{"id":5644,"date":"2010-06-10T13:36:51","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T17:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=5644"},"modified":"2010-06-10T13:36:51","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T17:36:51","slug":"california-commits-plebes-cide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/5644\/california-commits-plebes-cide\/","title":{"rendered":"California Commits Plebes-cide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buried amidst the landslide primary victories of GOP candidates Meg Whiteman<\/a> (governor) and Carly Fiorina<\/a> (U.S. Senator) is a far more consequential vote.\u00a0 The passage of Proposition 14, the ballot measure that abolishes partisan primaries in favor of a top-two run-off in a general election, is not the panacea its supporters claim.\u00a0 Then again, many of the people who voted for it aren\u2019t sure what it will do anyway.\u00a0 From the New York Times<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

That no one actually knows what the real effect of Proposition 14 will be seems almost beside the point to frustrated voters. What mattered, supporters said, is that something fundamental about politics \u2014 anything fundamental \u2014 had been changed.<\/p>\n

As supporters celebrated, they promised to bring the so-called \u201ctop two\u201d system to a state near you, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger leading the charge \u2014 though his second term, plagued by budget meltdowns and plunging popularity, was, analysts said, one of the leading motivators for the measure.<\/p>\n

Whether the measure will empower more independent voters \u2014 who were already allowed to vote in Democratic or Republican primaries, provided they requested a ballot \u2014 remains to be seen. But what did seem certain was that California was again poised to capture the mood of the country, just as it did in 1978 with Proposition 13, which distilled widespread antitax sentiment into a cap on property taxes.<\/p>\n

This time, it is the anger of the electorate that Californians have bottled, experts said, even if they are not totally sure what they are doing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This kind of thoughtless voting was the same motivating factor in passing the Golden State\u2019s term limits measure in 1990s and the electorate\u2019s more recent decision to have an unelected commission draw legislative and congressional districts.\u00a0 Like Proposition 14, both have the effect of minimizing accountability by shifting power away from publicly elected officials toward staff, lobbyists, and moneyed insiders.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that in modern California politics Proposition 14 is likely to have zero effect on which two candidates are selected to run in the general election.\u00a0 For over a decade the Republican and Democratic nominations have gone to those with high name recognition and\/or independent wealth.\u00a0 Whitman and Fiorina had tremendous advantages as a billionaire and multi-millionaire, respectively, and benefited enormously from establishment support that cut off their opponents’ ability to raise funds.<\/p>\n

When Proposition 14 is implemented in 2011, they still will \u2013 only this time the decisions will take place not in an open, voter decided forum, but in informal discussions among special interest groups picking their candidates and clearing the field.<\/p>\n

So, way to go California!\u00a0 By voting for less structure you\u2019ll get less control.\u00a0 Maybe next year someone will qualify a ballot measure to abolish the legislature and let every citizen decide every issue by popular vote.<\/p>\n

What could go wrong?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buried amidst the landslide primary victories of GOP candidates Meg Whiteman (governor) and Carly Fiorina (U.S. Senator) is a far more consequential vote.\u00a0 The passage of Proposition 14, the ballot measure that abolishes partisan primaries in favor of a top-two run-off in a general election, is not the panacea its supporters claim.\u00a0 Then again, many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1379,299,972,1059,1380,977,1381,1378],"class_list":["post-5644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-ballot-measure","tag-california","tag-carly-fiorina","tag-meg-whitman","tag-proposition-14","tag-redistricting","tag-term-limits","tag-top-two-primary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5644"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5648,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5644\/revisions\/5648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}