PD Editorial: Voters move away from partisan labels
Published: Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, February 17, 2012 at 4:01 p.m.
Filing opened six days ago for the first election under California’s top-two primary system.
As the name suggests, the two candidates garnering the most votes in the June 5 primary will advance to the Nov. 6 general election, regardless of their party affiliation.
In some parts of the state, that could mean two Democrats or two Republicans appear on the November ballot. Perhaps even two independents.
Implausible? This year, yes. But the latest voter registration figures suggest that voters are getting fed up with the ideological extremes and partisan agendas that characterize California politics, all too often at the expense of completing public business in a timely manner.
Heading into the 2012 election, the major parties account for a shrinking share of the electorate, continuing a decades-long trend in California. Thirty years ago, 88 percent of registered voters in California were either Democrats or Republicans. Today, of approximately 17 million registered voters, 43.6 percent are Democrats and 30.4 percent are Republicans.
Here’s the most telling statistic: More than one in five voters — 21.2 percent — don’t identify with any political party. The actual figure may be closer to 25 percent, as many people mistakenly check off the American Independent Party on voter registration forms when they intend to indicate no political party preference.
The trend is especially pronounced in the Bay Area, where independents now outnumber registered Republicans in five of the nine counties. Sonoma County soon could be the sixth, with GOP registration falling to 22.3 percent and independent registration climbing to 20.6 percent as of Jan. 3.
Even if two independents never find their way into a general election, a contest between two Democrats or two Republicans should boost the influence of moderate and independent voters as candidates would be forced to appeal for support beyond their base voters.
The top-two primary, approved by California voters in 2010, is the second major reform targeting partisan gridlock in state politics, following on the recently completed reapportionment of legislative and congressional boundaries by an independent commission.
Candidates started filing Monday for elections in 80 Assembly districts, 40 state Senate districts, 53 congressional districts and four Board of Equalization districts. The deadline to file is March 9.
In recent elections, the traditional primary system produced candidates on the ideological extremes, and gerrymandered districts rendered general elections all but meaningless. The result been politicians who could count on re-election no matter how low approval ratings dropped for Congress and the Legislature.
There wasn’t much incentive for cooperation and compromise.
California voters are moving away from partisan labels. If politicians don’t recognize that in the registration data, they may get a lesson from the election returns.
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