From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS:
Pennsylvania’s Democratic and Republican party voters should decide statewide primaries, not party bosses, according to unaffiliated pressure groups that have badgered party leaders this year.
Republican insurgents argue that the practice of endorsing primary candidates takes the choice away from voters. Democrat dissidents have stalled a move by party leaders to consolidate power in the endorsement process.
The two partisan factions might have different notions on how the country should be run, but they share a passionate belief that the institutionalized leadership of both parties has become a barrier between residents and their government…
Click here to read the full article.
I don’t mean to comment on the merits of this article, instead I would like to discuss what this would mean for candidates.
Having dabbled a bit in the local political arena, the biggest issue for any candidate is name recognition. This is the very reason political parties exist in the first place, particularly at the local level: groups of similarly-minded people working together (and raising funds) to promote candidates who share at least some of their beliefs.
ANYONE can by themselves collect the number of signatures required to get on the ballot. Anyone can go door-to-door, make phone calls and personal appearances, pay for and distribute printed material and signs. It’s a lot easier if you have a team of people helping you, even more so if that team is well-established and knows how to work together.
Admittedly we only had minimal opposition as I ran for School Board this year in the School District of Lancaster (five endorsed Democrats vs. one endorsed Republican), but even after serving for a year on the Lancaster City Democratic Committee their help was invaluable. People from the committee helped the five of us navigate the at-times complex procedures to get and keep our names on the ballot (complex primarily to keep people honest), raise money, print signs and literature, and represent us door-to-door and at the polls. (I don’t mind working the polls, but I really dislike canvassing door-to-door because I feel like I’m intruding into people’s homes and lives; it’s a LOT easier when someone experienced works with you). People from both the Lancaster City and Lancaster Township Democratic Committees put out a LOT of time and effort to help us get elected (SDoL includes both). I’m not sure I would have been willing to run without their considerable help and assistance.
Which raises a good point: School Board is a volunteer position that can easily take 20 hours or more a month. In spite of their best efforts, local Republicans were only able to find one person they could endorse for SDoL School Board (I understand they interviewed others). Even the Democrats worked very hard to come up with five candidates, and two of them were incumbents. This says a lot about Lancaster City and Township residents, that so few qualified individuals were willing to volunteer their time and effort for their local community.
I personally favor a partisan primary election, because that way I can be relatively sure that any candidate who has been endorsed by the party I claim affiliation with most likely supports many of the same things that I do. I wouldn’t want to accidentally vote for someone whose priorities are the extreme opposite of my own.
Can individuals run against the party establishment in primary elections? Of course they can. The problem is, they would need to find their own ways to deal with many responsibilities, efforts, and expenses that endorsed candidates receive much help with from their own local party organizations. How many of us would be willing to do that?