Marianas Variety Guam Edition – The Local and Regional Newspaper

12 23Mon05202013

Headlines:

Settings

Font Size

Apply Reset
Back Opinion Poor Jonathan

Poor Jonathan

Wednesday, 11 Jul 2012 03:30am
VARIETY NEWS STAFF
Hits: 799
  • Print
  • PDF

THE governor and lawmakers didn’t do Jonathan Blas Diaz any favors by passing into public law Bill 488. That’s the action to amend Public Law 31-59 which allows Republican and Democratic primary candidates to be on the same ballot. Now Independent candidates will be on the primary ballot too.

The issue took up less than an hour of the Legislature’s time, after which they decided the best thing to do, presumably to avoid a legal challenge, was to include the independent candidate for the Washington delegate’s job on the primary ballot.

The whole idea is foolish. The primary vote on Sept. 1 is to determine party candidates for the Nov. 6 general election. Independents are, pretty much by definition, not members of any party. They do not belong on the ballot in a party primary, and we should not be putting them there. The parties themselves should have objected to this solution, since any votes Diaz manages to get will reduce the total of the party candidates by at least a few.

Alternatively, the Legislature should have provided in law a process for anyone who wishes to run as an Independent to get their names on the general election ballot. Requiring a petition signed by a higher number of registered voters than required to become a party candidate – say 1,500 – might have made some sense.

In fact, we probably should be saying to anyone who wants to run as an Independent: Get out there and run a write-in campaign, just as Lisa Murkowski did recently in Alaska. If you want to eschew the support of either of the established parties, then go get your votes independently, as it were.

Instead, they will put Mr. Diaz’s name on the ballot in a closed primary and require him to poll at least 4 percent of the votes cast in order to move on to the general. That’s probably an insurmountable hurdle, considering his supporters will only be able to vote for him – crossovers are not permitted – and therefore forgo the opportunity to vote for a full slate of legislative candidates in one or the other party, as well as mayoral candidates.

Mr. Diaz may have enough supporters who will do that, but we’re skeptical.

Comments  

 
+2 #4 Jose Cruz 2012-07-24 15:06
Everyone keeps repeating the same mantra...."we need new people in the legislature" yet they continue to elect the same old ones. What do you expect when you have career politicians who know how to "play the game". Get off of your duffs people and put your vote where your mouth is.
 
 
0 #3 john smith 2012-07-11 17:38
:-)

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best
`
`
`

hast[censored]
 
 
+2 #2 therapist 2012-07-11 17:26
If I had a little faith in our voting bloc, I'd say this move hurts the newbies moreso than the incumbents.
 
 
+2 #1 Dale 2012-07-11 17:07
This is the normal for our inept legislature and another example of why they need to be removed this November. It's sad that the Governor went along and signed the law.
 

Please Login to post a comment.