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Originally Posted by alphabassettgrrl
The primary elections only choose who runs in the real race, when you can vote for whoever you want.
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But it's not that simple. In our former blanket primary system, a Democrat could say, "what an attractive Republican candidate that is. Our Democratic candidates for that position are left-wing nutjobs. I respect that particular Republican's moderate and fiscally responnsible approach." And the Democrat could vote for that particular Republican in the primary, giving that Republican a better shot at surviving the primary. Now the Democrat is stuck chosing which left-wing nutjob to vote for.
My limited experience is that blanket primaries offered a way to get to the middle. If a party candidate was too extreme, the moderate members of that party would gravitate toward a moderate candidate on the other party. The moderate candidates needed that influx of support from "the other side" to make it through the primary.
But the parties want "their" candidate to go through. Not the moderate. We tried to set up a "Cajun-style" primary where everyone votes for everyone in the primary and the top two go through to the final vote -- regardless of party. I think we had a voter-passed initiative on that. But the parties got that tossed out in court as well.
Maybe it's the tinfoil hat, but I don't think the primaries are irrelevant. The parties wouldn't be pushing these suits if it weren't in their best interest to keep the party-only primary. Meanwhile, the voters want to pick whomever they want, even at the primary level. The parties have already shown they are willing to work contrary to public will in order to ensure the parties' survival.