This Christmas, let’s present California an insurance coverage coverage.
No, not an insurance coverage coverage for our houses — these are too costly, if you will discover one within the first place. As a substitute, let’s get an insurance coverage coverage to guard California in opposition to Trump and his acolytes.
To safe the coverage, the legislature should cross a invoice to permit write-in candidates to run in our November elections.
That will appear small. But it surely could possibly be big subsequent 12 months, due to the risky mixture of California’s top-two election system and a wide-open 2026 race for governor.
Since 2011, California has had a voter-approved, nonpartisan system that places all candidates of all events on the identical poll in a first-round election. Subsequent 12 months’s first-round election is in June.
Then the highest two candidates, no matter social gathering, advance to the November elections. And it’s solely two candidates. Write-in candidates can not be part of the poll.
Opinions differ on whether or not the top-two has fulfilled its promise of manufacturing extra reasonable elected officers. But it surely positively has produced some anti-democratic outcomes.
Particularly when the bulk social gathering has too many candidates in a race, and the minority social gathering has simply two. In these circumstances, the bulk social gathering candidates can break up up the vote into small shares, permitting the 2 minority social gathering candidates to complete first and second — thus locking the social gathering most individuals assist out of the runoff. Such a “lockout” of the bulk social gathering has occurred 4 occasions, most lately in 2022 in a Republican state Senate district, the place two Democrats squeezed via in a subject with six Republicans.
The 2026 governor’s race is beginning to form up the identical means.
At this second, eight Democrats with skilled, resourced campaigns are working for governor, whereas solely two Republicans with skilled campaigns are working: commentator Steve Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.
Each are robust Trump supporters — a truth which constitutes an emergency in mild of polling exhibiting that the 2 Republicans might end first and second.
How? Hilton and Bianco might evenly divide the 40% of the vote that’s Republican, ending up with about 20% every. In the meantime, the little-known Democrats might, divide the 60% of the vote that goes Democratic in seven methods, with the main contenders solely registering the kids.
4 polls taken this fall have proven one of many Republicans main, with the opposite Republican inside just a few factors of second place.
Which is why California wants that insurance coverage coverage, to stop our subsequent governor from being aligned with Trump.
Permitting write-in candidates within the November election is the plain answer. If the 2 Trumpists advance, Democrats and independents might again a write-in candidate as a substitute.
All it will take to make this insurance coverage coverage a actuality can be for Democrats within the legislature to cross a invoice with a two-thirds majority — permitting it to take impact instantly.
Republicans would cry foul, however they’d be improper. Write-in candidates exist exactly as insurance coverage insurance policies in opposition to election programs that produce perverse outcomes. Take Alaska U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a reasonable Republican who was her state’s hottest politician however misplaced the 2010 Republican major to a right-winger. She ran as a write-in in November — and gained the seat she nonetheless holds.
Permitting write-ins would provide good insurance coverage for now. A wiser long-term plan can be to get rid of the top-two system altogether by way of constitutional modification. Then, if we need to shield democracy, we should undertake a system of proportional illustration, giving events seats matching their vote proportion.
That may be an insurance coverage coverage even State Farm couldn’t cancel.
Joe Mathews is the Connecting California columnist for Zócalo Public Sq. and founder-publisher of Democracy Native.
