Special session: Pulling the plug on the presidential primary
Friday, December 5, 2003 7:20 AM PST
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleOLYMPIA (AP) -- Washington lawmakers were poised to cancel the state's scheduled March 2 presidential primary on Friday, although they expressed mixed feelings as they gathered for the rare December session.
Democratic Gov. Gary Locke and legislative sponsors predicted approval of the plan to save the state the $6 million to $7 million cost of the primary, despite a flurry of objections that surfaced at legislative hearings Thursday.
It is only the fourth special session in December since Washington became a state in 1889. The Legislature will meet for its regular session in January.
A parade of election experts at Thursday's hearings testified that the presidential primary, adopted in 1989 as an initiative to the Legislature, should be revamped so parties will use it and the votes will mean something.
Former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, a liberal Republican and the chief proponent of replacing the old caucus system with a more broadly based primary, warned that even a one-time suspension could end the whole primary system.
Locke and other backers of the change insisted that 2004 is a unique situation. Republicans already know their nominee, President Bush, and Democrats plan to use caucuses to allocate 100 percent of their national convention delegates.
"Why have a primary if neither party is going to use the results, and we can save $7 million?" the governor told reporters. "It's just this one time."
Six other states also have canceled their primaries for 2004, mostly for financial reasons: Michigan, Colorado, Kansas, Maine, North Dakota and Utah. Legislatures in Arizona and Missouri also voted to call off their primaries, but Democratic governors vetoed the bills.
Locke and legislative leaders think the cancellation bill will be approved by both houses by Friday afternoon. They conceded the Republican-based Senate appears to have more critics of the plan, but said a coalition of minority Democrats and some Republicans should be strong enough to pass it.
Secretary of State Sam Reed and a number of legislators said Thursday that it's not a black-or-white choice. The caucus system isn't a good alternative, because so few attend and because it can be manipulated, Reed and Munro said.
"Often the caucuses represent only a band of ideological zealots," said former state GOP Chairman Ross Davis of Seattle.
But Reed and county auditors from Pierce, Island, Grays Harbor, Kittitas, Kitsap and elsewhere said the bottom line is that the primary would be meaningless and would add to public cynicism.
"It's lamentable we having to do this, but having to spend $7 million on what is essentially a poll would be wasteful and unwise," said Kitsap County Auditor Karen Flynn.
Vern Spatz, auditor for Grays Harbor County, said the primary would be a fraud -- "an election with nothing to show for it."
But Munro said "The public is going to be very angry" when they find out they can't vote.
"I urge you to stand up to the political parties," he said. "If this is a poker game, you have four aces and a joker and the parties have a pair of threes."
Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, said lawmakers are in a bind: The caucuses are "an obscure mystery" to most voters, yet "when the primary costs money and your votes don't count, I'm for doing away with it."
State Democrats plan caucuses for Saturday, Feb. 7, and hope that having one of the earliest votes in the country will draw media and candidate attention.
Republicans, who had been willing to allocate a third of their national convention delegates via the primary, will use caucuses on March 9 to begin their process of selecting delegates.
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