Today is the 28th, I think. Yesterday, we dropped off Joy and we had to be my uncle. Interesting. We had a brief chance to talk about the governor’s race. The top five candidates are two Republicans and three Democrats. There’s pressure on the trailing candidates to drop out so the Democrat votes consolidate.
I remember, I think in 2010, the top two primary system was introduced. One analysis of the top two primary system—it must have been used elsewhere too—is that it introduces the possibility that both candidates in the final ticket are of the same party if the votes of the other party are split across multiple candidates. That’s what’s happening now. Right now, the top two are Republicans. Because of that, there is all this pressure for the Democrats to drop out. Usually, the more pressure there is to drop out, the smaller the progressive support for the candidates. So, right now the pressure is… nothing is decided. Okay, I mean, I can’t imagine being too popular.
Yeah, so I guess in this scenario, which is not that advantageous towards the more conservative mainstream, that’s why you need a single transfer system. It allows for a more extended choice in how you vote because then you can vote for the person you want without having to worry that it’s a wasted vote.
Democrats, they would support something like that because that means they are in a much more precarious position in the primaries. Voters who voted just to prevent the Republican from winning would now be voting for the candidate they want.
That made me think, if the mainstream Democrat is afraid of not being supported by a significant portion—or even the majority—of Democrat voters, doesn’t that mean that person is not mainstream? I need to analyze this stuff to see if it makes sense, but that’s something that’s true.