The Brief<\/p>\n
California\u2019s top-two “jungle” primary system is facing renewed criticism more than a decade after voters approved it.<\/p>\n
Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio argues the current system can leave voters without a candidate from their party in the general election.<\/p>\n
Maviglio is backing a ballot initiative to restore California\u2019s previous primary system and hopes it will appear on the 2028 ballot.<\/p>\n
LOS ANGELES – California is a week away from the so-called “jungle” primary election.<\/p>\n
The top-two primary model has been in place for over a decade, but now there’s a growing effort to repeal it.<\/p>\n
“It went on the ballot, it was barely approved, and we’ve been living with it since 2012,” said Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio.<\/p>\n
He’s talking about California’s “jungle” primary model, meaning regardless of party affiliation, all candidates share one primary ballot when residents vote in the June election.<\/p>\n
The top two vote-getters will then advance to the general election in November.<\/p>\n
“It’s called a jungle primary for a reason. You have, in this case, more than 60 names on your ballot to choose from, so Republicans can vote for Democrats, Democrats can vote for Republicans,” said Maviglio.<\/p>\n
Steve says the theory of the jungle, or top-two, primary was to empower voters to have more choices and vote independently.<\/p>\n
But he argues some voters from both parties are having buyer’s remorse.<\/p>\n
He says that’s because, in this primary election in California, there’s a chance two Republican gubernatorial candidates can make it to the November ballot.<\/p>\n
“Or the other way around, now it’s more likely there will be two Democrats on the ballot, which means Republicans would have no one representing their party or values,” said Maviglio.<\/p>\n
In a crowded, high-stakes race, Steve claims the voters are the ones losing under the current primary model.<\/p>\n
It’s why he’s proposed a ballot initiative to go back to the old system, so two candidates of the same party are not duking it out in the general election.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.undothetoptwo.com\/<\/p>\n
“We’re seeing the Republican Party paying for ads for a Democratic candidate because they know that’s the weakest candidate to face in November, and vice versa. So it’s become a real game for a lot of the consultants, and it leaves voters in the dark because they don’t have anyone who really reflects their values in November,” said Maviglio.<\/p>\n
Steve says he hopes the ballot measure will appear on the 2028 general election ballot, but he adds it needs a set amount of signatures first.<\/p>\n
He said if it passes in 2028, it would go into effect in 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief California\u2019s top-two “jungle” primary system is facing renewed criticism more than a decade after voters approved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7354,7,9,8,15222,138215,92704,40658,73923],"class_list":["post-334143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-ballot-initiative","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-democratic-candidate","tag-democratic-strategist","tag-jungle-primary","tag-primary-system","tag-steven-maviglio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}