Top-two system will change face of local politics

The new top-two primary election allowed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Tuesday likely will change Thurston County politics.

Under the system, the two candidates who get the most votes in the August primary will go on to face each other in the November election.

Twice since 2000, that setup would have pitted two Democrats on the final ballot in the county's central legislative district.

Voters clearly asked for such a system. They approved it by initiative in 2004, but the political parties sued to stop it. Citizens have been complaining about not being able to vote for candidates in both parties since the courts threw out the old blanket primary in 2002.

"This ruling is absolutely in line with what the majority of voters want. As I look back over the years, I have no doubt. This ruling was a victory for the citizens," said Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman, a Republican.

"The bigger question is, what are going to be the outcomes of this system? No one really knows how this is going to affect who is going to win, because this completely changes the playing field," she added.

The biggest change locally likely would be in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater, which make up the 22nd Legislative District.

When a House seat has opened in the district, competing Democrats have garnered more votes in the primary election than the nearest Republican challenger.

In 2000, now-Rep. Sam Hunt defeated fellow Democrat Peter Rex 12,733 to 9,081. The nearest competitor was Republican Bill Pilkey, with 5,602 votes.

Two years later, Brendan Williams defeated Republican candidate Ann Burgman for the House seat he still holds. But the second-place finisher in the five-way Democratic primary that year was Margaret Holm, who received more votes than Burgman.

It is impossible to say how those races would have changed had the candidates known that only the top two would move on.

Secretary of State Sam Reed said political parties will focus more on fielding serious candidates to avoid the embarrassment of being shut out of the November ballot.

And Wyman noted that local elections already use the top-two system, such as the races for Olympia City Council last year, in which top vote-getters survived the primary to move onto the general election.

The Democratic and Republican parties again could challenge the system in court, and Tuesday they gave no indication of what they would do, beyond studying the court decision.

Wyman plans to use the top-two system in the Aug. 19 primary. Neither Williams nor Hunt has said he is stepping down, making a serious primary challenge in their district less likely this year.