the brain trust of Arizona centrist business establishment types (country club Republicans and corporate Dems) that failed to pass Prop 121 in 2012 plan to return with a slightly altered version of it in 2016.” Top Two Primary is back, with twice the magical thinking.

I have posted at length about the political science studies and election results which demonstrate that the the top two primary fails to deliver on the promises made by its proponents. It is snake oil being sold by political flimflam artists.

• California’s experiment with the ‘top two’ primary was an epic failure
• Ivory tower political theory meets cold hard reality: the false premise of the ‘top two primary’ system
• The Arizona Republic shills for the Open Elections/Open Government Initiative
• Washington state’s Top Two primary results (federal)
• Sorry E. J., the Top Two Primary is still a bad idea
• California’s ‘top two primary’ fails to deliver on utopian promises
• Arizona does not need California’s ‘top two’ primary

Arizona voters wisely rejected Prop. 121 by a 2-1 margin in 2012, and will do so again in 2016, if necessary, because they are smarter than the flimflam artists give them credit.

So here is what I am asking from each and every district organization, county party organization, and state party organization for both Democrats and Republicans: adopt a resolution opposing the deceptively named Open and Honest Elections ballot measure, aka the Top Two Primary (or Jungle Primary), and instruct your precinct committee persons that they are not to walk petitions or to gather signatures for it, that your organization will not make its resources available to the Open And Honest Coalition, and to educate and inform the public that they should not sign the petition for this deceptive ballot measure to counter the media propaganda from The Arizona Republican. This is war! The easiest way to defeat this damn fool idea is if it does not garner enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot in 2016.

I will support Terry Goddard’s Open and Honest Disclosure ballot measure for “dark money,” even though I find it weak tea and far less than I had hoped for from Goddard when I heard him speak about it last summer. It appears to have been watered down since he partnered with Chuck Coughlin and Paul Johnson. It is nowhere near as effective as California’s model law, which is what I had hoped he would follow as a guide.

In any event, if Goddard’s measure passes voter approval, it will be challenged by the “Kochtopus” Death Star, the Goldwater Institute, in court on bogus “First Amendment” anonymous speech grounds. It’s good to have one of their own on the Arizona Supreme Court (I doubt that Clint Bolick will recuse himself from any Goldwater political litigation).