We’re easing the grip on our wallet as the Colorado legislature comes to a close this week and some Democratic lawmakers are thankfully running out of support and ideas on how to spend our money.
One idea that is still hanging on for approval that we admit might be a wise decision, though not necessarily before bugging out of town, is whether Colorado should return to the days of presidential primary yore.
One bill managed to slip through the House Democratic Kill Committee without Republican support, which means there is probably something terribly wrong with it. There is also a similar bill pending in the Senate.
The major sticking point we have is the desire by Democrats to allow unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in an open party primary, despite the fact that the entire point of a party’s primary is to allow party members to choose their nominee.
We may as well call that The Mayhem Clause, since it would be used to create such rather than rationally and thoughtfully choosing a party’s nominee.
The essential idea behind the bills is to bring back the primary we set aside 16 years ago in favor of the caucus system, because Bernie Sanders’ supporters don’t like the superdelegate system, which by the way would not change with a primary, and some national talk radio hosts don’t understand our process and want Colorado’s election to be simpler to explain.
We think returning to the primary system is an idea that merits further examination. What we’re not keen about is rushing it through the state legislature in a knee-jerk fashion just to appease national critics.
We have at least two to three years to get it right, so let’s take the time to get it right before the legislature passes a bill.