[EL] Oregon Top Two Primary Loses Badly

[Paul Gronke]

It's not that surprising.  Oregon is not just a blue state, but it's dominated by a relatively small number of very well organized and allied interests, mainly the Democratic Party and public service unions.  They poured a lot of money and personnel into opposing the measure.  Add to that Oregon's traditional aversion to organized interests (I know, it runs contrary to the previous sentence) and desire not to affiliate with a party (now over half the registered voters) or cast a ballot for a third party, and top two was in trouble for a long time.  

It didn't help that an overwhelming proportion of contributions supporting the measure came from two out of state billionaires and business interests.  

It's surprising because half of the Oregon electorate is now refusing to affiliate with a political party and Oregon continues to be one of only 12 states that shuts all unaffiliated voters out of the primary.  I don't think this is the last word for primary reform in Oregon, but the open primary + top two is dead for now.

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Paul Gronke	

Professor, Reed College and
Daniel B. German Endowed Visiting Professor, Appalachian State University

Director, Early Voting Information Center
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd
Portland OR 97202

EVIC: http://earlyvoting.net

On Nov 4, 2014, at 10:02 PM, Rick Hasen <rhasen at law.uci.edu> wrote:

> Oregon Top Two Primary Initiative Loses Badly
> Posted on November 4, 2014 9:50 pm by Rick Hasen
> Very interesting.
> 
> <share_save_171_16.png>
> Posted in political parties, political polarization, primaries

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