Primaries plan faces hurdles

OLYMPIA – The state Grange, still hoping to scuttle Washington’s unpopular “pick-a-party” primary election system, is promoting a plan to make all of the state’s political offices nonpartisan, including governor and seats in the Legislature.

But a key lawmaker says the plan is dead on arrival in the Legislature.

The politically active farm-based organization was the original sponsor of the state’s popular “blanket primary,” which for decades allowed voters to choose their favorite nominee for each office, without regard for party label.

Federal courts threw out the system, saying it unconstitutionally infringed on political parties’ rights to determine their own nominees without outside interference. The Grange hit back with a successful 2004 initiative to allow the top two vote-getters for each office to advance to the general election, regardless of party. The courts threw out that, too, and the Grange is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Thursday, the group announced a new tactic: legislation to get around the legal objections to a blanket-style primary by simply leaving party labels off the primary and general-election ballots. Voters could again pick their favorite for each office, and parties would be free to recruit, finance and publicize their favored candidates, Grange President Terry Hunt said.

Essentially, this would mean nonpartisan elections, such as the state already uses for the judiciary, and which many local governments use for offices such as Seattle mayor, city councils and school boards.

Voters have never gotten over their fury at being told they must restrict themselves to one party’s slate of candidates, he said. The state has used a Montana-style “pick-a-party” primary since 2004 while the legal challenges have unfolded. About 100,000 ballots were spoiled in last year’s primary because voters did not fill them out properly.

But Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, chairwoman of the committee that handles election bills, said the Grange plan will be bottled up. “I support a ‘top two’ primary, but there is no way this could pass, so why should I even hold a hearing on it?” she said in an interview.