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Winnowing Process? Another Primary Is On The Chopping Block. Hill & Richie Critique New Book Blanket Primary - R.I.P Howard Dean Man in the Middle Voters Get "Gamed" Fixing Californias Recall Divided We Sit How To Enact Progressive Policy by Steven Hill & Rob Ritchie Tacoma News Tribune IRV Editorial 25.3.03 Winner-Take-All 2-Party System Restricts Political Debate By John Burbank Address To Washington State Libertarian Party Convention Spitfire Forum

Our democracy is a blood sport. Contestants for election not only game opponents, voters are caught in their sights too. Campaign consultants, like skilled sharpshooters, pick off voters and leave them to dry in the political wilderness outside of the two-party system. In California's gubernatorial race, Democrat Governor Gray Davis is refusing to appear at a debate with his conservative Republican opponent Bill Simon, if Green party candidate Peter Camejo attends. As far as Davis is concerned, Camejo can't even be in the audience. Davis campaign spokesman Roger Salazar is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle that Camejo, "is welcome to hang out outside the building in the protest zone or wherever." Simon is quoted as being outraged that his invited guest cannot attend. Is Simon rising up to the principals of democratic inclusion by inviting someone who, by far, does not share his ideological perspectives? No Way! Simon is using Camejo to split the Left. The conventional wisdom is Green voters will take votes away from Davis. Davis only needs a plurality, as does Simon, to win. With our two-party system, coalitions are built before the election. By running a campaign independent of the two incumbent parties, Camejo is not part of a coalition. He and Green party voters are out in the wilderness. Our media only exacerbates this problem of exclusion. The Los Angeles Times, which is sponsoring the debate, is excluding Camejo because of their self-imposed threshold for candidates to poll at least 15% of the electorate. This puts the Green in a Catch 22. Camejo could possibly poll 15%, or even more, if he had better coverage. If he was included in the debate, and debated well, he might have reached that threshold. He might have at least been able to double his current 5%. Simon is trailing 10% and hoping for a miracle. By embracing Camejo, he's banking on splitting a constituency. Davis knows this game all too well. In the primary election earlier this year, he campaigned against former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. Davis ran attack ads that alienated the moderate Riordan from conservative California Republicans. In the low turnout primary, 35%, the conservative faithful voted for Simon. Moderate Democrat Davis hit a masterstroke in political gamesmanship. By driving out the moderate Riordan in the Republican primary, Davis staked out the priceless political center in the general election all to himself. Riordan wasn't the only loser, millions of moderate California voters lost out too. The gamesmanship exhibited by both Davis and Simon reveal major flaws in our system. If California used IRV for its elections, the shenanigans we're witnessing would not be happening. Instead of driving voters away, IRV increases choices, thus increasing participation. Our current elections alienate too many voters. It's a shame that the political gamers use this alienation for their advantage. They win while democracy and civic participation lose big time!

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