Everett, Wash. Published: Sunday, February 17, 2008
Party processes need an extreme makeover
When it comes to picking the nation's president, the nominating process in Washington is a model of confusion and frustration. It's no surprise that voters are angry about it, and that they want change.
We suspect plenty of anger resides inside the parties themselves, among rank and file Democrats and Republicans who have seen their parties become more autocratic and exclusionary. Reasonable people need to rise from inside the state parties to give Washingtonians the kind of process they demand and deserve, one that's inclusive and understandable.
Washington is the only state to have caucuses and primaries for both parties -- a chief source of voter confusion. Party honchos opposed having a primary at all; voters and legislators forced it on them in 1988. The parties want to control the nominating process as much as possible, and use it to build a more dedicated core membership that will walk in lockstep. Caucuses, which are gatherings of relatively small numbers of party activists, help them do that. Primaries, where vastly more voters participate, dilute the party leadership's influence.
So the state Democratic Party, as it always has, will ignore the results of the Feb. 19 primary. State Republicans will use it to apportion about half of their delegates to the national convention. All of the Democrats' delegates (minus a handful of superdelegates) will come from the caucus process, in which no more than 9 percent of registered voters participated, according to Secretary of State Sam Reed.
Caucuses are designed to keep the presidential nominating process in the hands of a relative few. They only last an hour or two, and leave out most folks who have to work, are homebound, are out of town that day, or simply don't want to state their preference in public.
Instead, the parties should be seeking ways to draw more people in. They would do that by embracing the primary, like parties in so many other states do. Far more voters would be involved in the delegate selection process, the most important party activity. They'd identify with a party, if only for that day. That can't be considered a bad thing for either party.
