...Labor turns thumb down to Top 2 primary measure
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tion Day whether to help pick the Dem-
ocratic or the Republican nominees.
Measure 90 is more accurately a
“top two” measure, repurposing the pri-
mary as the first round of a two-round
election. Because the primary election
would winnow the field of candidates
down to two, Measure 90 changes the
general election too. General election
voters would find just two candidates
on the ballot for each office. And in
many districts, the two candidates
might be members of the same party.
Minor party candidates would no longer
appear on the general election ballot,
unless they were among the top two
vote-getters in the primary.
Measure 90 supporters say the cur-
rent system disenfranchises too much
of the electorate, because nearly a third
of voters, and nearly half of young vot-
ers, aren’t registered as Democrats or
Republicans, and thus have no say in
who those parties’ nominees are.
Opponents counter that Measure 90
would disenfranchise Democrats and
Republicans, eliminating the system
that determines who their candidate will
be in the general election.
Proponents also say Measure 90
would give independent and minor
party voters more reason to take part in
the primary, and therefore should in-
crease voter turnout. But the Washing-
ton and California experiments haven’t
born that out: Turnout stayed the same
or fell. Though the top-two system
might not be to blame for that, it doesn’t
support predictions of increased voter
turnout.
The Oregon Working Families Party
has its own particular reasons for sup-
porting Measure 90, which have to do
with its strategy as a minor party that
formed to counter corporate power in
the Democratic Party. Unlike Oregon’s
Pacific Green, Libertarian, or Constitu-
tion parties, the Oregon Working Fami-
lies Party seldom runs its own candi-
dates. Instead, it seeks to use Oregon’s
“fusion-lite” system, in which minor
parties may “cross-endorse” major
party candidates. Oregon Working
Families Party uses its endorsement to
signal which candidate is the most pro-
worker.
Party co-chair Barbara Dudley said
Oregon’s version of the top-two pri-
mary is vastly better than California’s
or Washington’s, because Oregon bal-
lots can list up to three party endorse-
ments next to a candidate’s name.
Washingtonians don’t check a box for a
political party when they register to
vote, and their ballot lists only what
party a candidate says he or she
“prefers.” California ballots list a can-
didate’s party registration, but not
whether that party has endorsed them.
Oregon Working Families Party en-
dorsed Measure 90 after several rounds
of discussion, but the party’s co-chair,
Local 555 Secretary-Treasurer Jeff An-
derson, was strongly opposed to it.
And money is the number one rea-
son, Anderson says. Measure 90 would
make campaigning even more costly
than it currently is, because candidates
would have to appeal to the entire elec-
torate, twice, in order to win.
Under the current system, major
party candidates need only appeal to
members of their party in the primary,
and in many lop-sided “safe” districts,
winners of the majority party primary
are virtually assured of a win in No-
vember.
Anderson points to the 2014 primary
campaign in heavily-Democratic Ore-
gon House District 42 as an example.
Unions mobilized hard and were able to
propel Oregon Nurses Association staff
rep Rob Nosse to victory in a crowded
field of Democratic candidates. In a top-
two system, they’d have to do it all over
again, because Nosse would likely have
had to face off against the number two
vote-getter in a general election cam-
paign lasting an additional six months.
“That’s goofy madness, to pay
twice,” Anderson said.
Those time and money demands
would make it much harder for ordinary
working people to run for office, says
Oregon AFSCME Political Director Joe
Baessler: “They’d have to run all year,
even in a safe district. That’s fine for old
rich retired dudes, but my members
can’t do that.”
Baessler says a top-two system gives
more power to primary voters. The
problem with that, Baessler says, is that
primary voters tend to be older, wealth-
ier, more partisan, less diverse — and
most importantly, fewer in number —
than general election voters. By open-
ing up choices in the primary, the top-
two system reduces choices in the gen-
eral election, when more voters are
paying attention.
And at times, a top-two system can
lead to topsy-turvy outcomes. For in-
stance, it disadvantages whichever party
has more candidates, though the parties
have no control over who runs.
In June 2012, four Democrats and
two Republicans ran for Congress in
California’s 31st Congressional district.
The result: The Democratic vote was
split four ways, and voters found they
had two Republicans to choose from in
November — in a majority-Democratic
district. If the 2008 presidential race had
been run under a top-two system, the
closely-divided Republican field would
have resulted in a November run-off be-
tween Barack Obama and Hillary Clin-
ton, with no Republican candidate.
California AFL-CIO Communica-
Gradine Storms,
Principal Broker
Member of CWA Local 7901
7886 SE 13th, Portland, OR•Cell/Text 503-784-8326
gstorms@equitygroup.com Linkedin/GradyStorms
SEPTEMBER 5, 2014
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
tions Director Steve Smith says that
state’s top-two primary has opened the
floodgates even more to corporate
money.
“We’re seeing the strategy by corpo-
rations in California has really been to
double down their investment in so-
called corporate Democrats, and the top
two primary system allows them to do
that in a very effective way,” Smith said.
“What before was a safe seat for a
worker friendly candidate now has be-
come a seat that could go either way.
We don’t see this as advantageous to
democracy.”
Are you ready
to run for
political office?
Are you considering filing for a
political office in 2016 or 2020? If
the answer is yes, now is the time to
get the right training for a success-
ful race. The Oregon Labor Candi-
date School is accepting applica-
tions for its 2014-15 fall programs
in the Portland and Medford areas.
In Portland, classes start Friday,
Oct. 10, with orientation. The first
full day of class is the following
day, Oct. 11. There are six classes.
In Medford, classes start Satur-
day, Sept. 20. The program offers
four classes over two weekends,
one in September and one in Octo-
ber.
For more information about
class dates and requirements, and to
apply online or to download an ap-
plication, go on line at: www.ore-
gonlaborcandidateschool.org.
Applications need to be turned
in as soon as possible.
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