Viewpoint: Montana needs an open primary, power to voters
Dave Hadden
Your October 9 edition featured an op-ed by Ken Toole on Constitutional Imitative 126. Ken opposes this initiative. I have huge respect for Ken Toole, as a thinker and for his years of public service. However, I think his opposition to CI-126 is misplaced. Here’s what I think he missed.
CI-126 would change the Montana Constitution to establish an ‘open primary.’ An open primary would allow any individual who wishes to seek elected state or federal office and who collects enough signatures to appear on the primary ballot.
Why is this change necessary now?
Montana, like much of the nation is experiencing an ever-increasing amount of political shouting and very little political listening. Yet I keep hearing from friends of all political stripes that they are woefully tired of all the political fighting.
Most people seem to understand that we have more in common with our neighbors than differences, especially if you consider the cost of living, increasing property taxes, public safety, energy, public education, and the challenges to our water and wildlife. These are complex issues. Most people want their elected officials to work for solutions; and this usually requires listening to the facts and reaching compromise with the person ‘across the aisle.’
Currently, the major political parties select who appears on the primary ballot. As the Republican and Democratic parties continue to shout at each other, they simultaneously select for all of us their most extreme comrades to appear on the primary ballot.
There are many moderate, intelligent people who want to work on solutions and want to run for office who can’t get on the ballot because the party bosses don’t select them. There are many areas of the state where only one candidate from one political party appears on the ballot because there’s currently no room on a ballot for someone from the same party who want to challenge their party’s candidate.
Montana voters need to be able to select who appears on the primary ballot. Not the political parties. It’s time to take the political parties down a notch, and for Montana voters to step up a notch.
Ken Toole argues in part that we shouldn’t tamper with the state’s constitution, that an open primary is too new an idea, that the dominant political party will tamper with its implementation and make matters worse, and that other problems with our political system need fixing first, like the obscene amount of money in politics.
I don’t necessary disagree with any of these concerns. I just disagree with his suggestion that we sit on our hands and do nothing.
Montana has – until recently – been a ‘two-way street’ state. Maybe we still are. People still talk to each other. We’re still courteous in community, at the store, and as we wave at each other as we travel our many beautiful back roads. There’s so much we enjoy in common in living in Montana.
We can do this. We can change our Constitution to allow the people to select who we want to appear on the primary ballot and who we want elected. The political parties are failing us. Let’s fix this problem.
Finally, when you vote for CI-126, please also vote for CI-127. CI-127 would mandate that the winning candidate must garner 51 percent of the vote, thus helping to ensure that that individual truly represents a majority of his or her constituents.