In a Feb. 23 editorial about California’s bipartisan top-two Senate primary on March 5, “Schiff throws a curveball in California Senate race,” Democratic candidate Adam Schiff’s Karen Tamalty was right when she called the advertising tactic “cynical.” Elevate or support Republican candidate Steve Garvey.
Mr. Schiff’s ad suggests that the cash-strapped Mr. Garvey is “too conservative for California,” but as Mr. Tamarti says, Mr. Garvey “cannot win,” and he is a former baseball player. He wants to make the player his opponent in the November general election. ”
Of course, if Mr. Garvey finishes second in the primary, Mr. Schiff will avoid facing his much more competitive rival, Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, in the November general election. .
This electoral tactic exists because Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1 in California. So the political class discovered Boost as a cynical way to hack into the state’s top two nonpartisan primary systems in statewide elections.
But democracy is not a game. Perhaps the solution to boosting California’s top two primaries is to turn the primaries into ranked races. That way, most of the two widely popular Most competitive candidates will therefore advance to the general election, which will almost certainly be Mr. Schiff and Mr. Porter.
After all, democracies work better by encouraging competitive campaigns.
