California wisely embraces top-two primary

CALIFORNIA, welcome to a more rational way of electing candidates. With 54 percent approval, voters in the Golden State Tuesday embraced a nonpartisan qualifying primary similar to the one Washington state voters approved and battled for.

Starting next year, Californians will no longer be confined to a one-party primary ballot and instead will be able to select among all candidates filing for positions. The top-two vote-getters will advance, regardless of party. And, yes, as opponents suggested, that means you might have two Democrats on the general election ballot — or two Republicans.

That has happened in Washington state in legislative districts dominated by one party. Arguably, the successful candidates are a better fit for their districts, since all of their constituents got to have a say on who made it to the general election ballot.

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, who advocated strongly for Washington's top-two primary, had a hand in infecting Californians with this good idea. He wrote an op-ed for one prominent paper and did numerous interviews with other news outlets.

Judging from Reed's statement this week, he would like to see the idea become epidemic:

"We always expected this movement to originate on the West Coast and then move to other states. People are tired of narrow, rigid politics and they want officeholders who will be pragmatic problem-solvers."

The top-two primary certainly is not a panacea for the challenges facing Washington state or California. But it gives voters a chance to break free of the shackles of narrow-minded partisans who are puppets of big business, unions or other special-interest groups.

Over time, more moderates will make decisions, which bodes well for better solutions.