1. Richard:
   Did you blog/ post a link to the recent NYT OpEd supporting doing away with primary election process (as well as political parties) in NYS? Watch the teacher union created / controlled WFP enter a legislator’s Albany, NY NYS capital office on any Tuesday (Lobby Day) at the NYS Legislature and tell me that political parties are not the problem.

   — Political parties are fine for wagging the dog and creating a few highly paid family patronage jobs at least in NYS, but a top-two election such as planned for CA at least allows non-affiliated to participate equally if not completely allowing the registered non-enrolleds / “independenTs party” to take over the entire political process as that state and this country (i.e. USA as it enters a time of economic depression if not also out-right blood in the streets civil war. The founding grandfathered nbc’ers gave us a constitution, let’s see if we can keep it using such tools as top-two and election related anti-foreign agent laws such as the Logan Act.

2. The pamphlet’s support of IRV as an alternative to Top 2 is nonsensical. Top 2 will free voters to support “spoiler” candidates in the primary. Results from the blanket primary elections of 1998 and 2000 show increased participation by 3rd party voters and candidates, and independent voters.

   It is quite likely that the elimination of the extreme signature burden for independent candidates (statewide candidates: 175,000 to 65; legislators and representatives: several 1000 to 40, will greatly increase the number of independent candidates.

   A similar system is used for electing county and city officials, and the statewide Superintendent of Public Instruction for nearly 100 years. Green-backed candidates have been elected under this system. Proposition 14 explicitly recognizes the right of political parties to endorse and support candidates in these non-partisan elections.

3. #2, first paragraph: In the “top two,” anyone who wants to vote for an independent or small party candidate had better do so in the first round, since that’s almost always the only round in which such candidates appear on the ballot.

   “Proposition 14 explicitly recognizes the right of political parties to endorse and support candidates in these non-partisan elections.”

   Prop. 14 actually recognizes the First Amendment rights of political parties?

   WOW!!

4. #3 The Louisiana legislature has a larger share of independents elected as such than 47 of the 48 other states that use partisan elections. Surely they must have qualified for the second round.

   Yes it does. I figure you would have read the amendment. The difference between partisan and non-partisan elections after Proposition 14 will be: (1) partisan ballots will include the party preference of candidates; and (2) candidates who receive a majority of the vote in a non-partisan primary are elected.

5. #4: I wonder if there were candidates from both major parties in those elections.

   Gee, it was really thoughtful of the authors to recognize the First Amendment rights of political parties in “Maldonado’s Folly.”

   It’s a nonpartisan election whenever the parties have no way of officially nominating candidates. Putting party labels on the ballots does not make it a partisan election.

6. #5 One of the independents was unopposed.

   The other had two Democratic and one Republican opponent. He received 41% of the vote in the primary to advance to the runoff where he defeated a Democrat by a 59% to 41% majority. This was in Lafourche parish.

   There was another race where an independent received 49.89% of the vote against a Republican incumbent in a two-way primary, leading in Lafayette parish by 303 votes, but losing in Vermilion parish by 336 votes.

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