After mulling the increasingly Far Right ideology of lawmakers in the Idaho Legislature -- and particularly the three representatives of House District 3 last weekend -- I concluded that Idaho needs a top-two primary system, like the one used in Washington state. How else are you going to get past the entrenched foot soldiers who push forward and elect Far Right ideologues in Republican primaries and watch their candidates waltz to victory, unopposed or heavily favored, in the general elections? Under the Washington system, the two top candidates advance to the general election, even if they belonged to the same party. If this method was in effect last year, for example, Rep. Vito Barbieri of Dalton Gardens, who co-sponsored unconstitional nullification legislation, would have had to face Duane Rasmussen in a run-off. The rest below.

Question: Are you OK with our current primary system in Idaho?

Barbieri got 39 percent of the vote, Rasmussen 25 percent, with the remaining votes going to two others. Rather than the race being decided in the a Republican primary by highly motivated Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Rally Righters, etc., who now form the right wing of the local Republican Party, Barbieri would have been forced to face main-stream Republican Rasmussen in a general election where Democrats and Independents would weigh in. I doubt that the Republicans would have anything to do with a top-two system. Some on the hard right are fighting to close down the primary process further. I also doubt that some of the ideologues in office truly represent mainstream Idaho. But the neo-Republicans have been able to game the system to put their candidates in office. Only an initiative changing our current voting system will fix that -- DFO.