Aug. 23 Daily News editorial

The state political parties found just enough room in Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour to continue their long legal battle against Washington’s voter-approved Top 2 primary system. That’s disappointing. We had hoped the parties would find no encouragement whatsoever in the Judge Coughenour’s ruling.

But that probably was just wishful thinking. State political party leaders act as though they are on a mission. They’ve found reason to keep litigating where cooler heads would have found none. Last year’s 7-2 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of the Top 2 primary barely fazed party bosses. They quickly returned to court with a revised legal strategy.

The 7-2 high court ruling knocked down the parties’ chief claim, that the Top 2 primary on its face violated their right of association. The court rejected the claim reasoning that the Top 2 was a winnowing process, rather than a party nominating process. Like the blanket primary system that Washington voters enjoyed for nearly 70 years before it was ruled unconstitutional, the Top 2 allows voters to pick candidates from all parties. But, unlike the blanket primary, the Top 2 doesn’t advance a candidate from each party to the general election. It advances the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation.

The parties now argue that the Top 2 violates their right of association as it is being applied. Judge Coughenour’s ruling will allow the parties to make that argument, but instructs them to specify how the Top 2 could be implemented without violating their right of association. This is a victory for the parties only in that they can find reason to proceed. But the likelihood of overturning the Top 2 is just about nil.

Secretary of State Sam Reed has appealed to the parties repeatedly to end this long legal battle, calling it a waste of party resources and tax dollars. The wisdom of that advice should be obvious by now. Still, it probably shouldn’t surprise that the political parties would reject it. Political party leaders have rejected the expressed will of people on this matter for years, starting with their successful legal challenge against the state’s wildly popular blanket primary. Sixty-one percent of Washington voters approved Initiative 872, bringing in the Top 2 primary system. A statewide poll following the first Top 2 primary last fall showed that 75 percent of Washington voters preferred it to the “pick-a-party” primary favored by the parties.

We believe party leaders pursue this legal challenge at their own peril. In the extremely unlikely event that they managed to overturn the Top 2, voters could take the one option that would be left to them — make all elected offices in the state nonpartisan. That’s not so far-fetched as many party activists might want to think. The Washington Grange has indicated that it’s prepared to mount that initiative drive, if necessary.

State political parties would do well to accept the primary that the people clearly want. If they feel marginalized by the Top 2, they can step up and pay for a nominating process to their liking. They could spend a little to advertise their chosen candidate and then let that candidate sink or swim in the primary.