California adopted the “top-two” election system over a decade ago. It is a failed experiment that has led to partisan gamesmanship.
Quick background. California used a “closed system” until 2012, where the primaries were intra-party elections to see who would represent the party in a general election. Critics claimed that closed primaries polarized the electorate because politicians needed to appeal only to activist bases, which created more extreme candidates who did not represent the majority of voters in the middle.
In 2009, (R) Senator Abel Maldonado gave his vote for a controversial budget in exchange for putting the top-two primary system on the ballot. Leaders of every political party opposed the measure, but it passed thanks to then-Gov. Schwarzenegger’s support.
Ten years in, has it worked? Come on, have you seen our state leadership? Where are the “moderates”?
Instead, it’s rekindled shenanigans where a candidate props up another candidate they believe is easily beaten. This can, of course, end poorly for the trickster. In 1966, for example, Gov. Pat Brown (D) fed newspapers with a hit piece about a moderate Republican named George Christopher because they wanted to face a weaker “fringe” candidate named … Ronald Reagan.
Now, in an open primary, that shenanigan is common. In 2018, Newsom propped up Republican John Cox so he wouldn’t have to face Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa.
And then there’s Sacramento-area Democrat Ken Cooley. In the primary this year, he faced an actual Republican named Josh Hoover, who Cooley didn’t want to face in the general. So instead, he used his campaign money to prop up the name ID of a Proud Boy member who had been expelled from the GOP and previously said: “all the illegals trying to jump over our border, we should be smashing their heads into the concrete.”
Fortunately, that gambit failed. But the level of cynicism it took to purposefully elevate a jackass like that is staggering.
I doubt there will be momentum to run another ballot proposition, but at least now you understand a reason why California politics are so screwed up.
Councilman Will O’Neill represents District 7 on the Newport Beach City Council.
