How About a Consolidated Primary?
I am going to throw a thought out there that will probably make my political friends heads spin like Linda Blair in the Exorcist, but I think it’s worth discussing. How about a consolidated primary for municipal elections?
Seriously! Instead of voters having to choose a Republican or Democratic ballot for Mayor or City Council elections, and then having to deal with months of campaigning, the primaries are just consolidated so that all the candidates for a local seat appear on the ballot at the same time and the top two vote getters face each other in a runoff 30-60 days after the May primary.
And if a candidate gets more than 65% of the vote in the primary he or she can avoid a runoff election.
Think about how about much time, grief and hassle this would save the voters. Does anyone really need six months to run for Mayor in a town of less than 50,000 people? If Chicago and San Francisco can pull this off, I don’t see any reason why Indianapolis, Carmel, Ft. Wayne or Evansville can’t pull this off either.
Let’s be honest, there really isn’t a Democratic or Republican way to run a city. Either you pick up trash, provide public safety, take care of the infrastructure in an efficient manner or you don’t. It’s just that simple.
And while we’re at it, why not throw in school board elections at the same time? This way all matters local get addressed at one time. Especially since cities, towns and schools all tend to blend together when we talk about quality of life issues.
So what do you think? Shall we consolidate?
