The political parties’ challenge of the voter-approved, Supreme Court-approved Top 2 Primary continues to drag on and on. A federal judge has scheduled a “status conference” for March 24 in Seattle to take a look at where we are with all of the motions and cross-motions.

Yes, it’s true that the highest court in the land gave a green light to the new system that voters approved back in 2004 and it’s true that the state ran a Top 2 Primary in November with broad acceptance by Democrats, Republicans and independents.  But the parties still think it’s a bad idea and are asking U.S. District Judge John Coughenour (say Coo’-nauer) to deal with a variety of their remaining complaints.

The state’s view is that the Supreme Court already disposed of all of the parties’ points and want the judge to dismiss the whole thing. His reply to both sides — so far– was to schedule the conference for next month.  We’ll get back to you.

FYI:  The Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians continue to challenge the Top 2 Primary, which the Supreme Court upheld in March and was successfully used in August for the first time since voters approved it in 2004. The 9th Circuit upheld and returned the case to the U.S. District Court in Seattle to deal with any remaining issues, including whether the parties should repay the state about $109,000 in legal costs. The state has asked Judge John Coughenour (he replaced Judge Thomas Zilly on the case) to dismiss the case, believing that the Supreme Court already has dealt with the parties’ remaining points. The parties are filing papers with the court, and the state’s motion is attached. The Secretary of State and the voters of Washington are represented by Jeff Even, deputy solicitor general. No hearing date has been set. Secretary of State Sam Reed has urged the parties to drop their appeals, given the broad public support for the Top 2 system, the smooth running of the primary this August, and the need to spend the limited resources of the public and the parties in a prudent fashion, rather than on more litigation.