Primary Elections Going on Voters Block

by Jack McCurdy

Summary: Morro Bay voters have faced primary elections for the past eight years, and many are fed up with having to vote in June for City Council candidates and then possibly again at the subsequent November election if no candidates win a majority of votes cast in the primary. It can add up to the better part of a year in campaigning if candidates need to run in the primary and then in the November election. That's too much and unnecessary, many residents and some City Council members have concluded. So the majority of the Council — mayor Jamie Irons and Council members Christine Johnson and Noah Smukler are submitting a ballot measure in November, giving voters the option of keeping primaries in Morro Bay or dropping them. Fact is Morro Bay is the only city in the county that has primaries and for community activist John Barta and Council members Nancy Johnson and George Leage that's fine and voters don't need to be asked if they want primaries to continue.

At the general election next November 4, the Morro Bay City Council has decided to let city voters decide whether they want to keep holding city primary elections, or just hold all city elections in November. But giving voters that choice kicked up something of a verbal storm from resident John Barta, who authored the initiative that created city primaries in 2006, making Morro Bay the only city in the county to hold primaries, and from Council members Nancy Johnson and George Leage, all of whom were outraged that city voters will be given a new say over how votes are cast in their city.

Mayor Jamie Irons and Council members Christine Johnson and Noah Smukler countered strongly and went ahead and voted to place the primary elections option on the November 4 ballot. "It's not my vote (on whether to keep primary elections in Morro Bay)," Irons told the July 8 Council meeting. "It's everybody's vote." The three Council members made clear that they want voters to decide.

The vote to place the measure on the November 4 ballot was approved  three-two with Nancy Johnson and Leage voting no. Barta, Nancy Johnson and Leage vowed to vote against the measure in November.

Primaries were accused of discouraging people to run for the Council and so was holding only general elections in November.

Barta harped on the 58.1% turnout of voters at the primary election last June 3 and credited that turnout to many people showing their affection for the primary. But resident Barry Branin countered that the high turnout was a "reflection of citizens' dissatisfaction with the method of the voting system" and "the only way they could take back control of the vested interests that written the unique voting system" was, he implied, to turn out in large numbers to elect candidates who were not among those vested interests.

Here are the reasons Barta, Nancy Johnson and Leage say they oppose letting voters decide:
 — The 2006 initiative (now part of the city municipal code) requiring primaries states, Barta pointed out, that it is "
the policy of the city of Morro Bay that the citizens shall have the greatest possible opportunity to elect their elected officials by majority vote and to have the largest possible field of qualified candidates."

But "the limiting of our regular municipal elections to a single election in November works against this policy because the votes cast by electors may be split among a large field of candidates. In such a circumstance, the candidates receiving the highest number of votes may be elected even though they fall far short of majority support. Additionally, otherwise qualified candidates may be discouraged from running for office if there is only a single election in November out of fear they will be splitting the vote."

Addressing Irons, Barta said, "If there were three candidates or four candidates and we only had a November election, you might be sitting up there with 34% of the votes and having won."

The 2006 initiative requiring primaries, he said, "was a citizen's initiative. I'd like to see what's going on here to be a citizen's initiative. It's not. It's coming up from the council."

"To be clear and transparent on this issue, since clearly this is coming from three members of the Council who would be personally benefitted in the next election by not having to run in a primary, that you guys ought to fess up and write the arguments, or at least two of you ought to write the arguments. And I'm sure there are (Council) votes against it and they ought to write the arguments against. I think you should stand up and say this is coming from the City Council and this is why we want to do it and this is why we don't want to do it from the other side."

The three Council members had no trouble getting elected in the 2012 primary so given that track record, how they would be "
benefitted" by not having to run in a primary next time was unclear.

If voters approve elimination of primaries, Barta said, qualified candidates may be discouraged from running for office if there is only a single election in November out of fear they will be splitting the vote.

Nancy Johnson and Leage indicated they agreed with all Barta said. "I do not feel (this ballot measure on the Nov. 4 ballot) is democratic — it's cheating the citizens of Morro Bay. There were years when people won (elections in November) by five or six votes. And people have been discouraged from voting. It's easier to win in November."

The key point being debated was what it takes to win a primary versus a general election in November. In a city primary, it takes a majority of votes cast for mayor and for Council. If there are two Council seats open, then two candidates for those seats must both win majorities of votes cast in that election to win. Irons, Christine Johnson and Noah Smukler met that requirement in June, 2012, and Irons for reelection and Matt Makowetski for a Council seat did it last June.

In contrast, had candidates in those two primaries not won majorities but won the most votes cast, they subsequently would have gone into a "
runoff" in the general election of the subsequent November. In that case, a plurality — the most votes cast in that election — would have been needed to win, but not a majority of all votes cast, as in a primary.

At the July 8 meeting, Irons, Christine Johnson and Smukler strongly indicated that their action to place the matter before voters was generated by expressions of strong dislike by voters with holding primaries, much of the dislike picked up during campaigning leading up to the primary last June. If anyone knows how voters feel, it is likely to be those three — and their large number of supporters, who have walked virtually all seven precincts in Morro Bay in 2012 and this year.

One of their supporters, who walked precincts for them, said she received "only negative comments" about primaries, that they are "wasteful, keeps people working (in the primaries and then, for those who face a "runoff," in November), and not able to do the good things that need to be done. Then the huge (time) gap between being elected (in a primary) and not taking office (until December)."

Smukler said it is "a fairly simple question. I just wonder if we need language about repairing the dual election process with a single election." "I see less and less people running (for office in Morro Bay) because of two elections (and the time they potentially take for candidates). And then (if they win), they sit in the audience for four to five months waiting to be seated (on the Council)."

Christine Johnson said she doesn't think people like campaigning from June to November when they don't gain a majority vote in a June primary. "
It's a very long time for putting other things in your life on hold. We were in full campaign mold in June, 2012. I said (at the time) I think the city can do a better job. A majority of people agreed.

Irons said he originally supported holding primaries but "that doesn't mean it isn't time to make a correction."

The Council agreed unanimously to allow citizens to join them in developing the arguments for and against the ballot measure. Irons and Christine Johnson volunteered to serve on the committee to support the measure and Nancy Johnson and Leage on the committee to oppose it. Nancy Johnson and Leage indicated they would invite residents (only three are allowed for a total of five on the committee) to join them, but Irons and Christine Johnson made no mention if they would.