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Today's Poll: Should New York try nonpartisan primaries?

By Howard B. Owens
Mark Brudz

I voted ‘YES’ and I sincerely believe that open, non-partisan primaries are in the long run the answer to diminishing hyper-partisan politics in the nation as a whole. That said, I would caution that it is not a silver bullet. Once someone is elected they still have to caucus with one side or the other.

As it stands in our system right now, it is virtually impossible to win an election of any kind for national office without party support, in fact, it is nearly impossible to win a local election without party support. For a true independent or non -affiliated person to accomplish anything in congress without a caucusing with one side or the other is not possible, which means that politician would still have to make major trade offs to forward an agenda of any kind.

While open, non-partisan primaries in the long run would in my opinion change that, it would take several election cycles approaching one or two decades to actually see a result whether it be positive or negative.

Jun 4, 2012, 11:32am Permalink

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