Comment & Debate
“‘Open’ Primaries and the Illusion of Choice.” Open Salon, Front Porch Republic. June 9th, 2010: “And, as a report from the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies predicts, it is going to ‘significantly’ increase the cost of running for office in California, since candidates will have to make appeals to a wider swath of voters. That means, of course, that it will be that much more difficult for non-moneyed candidates to have a shot at elected office.”
Marc Abrams. “Open primaries no better the second time around” Blue Oregon. October 14th, 2008: “it raises by a large factor the cost of running for office. When a candidate has to send each of those 5-7 mailings to every registered voter, not merely the members of their party, it doubles (or more than doubles) the cost of each mailing, and with mail accounting for 50-70% of many campaigns, figure that adds roughly one-third to the cost of legislative races that are already spiraling in cost. Does that encourage working class or even poorer folks to run for elective office? It does not”