No "Top Two" Blanket Primary for Washington State

See this Seattle Post-Intelligencer update, which begins:

Gov. Gary Locke on Thursday used his veto power to create separate party primary elections in the state for the first time in nearly 70 years.

Locke rejected a "Top 2" primary system similar to Louisiana's primary, in which all candidates appear on the ballot and the top two finishers, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

Instead, he replaced Washington's popular wide-open blanket primary with a system like that used in Montana, where candidates appear on separate primary ballots, but voters choose which ballot to cast.

"Battling over anti-Bush donors; Bush camp launches legal fight against large-dollar Democratic funders"

MSNBC.com offers this report, which suggests that President Bush and the RNC have filed a complaint in federal court related to the activities of Democratic-leaning 527s. The article says, however, that the complaint was filed with the FEC. I'd appreciate some clarification, and I'll post it here if I receive it.

UPDATE: Clarification comes via this Washington Post report. The Bush campaign and RNC filed a complaint with the FEC, and they want it immediately dismissed so that they can take their complaint to the courts. From the article:

In an unusual bid to get fast action on the complaint, Ginsberg said, the GOP plaintiffs want the FEC to immediately dismiss the charges. This would permit Bush and the Republican Party to appeal directly to the courts for quicker action.

A knowledgeable FEC staff member who did not want to be identified because he is not an official spokesman described the GOP request for immediate dismissal as "ridiculous."

The Republican chairman of the FEC, Bradley A. Smith, said, "we will consider the request" for immediate dismissal. But Smith cautioned that, even if the commission dismissed the complaint, "my gut instinct would be, 'Wouldn't the court just send it right back and say the statute requires you to investigate?' "

The Bush campaign and the RNC indicated that they are seeking prompt action because the FEC can take months to process a complaint, and the Nov. 2 election could arrive before there is a resolution.

Ginsberg said immediate court action is needed because the FEC is "ill-equipped to sanction such pervasive criminal conduct in a way that would be timely and meaningful."

As for the request that the election commission dismiss the case quickly, officials there said they were unlikely to abandon their entire process for managing complaints.

"My initial thinking is that the court might send it back and say, `Look, this is your job,' " said Bradley A. Smith, the commission's chairman and a Republican.

-- 
Professor Rick Hasen 
Loyola Law School 
919 South Albany Street 
Los Angeles, CA  90015-0019 
(213)736-1466 - voice 
(213)380-3769 - fax 
rick.hasen@lls.edu 
http://www.lls.edu/academics/faculty/hasen.html 
http://electionlawblog.org