The 9th Circuit agreed with Zinny, the I-872 Primary system does too much harm to political parties. I’ll probably write about this later some more, but this leaves me with two thoughts for now:

1. We missed our chance. The Democratic Party didn’t have to join with the Republicans to overturn the system. I-872 was passed overwhelmingly by Washington voters. Us who are active in party politics have to ask ourselves the hard questions of why this is.

Why don’t people want to be associated, good or ill, with a party label? Why don’t more people get involved in party politics? I don’t think its them, I really think its us.

2. What will the Washington State Grange do next? In Oregon they think they had an idea that would have passed court muster (it didn’t end up getting on the ballot) and in Pierce County they’re putting non-partisan elections on the ballot.

I don’t know if there is actually a middle ground for the Grange to howe here, but they might just go all the way to statewide, non-partisan.