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Tag: Top 2 Primary

WA lawmakers button down hard-times session

WA lawmakers button down hard-times session

Washington lawmakers are heading back to their home districts after completing a brutal recession-era 135-day session.  Budget cutbacks, including salaries of state employees and teachers and budgets of virtually every area of government, were the rule of the day as lawmakers grappled with a budget gap of billions. Cuts and freezes totaling $4.6 billion will affect K-12, higher education, “safety  net” programs, and a variety of state services, from parks to prisons.  The $32 billion two-year budget takes effect July…

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WA voters win court approval of Top 2 Primary

WA voters win court approval of Top 2 Primary

Washington’s voter-approved Top 2 Primary system is constitutional, says U.S. District Judge John Coughenour.  The jurist, in an order that dismissed challenges brought by the political parties, ended a decade of litigation over the primary system. Coughenour (pronounced Coo’-now-er) called it “this long-running saga over the form of political elections in Washington.”  Secretary of State Sam Reed and Attorney General Rob McKenna called it a major victory for the voters of Washington. The court did, however, side with the parties…

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Reed proposes suspending 2012 Presidential Primary

Reed proposes suspending 2012 Presidential Primary

Secretary of State Sam Reed, a longtime advocate for Washington’s Presidential Primary, is joining Gov. Chris Gregoire in asking the Legislature to suspend the primary in 2012.  The move would save $10 million. The regular Top 2 Primary would still be held in August for governor, U.S. Senate, and other statewide and local races.  But the state would rely on the old precinct caucus-convention system, which Iowa and a handful of other states still use, for allocating national nominating convention…

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Top 2 Primary creates some all-in-the-family races

Top 2 Primary creates some all-in-the-family races

Ten of Washington’s 123 legislative races pit finalists who prefer the same political party, 25 lawmakers will be elected without opposition at all, and most of the rest will be traditional smackdowns between candidates who prefer the two mainline political parties. Washington’s Top 2 Primary system, adopted as the “People’s Choice Initiative” in 2004 and later upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, allows all voters to choose their favorite for each office, without regard to party preference. The two who…

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Top 2 system produces some all-in-the-family races

Top 2 system produces some all-in-the-family races

Washington’s voter-approved Top 2 Primary says the two voter favorites for each office move forward to the November General Election, without regard to party preference of the candidates. As in the two previous years we used the new system, this week’s winnowing of the field produced mostly traditional R-D matchups for November.  Neither the U.S. Senate nor the nine U.S. House races will have two people with the same party preference, and most of the 123 legislative contests likewise. But…

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Can U Top 2?

Can U Top 2?

Hardly seems possible, but Washington’s Top 2 Primary gets underway next week! Mail ballots will be available for pick-up at the county elections offices next Wednesday and by law must be mailed out to voters by Friday.  That means most of us can start voting in little more than a week from now.  The postmark deadline is Aug. 17. Secretary of State Sam Reed urged a big turnout for the run-up to this key mid-term election: “This is an excellent…

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Californians adopt Washington’s Top 2 Primary

Californians adopt Washington’s Top 2 Primary

Do two states a trend make? California voters have ignored the wishes of the political parties and strongly approved a constitutional amendment that essentially adopts the Top 2 Primary pioneered in Washington.  This means all state voters, including independents, will get to pick the two finalists for each office. After a green-light from the U.S. Supreme Court, Washington began using its voter-approved system in 2008.  The state’s third running of the Top 2 Primary will be conducted largely by mail,…

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Media reports: Rossi hopping into Senate race

Media reports: Rossi hopping into Senate race

Dino Rossi, a marquee name for Washington Republicans ever since his oh-so-close loss for governor in 2004, plans to jump into the U.S. Senate race on Wednesday, according to media reports. His entry into the race against three-term Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, one of the Senate’s most powerful senior members, comes unusually late for a challenger.  Filing Week is now less than two weeks away, and ballots for the Top 2 Primary go in the mail July 30. Rossi’s decision…

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WA exports more than apples & jets

WA exports more than apples & jets

Washington is on the map as one of those “laboratory of democracy” states, with citizens who seem relatively comfortable with innovation and experimentation.  Some of those ideas get exported to other states. A couple of current potential examples-in-the-making: California, the nation’s most populous state, soon will vote on whether to adopt Washington’s Top 2 Primary system.   The Golden State, you may recall, previously copied our “blanket primary,” and thereby incited a lawsuit by the political parties that ended up costing…

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Parties still don’t like Top 2, part 437

Parties still don’t like Top 2, part 437

A federal judge, in an amusing ruling Tuesday that took note that “many trees have died” in the ongoing court battle over Washington’s Top 2 primary system, has refused to toss the system, but is allowing the political parties to continue their quest for some fine-tuning. The parties have hated the Top 2 system ever since voters approved it in 2004 and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it in 2008.  Top 2 allows voters’ two favorite candidates for each office…

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