The Seattle Times nails it: Try again to save Washington's primary

I, for one, am sick of the power play on behalf of the parties of this state.

If these clowns want it all their own way, then I believe they should pay all the costs that go with it.

The Zilly decision must be appealed. The 3 main parties in this debacle MUST get the message: You all work FOR the people... and not the other way around.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM



Try again to save Washington's primary

WASHINGTON state should appeal a U.S. District Court judge's ruling overturning Washington's new primary.

Judge Thomas S. Zilly leaves more questions than answers in his ruling that deals another blow to Washington voters' sensibility that the primary election belongs to them, not the major parties. Sixty percent of voters approved the new primary last November. Under Initiative 872, the top two vote-getters in a race, regardless of party, would have advanced to the general election. That could mean two Democrats — or a Democrat and a Green Party member — might advance in the most liberal neighborhoods of Seattle, and two Republicans — or maybe a Republican and a Libertarian — in the most conservative rural communities.

Yet, Zilly's ruling seems to ignore that possibility and accepts the major parties' arguments that the so-called top-two primary determines "a party's nominee."

That might be true if the party were guaranteed a spot on the general election ballot — as it was in Washington's popular but defunct blanket primary. The federal courts ruled it unconstitutional because nonparty members could help select the party's nominee.

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