Walter Jones of the Savannah Morning News examines the possibility of California's new open primary system as electoral reform in Georgia.
The idea is that allowing independents and members of both major parties to select the nominees would force candidates to take moderate stances. It would end the zigzag common to most elections where a candidate has to run to the right or the left to win the nomination and then race to the middle for the general election.Georgia uses the same mechanism in special elections. That’s how the General Assembly wound up with an independent, something unheard of in traditional elections.
He goes on:
Districts here are so lopsided that primaries effectively determine the whole election as they used before California installed its jungle approach.“It would change Georgia pretty dramatically,” said Randy Evans, a political advisor on the congressional and national level, as well as a former member of Georgia’s State Election Board.
"Maybe the Californians have invented a better mousetrap."
Would an open primary be good for Georgia, even if their political landscape is dominated by one side?