Democratic state Senator Steve Glazer spoke at the California Nonpartisan Primary Summit on Wednesday. The event, hosted by the Independent Voter Project and California Forward, focused on the impact of California’s relatively new nonpartisan, top-two primary system.
Glazer shared his first-hand experience with nonpartisan primaries and how he managed to successfully endure negative attacks from his own party. He faced fellow Democrat Susan Bonilla in a special election to replace Mark DeSaulnier, who is now a member of Congress.
He reflected, “One of the things the top-two did for me is it gave me some room to define what it meant to me to be a Democrat. And the questions is – is my party going to continue to big a big tent where diversity of opinion is tolerated? Or is it going to be rejected?”
“My definition of independent is someone who’s there to represent people rather than party or power.” – Sen. Steve Glazer
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