Golis: Two-party system is alive and well (so long as you’re a Democrat)

The numbers suggest that the official Democratic Party endorsement should have been sufficient to elect veteran politician Noreen Evans to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. After all, fewer than one in six voters in the 5th District is a registered Republican.

But Democratic Party politics is seldom simple and uncomplicated. At this point, we're supposed to quote the humorist Will Rogers. “I am not a member of any organized party,” he said, “I am a Democrat.”

While a competitive two-party system in Sonoma County becomes a memory from long ago and far away, we have the divisions within the Democratic Party to keep us entertained - even for an office that is listed as nonpartisan.

So it came to pass on Tuesday that Evans - who has served 18 years in public office - finished second to newcomer Lynda Hopkins in the 5th District. The two candidates face a run-off in November.

A great many Democrats, it seems, didn't care what the official Democratic Party of Sonoma County wanted them to do.

You know how this goes. Evans is said to represent public employees' unions and environmental groups, and Hopkins is said to represent business and agricultural groups.

In the rest of America, people would laugh at the notion that there is some great ideological divide between these two candidates. As a Press Democrat editorial noted, both support programs to promote affordable housing, universal preschool and more road repairs. Both want county government to consider rent controls and a ban on genetically modified crops. In the day-to-day business of governing, their ideological differences come close to being meaningless.

But listen to their supporters and you would think the future of humankind is hanging in the balance.

Along the way, both factions have proved they know how to support candidates who can win elections and defeat their rivals. Newly re-elected Supervisors Shirlee Zane and Susan Gorin are said to represent the progressives, and Supervisors David Rabbit and James Gore are said to represent the moderates.

Thus, the contest between Evans and Hopkins is said to be decisive in determining which political clan will have a majority on the Board of Supervisors.

In polite language, pundits last week worried that the fall campaign could be “bruising.” What they meant to say is they fear it will become mean and nasty. We shall see.

While the factions within the Democratic Party prepared for yet another battle, the Republican Party in Sonoma County continued to find ways to be irrelevant.

On Tuesday, the top Republican vote-getter for president, Donald Trump, received 16,602 votes in Sonoma County. Democrat Hillary Clinton received 44,923 votes, and the second place Democrat, Bernie Sanders, received 42,715 votes.

As of the May 23 registration report, there were more local voters who decline to state a party preference (52,622) than there were voters who signed up to be members of the GOP (52,200). So it goes these days for the party of Earl Warren and Ronald Reagan, the party that once dominated politics in Sonoma County.

The decline of the GOP could be seen in the statewide results as well. For the first time, two Democrats, Attorney General Kamala Harris and Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, will run-off to become the next U.S. senator from California. The highest vote getter among Republican candidates for U.S. Senate received eight percent of the votes cast. (In Sonoma County, the top Republican vote getter received only 4.8 percent of the vote.)

After the defeat of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012, Republicans said they understood that their party couldn't just be the party of middle-aged and older white men.

But the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump, seems to be doubling down on efforts to antagonize women, Latinos and other minorities.

Good government in California would be well-served by a Republican Party determined to be relevant again. In a democracy, the best decisions emerge from a competition of ideas.

For now, voters are left to choose between Democrats and Democrats. It's better than no choice at all, but it shouldn't be confused with a healthy democracy. If people wonder why the voter turnout was less than 50 percent, they could start here.

Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com.