Dan Walters | Sacramento Bee | Apr. 27, 2010
The very liberal leadership of the California Democratic Party and the equally conservative hierarchy of the California Republican Party agree on virtually nothing, but they equally despise efforts to create some form of "open" primary election.
Party activists – leftist Democrats and rightist Republicans – loathe the idea that voters who don't share their ideologies could choose candidates.
Political reformers persuaded voters to approve one version in the 1990s. But it was in place for just one election cycle before being voided by the courts in a challenge by the two parties. By and by, however, courts endorsed another version that emerged in Washington state, one in which all candidates for an office would appear on one primary election ballot and the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, would face each other in the runoff.