I always thought I was an Evan Bayh  Democrat. Today I became certain. In his surprise retirement announcement, Bayh  was careful to make it clear that he had wearied of the partisanship on both  sides of the aisle.

He identified specific irrational  partisan acts by both Republicans and by Democrats.

But, the timing of his departure spoke  loudly about his dissatisfaction with the entire Washington  establishment.

Bayh underscored the declaration in his  retirement speech in which he said that the country would be better off if  Washington was more like Indiana by waiting for the last minute to announce that  he would not run for re-election.

By not tipping off the Washington crowd,  Bayh basically said that the question of who should succeed him is a question  for the people of Indiana, not the politicians or talking heads in  DC.

There is a lesson here for California,  both in understanding who Evan Bayh is and why he is so fed up with the  partisanship in Congress. The partisan gridlock in Congress is surpassed in only  one place—the California legislature.

Moreover, no state has a more divided,  partisan, and ineffective Congressional delegation than California. This is why  California citizens pay more than their share in federal taxes and get less than  their share of federal spending.

Evan Bayh is a product of Indiana’s Open  Primary system. He is a decent man who understands that both common sense and  compromise are critical ingredients in any successful democracy.

Self-government is difficult under any  circumstances, but California’s closed primary system makes it nearly  impossible. Not surprisingly, it is a system imposed on California by the  political parties and the U.S. Supreme Court.

California voters overwhelmingly approved  Open Primaries in 1996. But, the political parties joined forces to challenge  the popular system in Court. In one of the Court’s more bizarre rulings, the  Court said that California’s voter approved open primary violated the political  parties’ “private right of association”.

That’s right public money (your tax  money) is spent to run a “private” election and the political parties—not the  voters—get to establish the rules.

Proposition 14 will be on California’s  June ballot. If passed, California will once again have an Open Primary in which  all primary candidates appear on one ballot and voters get to decide who they  want to vote for—without interference from political parties.

In order to meet the Supreme  Court’s “private association” test, the new primary will produce a runoff in  November between the two highest vote getters regardless of party.

None of the party types like this idea.  It makes the backroom power brokers and the self-anointed “activists” nuts. Why?  Simple. Open primaries give power to normal everyday voters. This power comes at  the expense of party insiders and activists of all parties, large and  small.

Advocates of Open Primaries believe that  elected officials should be directly answerable to voters. Closed Primary  defenders believe that political parties are necessary middlemen in the  relationship between voters and elected officials.

But, Evan Bayh is right. The parties have  become the problem. Partisanship threatens to crush democracy. The Senator’s  candor could be an “emperor has no clothes”  moment.

We have a broken system, and nowhere is  it more broken than in California.

No system is perfect. And Open Primary,  alone will not solve California’s problems. But, of this, you can be certain.  Evan Bayh would have a very tough time getting elected in California’s current  closed primary system.

That’s a shame.