'Cajun' style primary emerges as top choice

DAVID AMMONS, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

OLYMPIA -- A Louisiana-style "Cajun" primary emerged Monday as the Senate's top choice to replace Washington's legally flawed blanket primary system.

But for sheer razzle-dazzle, it would be hard to beat Sen. Harold Hochstatter's new proposal: Just put the old system on the fall ballot and let voters "make the biggest possible stink" by insisting on no changes.

"Let's run it right up the nose of the parties and the courts and say 'There! You've got a problem, don't you?"' the Moses Lake Republican told fellow senators at a brainstorming session Monday.

Most lawmakers are as upset as he is with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state can't force the political parties to allow all voters to help select their nominees.

Ever since the Legislature approved a Grange-sponsored blanket-primary initiative in 1935, voters have been able to vote for any candidate for any office, regardless of party. Crossover voting has been legal -- and popular -- and voters haven't registered by party.

The parties have indicated they will assert their rights under the high court's ruling. Their lawsuit is pending in federal court while lawmakers try to agree on a fix.

A Senate elections panel, taking the lead in trying to craft a bill in the waning days of the session, on Monday gave Hochstatter's plan a warm welcome. But the greatest support was shown for a so-called Cajun or "jungle" primary that would dump all candidates onto one bedsheet ballot.

The top two vote-getters would advance to the general election. In some cases, that could mean two finalists from the same party, as in the 1996 governor's race, when Democrats Gary Locke and Norm Rice both had more primary votes than the GOP nominee, Ellen Craswell.

But Sen. Georgia Gardner, D-Blaine, prime sponsor of the bill, and others said the system would give voters many of the same features they now enjoy -- crossover voting, a secret ballot and a guarantee that their votes will be counted.

The latter was a reference to a new proposal by Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach. That plan, roughly patterned after the state's presidential primary, would allow voters to pick one of four ballots -- Republican, Democratic, Libertarian or a "traditional" ballot with all the names.

It would be up to the parties, though, whether to accept votes cast on the traditional ballot. GOP and Democratic leaders have indicated their parties wouldn't.

Voters love splitting their tickets, and getting only one party's ballot wouldn't allow that, said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island.

Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Hoodsport, said the Cajun system is simple and that most voters would like it.

"Most people aren't partisan anyway and they would think that having the top two going forward (to the general election) would be refreshing," he said.

Senate Bill 5859 says anyone who gains 60 percent of the vote would advance alone to the general election, but the panel discussed removing that provision so that the top two always advance.

After the hearing, Chairwoman Julia Patterson, D-SeaTac, said, "It sounded like if we were to take a vote today, people would support a runoff similar to Louisiana's."

The committee tentatively scheduled a vote on Thursday.

Patterson and the ranking Republican on her panel, Pam Roach of Auburn, held open the possibility of the committee and the Senate approving both Hochstatter's referendum and the legislative plan.

Hochstatter already has 31 co-sponsors on his measure, SB6176, including leaders of both parties. That is more than the 25 votes needed to pass the Senate.

Hochstatter, an outspoken conservative who ran for governor last year, said the courts and the parties are to blame for the current mess, but that "everyone's going to think we (in the Legislature) did it."

A referendum would show the courts and the parties that voters overwhelmingly back the blanket primary, and view it as their constitutional right, he said. The pressure might do some good, he said.

"I'm trying to create an intense problem for the parties and the courts. Let's make the biggest possible stink," he said.

Critics questioned trying to re-enact a system that already has been struck down by the highest court in the land.

"Illegality has never been an impediment," Hochstatter shot back with a laugh.

Patterson later called it "an extraordinary demonstration of his ability to empathize with the consciousness of the voters. Regardless of whether it is constitutional or not, I believe he was speaking directly from the heart of the voter."

State Democratic Chairman Paul Berendt said Hochstatter is "pandering on a tough issue." GOP Chairman Chris Vance said "It's about petulance. Harold is frustrated, and I understand that."

Vance said the Legislature apparently will approve either the Cajun primary or separate partisan ballots, a view shared by Secretary of State Sam Reed and House Elections Co-Chairman Dave Schmidt, R-Bothell.

Reed said if lawmakers don't approve the Louisiana-style qualifying election, the next best idea is to have partisan ballots, with no crossover allowed and no public record kept of which ballot the voter takes.

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