Mad about abortion? The solution isn’t to pound on Senate’s doors
It appears abortion is now illegal in Arizona, never mind that most people believe that women should have some measure of control over their bodies.
In fact, only 13% of Arizona voters believe that abortion should be banned outright, according to a recent poll by OH Predictive Insights.
It appears Arizona now has a universal voucher plan, never mind that most people are sick and tired of our leaders’ constant schemes to divert ever larger amounts of public money to private and religious schools.
In fact, only 35% of Arizona voters supported voucher expansion in 2018, when voters vetoed a plan far less expansive than the one approved Friday by the Arizona Legislature.
Welcome to Arizona, where clearly the majority doesn’t rule. Or even matter to our political masters.
No number of angry protesters descending on the Capitol to pound on the doors of the state Senate is going to change that.
The will of the people has long since fallen victim to gerrymandered political districts and a two-party system that voters are abandoning.
Hard-right Republicans don’t dominate the Arizona Legislature because they are the choice of Arizona voters.
They dominate because the system is rigged so that fully two-thirds of the state’s voters don’t matter.
Which is why rape victims now must bear their attackers’ babies and why we are about to embark upon a two-tiered system of education: private for the haves and public for the have-nots.
We could change that, of course.
In the long term, the answer is to reform the state’s primary elections – something neither political party supports.
In the short term? Well, that would require independent voters to actually vote in the Aug. 2 primary. (More on that in a minute.)
Independents now outnumber both Republicans and Democrats in Maricopa County and soon they will dominate statewide. Yet you wouldn’t know it because the system is designed to mute their voices.
The vast majority of our political districts favor one party or the other, meaning the winning candidate of that party’s primary wins the congressional or legislative seat. Only five of our 30 legislative districts are considered competitive (and even then, four of the five lean Republican). Only two of our nine congressional districts are competitive.
For most of the state, that means the primary election is the only election that matters.
Yet, if history repeats itself, no more than 10 to 12% of independents will even bother to vote in Arizona’s Aug. 2 primary.
Put another way, hardcore Democratic voters will fill 36 or so seats in the 90-member Legislature and hardcore Republican voters will fill the rest.
And in the once-Grand Old Party, no moderates need apply.
(Here’s where we bid adieu to Sen. Paul Boyer of Glendale, perhaps the Legislature’s sole remaining moderate Republican. He’s retiring rather than face the wrath of primary voters who are angry that he wouldn’t vote to toss the Maricopa County supervisors in jail over the election audit.)
In the long run the answer is to move away from partisan primaries and instead hold to a top-two primary, the system long used by Arizona’s cities.
In a two-top primary, every voter gets the same ballot and the top two candidates for each position move on to the general election. In some districts, that might mean a more moderate Republican faces off against a far-right Republican. Ditto for moderate and liberal Democrats in others.
What it also would mean is actual choices for all voters come November.
It’s not a new idea.
Nearly a decade ago, Arizona voters rejected a proposal to move to a single primary open to all. Actually, they didn’t just reject the idea. They stoned it to death as both political parties, the unions and “dark money” masters opposed the plan.
Ten years later, I could give you a multitude of reasons why it’s time to reconsider. Instead, I’ll list just my current top five:
U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar.
U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs.
State Sen. Wendy Rogers.
State Rep. Mark Finchem.
State Sen. Kelly Townsend.
Maybe you’re among the legions of Arizonans who on occasion ask how people from the fringe of the Republican Party get elected. The answer’s easy: It’s because they were basically the only choice on the November ballot — at least, the only choice with a realistic chance of winning.
Take Gosar. He represents a district of 485,000 people, 42% of them Republican. The candidate who wins the GOP primary in that district has a lock on the seat. But what if Gosar had to face off in November against a more mainstream Republican or an independent rather than a token Democrat who had no hope of winning?
“These people win because they’re club members and they do not need to compete with the larger electorate,” longtime political strategist Chuck Coughlin once told me. “They get elected by their own club. The Republican primary and the Democratic primary are club affairs. If you’re the most staunch member of the club, you get elected.”
And we must live with laws that most of us oppose.
A top two primary could fix that in the long run.
And in the short run, independent voters could start by participating the Aug. 2 Republican primary.
Some independents tell me they didn’t know they can vote. Some decline to participate, believing they should be able to vote for the candidates of their choice rather than the candidates of one party or the other.
But what if 25% of independents turned out in this year’s Republican primary – where all the action is — instead of just 10% or 12%?
Coughlin recently told me that could be a game changer – one not likely to favor extremists like Kari Lake (governor), Blake Masters (U.S. Senate) and Mark Finchem (secretary of state).
Did I mention that registered independents can request an early ballot until July 22? (Here’s how, in Maricopa County.) Or that they can show up at any voting location from July 6 onward and vote either a Republican or Democratic ballot? (Here’s a list of voting centers in Maricopa County.)
Did I mention that the deadline to register to vote in the Aug. 2 primary is midnight on July 5?
Ever wonder why our leaders don’t seem to represent you? That’s probably because they don’t.
And won’t, until we change that.
Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.
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