{"id":400793,"date":"2026-07-16T14:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/400793\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:35:14","slug":"proposal-to-end-californias-top-two-jungle-primary-system-moves-forward-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/400793\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposal to end California\u2019s top-two jungle primary system moves forward \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

An effort to end California\u2019s \u201cjungle primary\u201d system<\/a> \u2014 where the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, advance in primary elections \u2014 is moving forward.<\/p>\n

The California secretary of state said on Tuesday, June 14, that the proposal has entered circulation, meaning the backers behind the effort can begin collecting signatures. The proposed measure must earn almost 875,000 signatures by Jan. 11, 2027, in order to qualify for the 2028 ballot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The initiative is spearheaded by Steven Maviglio, a veteran Democratic strategist, and Ron Nehring, a former California Republican Party Chair. It would repeal a ballot measure adopted by voters in 2010, which established the jungle primary system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very dangerous threat to our democratic system,\u201d Maviglio said about California\u2019s current primary election process. \u201cI think voters understood this last election by the scare of, for a while, almost two Republicans being their choice for governor, then almost two Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proposition 14 was approved by voters 16 years ago, establishing California\u2019s jungle primary system<\/a> where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance in the primary for what\u2019s called \u201cvoter-nominated\u201d races. These are statewide offices, including governor, and congressional and legislative ones. It does not apply to partisan races, including the presidency.<\/p>\n

Proposition 14 allowed voters to participate in primary elections at large, without having to pull ballots based on their party affiliation. (An exception to this is, again, partisan races, such as for county central committees or president<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Concern over California\u2019s jungle primary system amplified ahead of this year\u2019s June primary election, when political observers saw a chance that two Republicans in the race for governor, Steve Hilton<\/a> and Chad Bianco<\/a>, could both advance, locking out the Democrats.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, despite the crowded Democratic field and lack of a clear frontrunner in the weeks leading up to Election Day, former Biden Cabinet official Xavier Becerra<\/a>, a Democrat, ended up advancing to the general election along with Hilton.<\/p>\n

The race was called for Becerra first, and before it was clear Hilton would also advance, there was concern among Republicans that environmentalist Tom Steyer<\/a> could leapfrog him into the second spot, thus shutting out the GOP.<\/p>\n

But in other races, parties were shut out of the runoff.<\/p>\n

That includes the race for insurance commissioner, where Ben Allen<\/a> and Jane Kim<\/a>, both Democrats, advanced. And in California\u2019s 40th Congressional District contest, voters chose two Republicans, Reps. Ken Calvert<\/a> and Young Kim<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The \u201cUndo the Top Two\u201d campaign is focused more on ensuring voters have a guaranteed choice between different party ideologies in the general election, Maviglio said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the criticism is (that) it shuts out independents because they have to choose a party,\u201d Maviglio said. \u201cBut the Democratic Party primary has always been open and always probably will be, and the Republicans can decide to do that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

More Choice California, a nonpartisan group that supports voting and election reforms, said the state\u2019s nearly 5.3 million no party preference voters<\/a> would lose the opportunity to participate in the primary if the jungle primary system is axed. The committee, in a news release on Wednesday, said it would challenge the proposed measure\u2019s title \u201con behalf of the millions of voters whose rights are at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVoters passed Proposition 14 to take control away from party insiders and put it in the hands of the people,\u201d said Cara McCormick, campaign manager of More Choice California.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis initiative does the opposite. It takes away the rights of millions of California voters and gives them back to political parties,\u201d McCormick said. \u201cThe least voters deserve is a ballot title that says so.\u201d<\/p>\n

The California Republican Party does not have a stance on the measure, a spokesperson said Wednesday. And the California Democratic Party will not take a stance until it qualifies for the 2028 ballot, a spokesperson for the party said.<\/p>\n

The next steps for the measure are to garner support and hit the signature threshold for a chance to appear on the 2028 ballot. Right now, Maviglio is working to set up online contributions and petition downloads and is hiring a signature-gathering firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not gonna be a lot of arm-twisting in front of Walmart,\u201d Maviglio said about the signature-gathering process. \u201cVoters understand it\u2019s undemocratic and limits their choices in November.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An effort to end California\u2019s \u201cjungle primary\u201d system \u2014 where the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1400,128829,7,5307,9,8,400,204,100,13,136,6392],"class_list":["post-400793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-2026-elections","tag-2028-elections","tag-california","tag-california-ballot-measures","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-politics","tag-election","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-stories","tag-voters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400793","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=400793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}