California Primary 2018: So Much To Choose!
The 2018 primariy election is today (5 June) in California. For those of us who've actually paid attention there's a bumper crop of races to decide. All state-level offices (8) are up for election in 2018, one of our US Senate seats is up for election in addition to all House seats, and there are numerous local offices (district attorney, county assessor, sheriff, etc), as well. Then there are the ballot propositions: 5 state-wide props plus local props, too.
Not only are there a plethora of races to read up on there are multitudes of candidates in some of them. The race for governor has attracted 28 candidates. For US Senate there are 32 people running! It's challenge to sort through them. I worry some of these crowded races are going to devolve to name-recognition contests as voters fold trying to parse the politicians' positions.
Part of the reason for the huge field in these races is that California adopted several years ago a Top-Two primary system. Now, instead of each political party having a separate primary and nominating its choice to the ballot for the general election in November, all candidates from all parties compete in a single primary contest. The top two vote-getters advance to November.
Update: Making some of the choices slightly easier is the fact that many of the candidates can be dropped from consideration quickly. Subtracting those with nutty fringe politics, those who didn't even bother to share their political positions, and those who are clearly in it for a laugh, cuts the larger fields down by half or more. BTW, "clearly in it for a laugh" includes one candidate for governor who's wearing a clown hat in his official campaign photo and describes his occupation as "Policomedian", and a candidate for lieutenant governor whose top political objective is "Elimination of the position of Lt. Governor." 🙄
Not only are there a plethora of races to read up on there are multitudes of candidates in some of them. The race for governor has attracted 28 candidates. For US Senate there are 32 people running! It's challenge to sort through them. I worry some of these crowded races are going to devolve to name-recognition contests as voters fold trying to parse the politicians' positions.
Part of the reason for the huge field in these races is that California adopted several years ago a Top-Two primary system. Now, instead of each political party having a separate primary and nominating its choice to the ballot for the general election in November, all candidates from all parties compete in a single primary contest. The top two vote-getters advance to November.
Update: Making some of the choices slightly easier is the fact that many of the candidates can be dropped from consideration quickly. Subtracting those with nutty fringe politics, those who didn't even bother to share their political positions, and those who are clearly in it for a laugh, cuts the larger fields down by half or more. BTW, "clearly in it for a laugh" includes one candidate for governor who's wearing a clown hat in his official campaign photo and describes his occupation as "Policomedian", and a candidate for lieutenant governor whose top political objective is "Elimination of the position of Lt. Governor." 🙄