So I dusted off my best NPR voice and was in the KJZZ studio earlier today being interviewed by Steve Goldstein for Here and Now. The topic was the National Federation of Republican Women being in town this week and how the parties planned to target women voters. This old post of mine is not directly related to the topic of the interview but I thought of it because I ended the interview by proudly stating that I was a partisan and because the AZ Capitol Times Yellow Sheet reported that the Top Two people were going to be launching their initiative again and are leaning on prominent Arizona Democrats to support it.
Republic columnist Laurie Roberts took some time off from her “De-kook the Capitol” project (in which somehow our Republican controlled legislature will become less extreme by, erm, electing more Republicans) to hawk the Open Primaries initiative.
The top-two primary initiative would usher in a new system of nominating congressional, state, county and local officials. Instead of holding partisan primaries, Arizona would hold one primary open to all voters and the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, would move to the general.
Gone would be the day when most congressional and legislative elections are decided in the primary, when politicians who cater to narrow ideological interests find themselves elected before most voters ever cast a ballot.
Of course, Roberts produces no evidence whatsoever to substantiate this claim but, whatever. Puppies! Rainbows! I’ve already explained why I don’t care for this primary initiative and don’t trust many of it’s proponents so I won’t get too deeply into that again. What irked me about Laurie’s piece was her obvious disdain for partisan activism.