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Opinion&Editorial
June 13, 2014 Views expressed in Opinion & Editorial do not necessarily reflect the views of the Rancho Santa Fe News
Voters win with top two primary California Focus By Thomas Elias
esults like those from last week’s primary cause detractors to call R California’s four-year-old “top two” elec-
Community Commentary
The political party to end all parties By Celia Kiewit
Fed up with our sick and stalemated political system in Washington, but always quick with a great sense of humor, my brilliantly goofy brother has proudly invented “PBR Squared” — The Progressive Brotherhood of Radical Republicans. Clever. He recommends this novel solution because, after all, it pretty much includes everyone! We love inclusiveness, right? How politically correct. One big happy family and no more bickering. I think he’s been drinking too much of his homemade wine while listening to Dylan Ratigan (I call him “D-Rat”) on MSNBC, author of an excellent book, “Greedy Bastards.” Ingenious! Except, as I had to remind him, there’s just one problem ... you left out the sisters. What about the sisters? Ohhh, right. He promised to get back to me on that. It has certainly become clear that men are incapable of solving our disputes, often making them worse, but then, even when the girls go to Washington, they start acting just like the guys. Regardless, we can’t leave the Femi-Nazis out of the stakes, and the squabbles. Left versus right, Liberals and Conservatives, Tea Partyers, Independents, Libertarians, believers, atheists, non-voters, green freaks, climate change fixers and deniers, … plus assorted posers? “Repugnicans” and loony lefties? Congressional crooks, sexual deviates, and whiners. Pick your “position.” Did I leave anyone out? I’m an equal opportunity offender. The fabled framers designed our Consti-
tution to guide statesmen of good conscience to reason together and govern. They were visionaries, but today this is literally impossible without all the “slobbyists” throwing their weight around — think tanks, PACs, global corporations, unions, and certain devious individuals. Read Charlie Gasparino’s book “Bought and Paid For -- the Unholy Alliance between Wall Street and Barack Obama,” on lobbying and the billions of dollars of influence they buy. And “Betrayal” by Linda Chavez on labor unions. “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair on the history of labor unions is of course a classic. “And Chicago will be ours!” Is this what the big daddies of our newbie nation envisioned? They would be shocked at the mess we’ve made, but they also could never have imagined getting quite so big for our britches. This is the beauty and the beast of our “democrazy”, a couple hundred years into its experiment. Ben Franklin offered us a republic, “… if you can keep it.” The hard-to-hear truth is that democracy is too good for most people, many of whom are uneducated or unwilling to do their homework, face compromise and change, reluctant to stare down their own myopic points of view and addictions, and often ignorant of moral prerequisites. Thank you, George Washington. Brother Dearest, in a serious moment, opts for term limits as well. Constant campaigning is the status quo with one hell of a hideous price tag! Some things never change; they just get more outrageous. Then,
those elected to handle oversight in DC get slammed, subpoenas are dissed, and hearings are held without answers. A Chinese friend warned about both the lack of a middle class and the rampant corruption infecting her country of origin. Government with too much power robbing us blind? Term limits might prevent some from hanging around until they’re senile, but politicians and wealthy lobbyists would stack the deck, regardless, for their pals as successors. After elected office, they tend to roll on over into other areas of government or the private sector (Boob Filner, Miss-the-Mark Wyland, The Clintonians), causing more gluttony and inertia as they collect astronomical speaking fees, write books, create foundations in need of audits, and further enrich themselves at our expense. Where does it end? Have you reviewed your ballot for the June Primary? I’d like to wholeheartedly give my vote to an actual choice, rather than the lesser of a bunch of weevils. Calling all statesmen and women — come to the urgent aid of your country. Oh, never mind; let’s have another glass of wine. Celia Kiewit is an Encinitas resident
tion system the “jungle primary” because it often features races with a dozen or more contestants and outcomes that can be completely unpredictable. For sure, that makes it a lot more fun both to vote and follow election returns — unless you are a prominent candidate or a boss of either major party. Focus on just one statewide race for a solid picture of what the top two system can do. This one came within a hair (and a recount might change things back) of absolutely assuring the Republican Party of one of California’s four leading political offices this fall, even though registered Democrats now outnumber Republicans by about 15 percent. That race pitted two established, well-funded Democratic candidates against two Republicans, with one more Democrat and a Green Party hopeful also in the field. Not as many prospects as in some other races, but still plenty to scramble some establishment eggs. For the 10.9 percent of the Election Day vote count won by virtually unknown Democrat Tammy D. Blair and Green Laura Wells knocked down the counts of former Democratic Assembly Speaker John Perez and state Board of Equalization member Betty Yee. And so, for much of Election Night night, it appeared Republicans Ashley Swearengin, the mayor of Fresno, and David Evans, a CPA and former mayor of tiny California City, would meet this fall with no Democratic opposition. In a state which has seen no statewide Republican officeholders for almost four years, that would have been remarkable. But Perez edged out Evans by a mere 2,436 votes, a 21.7 percent performance, when all the counting was done on Election Night, and appeared headed for a runoff with Swearengin (who herself had just 24.4 percent), pending the count of thousands of provisional and damaged ballots, not to mention a potential recall. Under the previous party primary system, there would have been little remarkable in those numbers — Swearengin would have been the GOP nominee and the Democratic winner would still be in the balance, but for sure a Democrat and a Republican would have faced off in the fall. If this kind of narrow race for an office whose occupant is the state’s chief check-writer doesn’t prove that every vote matters, it’s hard to see what could. Top two, then, will provide future motivation for two things: It will give voters more reason than ever to participate.
Focus on just one statewide race for a solid picture of what the top two system can do. Brown would already have a second term. Similarly, incumbent members of Congress like Xavier Becerra, Tom McClintock, Adam Schiff, Lucille Roybal-Allard and Mike Thompson must contest again in November, despite far outdistancing all who ran against them this spring. More interesting will be the same-party race pitting Republicans Tony Strickland and Steve Knight in a district stretching from Ventura County to the High Desert portion of Los Angeles County, and another matching first-term Democrat Eric Swallwell and state Senate majority leader Ellen Corbett in the East Bay suburbs of San Francisco. Silicon Valley gets a ballyhooed intraparty race between longtime incumbent Democrat Mike Honda and the well-funded Indian-American Ro Khanna. Members of the minority party in each of those districts can now decide the fall outcomes, exactly what top two intended. This primary also debunked the notion that top two allows only major party candidates onto runoffs. Incumbents Schiff and Thompson both face independents. It’s all different than after any previous California primary, with incumbents less secure than before, and voters with the power they sought when they created top two. Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol. com. His book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,” is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, go to californiafocus.net
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And it will give parties reason to get organized well enough to avoid matchups between prominent party mates for the same office. There was no such organization in either party this time. The result is that in district after district, races will pit persons of the same parties in runoffs this fall. In runs for Congress alone, seven districts in all parts of the state will see Democrat vs. Democrat and Republican on Republican. In some of those contests, incumbents ran up large primary majorities, but still must run again in the fall, suggesting top two should be tweaked to make winning 50 percent of the primary vote sufficient for election. If that were the case now, Gov. Jerry
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