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“You want to know why we’re polarized? You want to know why we have division?” Our featured guest Frank Garner posed this question to voters at the constitutional ballot initiative debate we attended in Helena, Montana and many similar events. “We have a system that allows for it and the pressure that is put on people… to vote a certain way.”
A Republican member of the Montana House from 2015 to 2023, Garner spent over a year as the primary spokesperson for Montanans for Election Reform, the group that gathered 200 thousand signatures and fought off four lawsuits to place two Constitutional Initiatives (CI) on the 2024 ballot.
CI 126 proposed replacing the current primary system where voters receive a ballot from each party (then choose one to complete) with a single, unified primary ballot of all candidates from which the top 4 advance to a general election. While CI 127 would require a majority winner from those 4 candidates.
In this episode we also hear from Kendra Miller, Strategic Advisor to Montanans for Election Reform, on the critical need for competitive elections in “the last best place.”
“I think one of the more shocking stats,” says Miller, a data analyst with extensive campaign experience, “is that in 2022…only 6% of Montana voters effectively elected 88% of the Montana House.”
We then visit with former legislator Frank Garner on election night and into the next day as the results slowly come on the initiatives he’s championed throughout this vast state.
Tune in for the final results and also reflections on the challenge of election reform messaging in a state saturated with ads from the most expensive US Senate race per capita in the country.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney -
The 2024 election results are in and clearly underscore a rightward shift in American politics. Most pundits and many pollsters did not foresee such a clear victory for the GOP. But some of our Purple Principle guests from the past four seasons have recognized the important dynamics at play behind these results. Such as Carlos Curbelo on the shift of Hispanic voters and Thomas Edsall on the longstanding drift of the Democratic Party away from economic issues and toward identity politics.
In this bonus episode, we ask you, our Purple Principle listeners, to select your favorite guest insights using a ranked choice ballot available through our show notes and website. Please rank your top 5 of the 10 guest comments. We’ll announce the winner on our next episode and display the tabulation on our website and social media.
Link to this podcast on our website, with episode transcript and the ballot to rank your favorite insights:
👉 https://bit.ly/TPPinsights
The 2024 election may be over. But the undercurrents behind the ‘24 results are still in play and may be for some years to come. Tune in to get behind the numbers by ranking your top 5 Purple Principle guest insights for 2024. -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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“You meet them and you're like, ‘oh, wow, you're a good person trying to do the right thing, and there's nothing in it for you,’” says Andrew Yang, Founder and Co-Chair of the Forward Party. He’s referring to largely volunteer teams around the country that have raised the profile for election reform in 2024. “I mean, what could be more worthy of praise than that combination of attributes?”
Yang was a relative unknown upon entering the 2020 Democratic Presidential primaries. But that did not last long. He energized young voters with his informal approach to campaigning and practical position on innovative policies, such as universal basic income.
“The reason I do what I do is because I don't have that positive an outlook as to what America's future looks like if we don't get our s%%# together,” says Yang, also an author and frequent commentator on major news networks. “Like it or not, the world's future is determined very much by what happens here in the United States.”
Tune in to find out why Yang and the Forward Party support election reform in all its variations for 2024 and beyond. And why $200 million dollars spent on election reform, which is less than that spent on several Senate campaigns this year, could transform American politics for the better.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
“It’s a thrilling year. It’s a tense year. I am a believer that this is a marathon,” says Rob Richie, Co-Founder and longtime Director of FairVote, the nation’s foremost catalyst for ranked choice voting elections. “There's moments of excitement– of cresting hills, of victories and sometimes defeats.”
In this Purple Principle episode, Richie recounts the highs and lows throughout the steady progression of ranked choice voting in US elections since co-founding FairVote three decades ago. For example, the successful implementation of RCV elections in Portland paved the way for the nation’s first statewide ballot passage by Maine voters in 2016. That was followed by Alaska as part of Top Four voting reforms in 2020.
“Alaska and Maine, interestingly, those two states are ones where independents have done particularly well,” says Richie. “We've had governors be elected in both states as independents, and they're states that were always on the reform radar.”
In 2024, ranked choice voting has moved off the radar and onto ballots in multiple states– as a stand alone reform in Oregon and as part of Top Four or Five election reforms in Nevada, Colorado and Idaho. In the same period, though, nearly a dozen GOP dominated state legislatures have outlawed RCV.
Does that make it critical for RCV to pass in multiple states this election year? Richie, now a Senior Advisor to Fairvote, thinks RCV has a logic and a momentum all its own aside from election results.
“Younger Americans, 50% of them do not identify with the major parties at this point,” says Richie. “So we’re going to get away from two choice politics and Ranked Choice Voting will be part of that. But whether it happens doesn't depend on November.”
Tune in to learn more about the first thirty years of RCV in the USA, from college campuses to city, town and county elections, and now to multiple state ballots in the same election cycle. And check out Fairvote.org for much more info on RCV.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
In 2020, Alaskans passed a first-in-the-nation voting system which helped energize similar reform efforts around the country. In 2024, Alaska voters are now presented with a ballot measure to repeal this same Final or “Top Four” system that includes a unified open primary of all candidates plus a ranked choice general election. Meanwhile, voters in Nevada, Idaho, Colorado and other states consider measures to pass major elements of the “Alaska model.”
This Purple Principle episode features discussion with election law expert and reform advocate Scott Kendall, a major catalyst behind “Top Four” in the frontier state. He explains the impetus behind the initial reform in terms of the perverse motivations elections have traditionally provided to candidates and elected representatives.
“We have set up a system that gives all the wrong incentives and then we're surprised when people act on those incentives,” says Kendall, a former chief of staff to independent Governor Bill Walker. “It's as though a teacher graded their students' success on how much they misbehaved in class. And we wanted to change that.”
By contrast, Republican state Senator Robert Myers stands in favor of the repeal effort, noting the longstanding Alaska tradition of forming bipartisan coalitions in the state legislature. “I think this a problem in search of a solution,” Myers told us at the 2024 Alaska State Fair. “The way it was passed… a lot of people voting for campaign finance changes didn't realize they were voting to put in a jungle primary and ranked choice voting general election.”
New System, Long Tradition?
Independent Alaska House Representatives Calvin Schrage and Rebecca Himschoot see the Top Four or Ranked Choice Voting system differently. They think it will preserve and strengthen Alaska’s less partisan, more pragmatic political tradition.
“Going door to door on my campaign, I'm also talking to voters a lot about the initiative,” says Schrage, the House Minority Leader representing parts of Anchorage. “I think returning to the old system further empowers extreme partisan individuals to choose candidates for us.”
Prior to election, Rep. Himschoot was a career educator with a window on family and community challenges in her historically low-income southeast Alaska district. She doubts she would have entered politics without the Top Four system. “It's a planetary test,” says Himschoot. “If we can keep open primaries and ranked choice voting, we have a chance at our state getting to a better place.”
Tune in for Part Two of this exploration of the frontiers of election reform. How did Alaska become the North Star for other reform efforts around the country? What seminal events laid the groundwork for Top Four passage in 2020 and a first full set of elections in 2022? And what are the issues surrounding potential repeal of Top Four or Ranked Choice Voting just four years after initial passage?
The Purple Principles is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
“The notion of getting rid of a closed primary system in Alaska appealed to me instantly,” says former Alaska House Speaker Bryce Edgmon who has represented Bristol Bay and parts of the Aleutian Islands for nearly two decades. “It overrode right there almost on the spot any trepidation I might have about having to rank candidates or anything else that would eventually become part of the ballot measure that narrowly passed in Alaska.”
Rep. Edgmon is referring to Alaska’s first-in-nation passage of a final or top four voting system with a unified open primary plus ranked choice general election. In this episode we examine the dynamics of the first state legislature in the country to have been elected by this system in 2022, even as a ballot measure to repeal the system has been put before Alaska voters in 2024.
We also discuss the dynamics of the Alaska legislature with Anchorage Daily News Reporter, Iris Samuels, and University of Alaska Southeast Political Science Professor, Dr. Glenn Wright.
“Alaska is fairly unique in that even before this election reform, we've had bipartisan and tri-partisan coalitions in the House and Senate,” says Samuels, who covers the Juneau State House. “But it has reinforced that phenomenon and made it possible for elected officials to envision doing that and not experience repercussions from within their party and from voters.”
“If you talk to incumbent politicians,” explains Dr. Wright, “ they will tell you that they're less concerned about the primary challenge now– that before the reform that was in the back of their mind. And they were thinking not about what do voters in my district want but what do party primary voters in my district want.”
AFL-CIO President Joelle Hall has also observed what might be a similar deepening of Alaska’s cross-partisan tendencies in the two years since passage of the top four reform.
“One of the ways that we are really different is that we have always come to a bipartisan coalition at the end of every decade,” observes Hall, a legislative lobbyist for nearly three decades. “Redistricting happens. Then slowly the two parties claw back to roughly even. So it's accelerated what is already a normal path in Alaska where we gravitate towards these coalitions.
But our final guest on this first of two Alaska episodes, Rep. Alyse Galvin of Anchorage, cautions that these post reform dynamics have not yet translated into legislative action. That’s partially because senior house leadership has blocked several bipartisan legislative efforts, while others were vetoed at the executive level.
“if we don't allow this to play out a bit more, I'd say one more cycle, maybe two,” says Galvin, previously a two time candidate for the US House, ”then we're really missing a big chance to get things done that will give Alaskans hope.”
Tune in for five different perspectives on the first legislature in the country elected by final or top four voting as citizens in four other US states (NV, ID, CO & MT) consider passing the Alaskan model for less divisive elections toward more collaborative governance.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
Election reform is officially on the ballot for voter approval in Colorado this year. This “Top Four” voting system is similar to the Alaska model of a unified open primary plus ranked choice general election. But there is a catch to this Colorado ballot measure, and it came via the state legislature in the final moments of the 2024 session.
“Well, the last couple of days of the legislative session are very hectic,” says Jeni Arndt, a three term Democratic House Member in Colorado before her election as non-partisan Mayor of Fort Collins. “And you don't know every amendment that you're voting on in the last few days. But this was clearly an orchestrated effort to put in a poison pill.”
The amendment in question requires at least 12 Colorado municipalities to pass and implement ranked choice voting elections before the state can do so. Thus it could delay citizen-will on this issue until at least 2028, even if voters overwhelmingly pass the initiative in November.
“When our legislature waits and passes a law with very little debate that no one basically really knew that that was in the bill,” says Republican State Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer, “that's wrong.”
Senator Kirkmeyer has not yet taken a position on the Top Four voting in Colorado. Both nationally and in Colorado her party has come out against any form of ranked choice voting. By contrast, Democratic opposition or concern around election reform has been more nuanced.
“I think the folks who brought the amendment, I've worked closely with them on lots of different things,” says Democratic Senator Chris Hansen, a former House Member and former candidate for Mayor in Denver. “I think they were trying to make sure there was not an implementation issue with ranked choice if that moves forward in November.”
Executive Director of Denver-based Unite America, Nick Troiano, is not so sure. He sees similar motivations behind both GOP and Democratic tactics in preventing or delaying these increasingly popular reform measures.
“The fact that they went out of their way in a midnight effort to try and undermine the people's will not only demonstrates the potential impact of this reform,” says Troiano, author of The Primary Solution. “But it also demonstrates the problem that we're trying to solve, which is politicians are largely in it for their self-interest.”
Was this Colorado amendment a self-interested poison pill or an effort to make RCV elections go smoothly once implemented? Tune in for three viewpoints on this question and make up your own independent mind.
And stay tuned for more upcoming episodes on the various ways party and legislative leaders in multiple states begin pushing back on nonpartisan election reform momentum in 2024, a potentially historic year for depolarizing ballot initiatives. It’s all part of our season long series on state and district level reform from Washington DC to Alaska with a record number of states in between, including Idaho, Nevada, South Dakota, Arizona, Oregon and now Colorado.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
“I've sat in rooms where we as Democrats have high-fived when a Libertarian party candidate gets into a competitive race,” recalls former Oregon House Speaker Dan Rayfield. “That's not democracy.”
“And Republicans high five when a Green Party candidate gets into the race,” says Rayfield, currently running for Attorney General in Oregon. “That's not democracy.”
Dan Rayfield is describing the spoiler effect of plurality voting, where a third party candidate with minimal support can determine the election outcome. Rayfield joined forces with Oregon-based campaign manager, Mike Alfoni, to do something about that spoiler effect. Namely, to promote ranked choice voting (RCV) first at the county and then the state level.
“I love the impossible, which is why I did this in the first place,” says Alfoni with reference to the legislature’s recent passage of RCV for state and federal elections. Oregon is the first state in the country to do so. “And because everyone told me we couldn't do this, and then we did it anyway.”
How did Rayfield and Alfoni blaze this Oregon trail for RCV? It took many years of patient effort in and outside the legislature, such as building a supporting network of community groups. And it took compromise, such as agreeing to remove state level legislature elections at the request of County Clerks.
Tune in to hear more about first-in-the-nation Oregon, the prospects there for citizen ballot passage in November, and whether this Oregon trail could be followed by other reform leaders and legislatures around the country seeking to depolarize our politics.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
In 2024, Nevada voters will see a ballot Question 3 strikingly similar to the question on Final Five voting that passed by 6 points back in 2022. That’s because a constitutional amendment must be passed by voters twice in succession, according to Nevada law.
And should voters approve Question 3 again this year, Nevada will become the second state (after Alaska) to implement this ambitious electoral voting reform system including a unified open primary and ranked choice general election.
“After we won,” recalls Cesar Marquez of Nevada’s first passage of Final Five Voting in 2022, “Sondra, Doug, and I and so many others, we felt, okay, we now have two years to talk about ranked choice voting.”
A former Tesla Engineer, Marquez is referring to his colleagues Doug Goodman of Nevadans for Election Reform and Dr. Sondra Cosgrove of Vote Nevada.
In this episode
We learn how Goodman, a retired military veteran, began working on election reform in the Silver State a decade ago. Initially, Goodman lobbied extensively for legislative action before pivoting to the ballot initiative process. He recalls:
“One of the questions I was posing to business leaders at the time was, if you had a more open electoral system, could that be a tiebreaker if a company was considering moving to Nevada?”
Sonda Cosgrove, a history professor at Southern Nevada College, soon joined Goodman in that effort. She had noticed an alarming and counterintuitive trend in her efforts at Vote Nevada. Yes, more voters were registering to vote. But they were not voting in larger numbers.
“And so we started realizing that they were being turned off right at the get-go in the primary,” says Cosgrove.” That's when.. .they were just kind of opting out.”
Marquez joined forces with Goodman and Cosgrove to place Final Five Voting on that 2022 ballot. But he came at political reform from a very different direction.
“The first thing I'll say is that I never liked politics, I still don't like politics,” admits Marquez. “ My background is in engineering, and I've worked in manufacturing for my whole career.”
What do a military veteran, academic historian and engineer turned reformer have in common?
Is ranked choice voting best demonstrated by a “rank the drink” event in English or “rank the taco” evening in Spanish?
The Purple Principles discusses these and other election reform questions in this latest episode of our season-long state election reform series. We began in Idaho then traveled to Washington DC, Alaska, South Dakota and Arizona, before landing here in Nevada.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
“Everybody likes to think about these reforms as being revolutionary,” says Paul Johnson, former Mayor of Phoenix, now Co-Chair of Make Elections Fair AZ, on the record number of state level election reforms in play this year. “They’re not. City governments have been doing these reforms for about 50 to 60 years.”
Johnson, a former Democrat turned Independent, is leading a third attempt at opening primary elections in Arizona to independent and unaffiliated voters through a 2024 citizen ballot initiative that also amends the state constitution to allow ranked choice general elections. He’s joined in this effort by GOP strategist Chuck Coughlin, a veteran of hundreds of candidate and issue campaigns in the Grand Canyon state and now treasurer at Make Elections Fair AZ.
“The very basis of our thinking is that if you're going to use taxpayer money to run an election,” says Coughlin, “you have to treat every voter the same. You have to treat every candidate the same. I mean, that is a principle part of our American jurisprudence and the way we govern ourselves.”
A Measured Approach
In this episode, we learn how Johnson and Coughlin initially hoped to pursue the Alaska election Final Five Voting model of a unified open primary plus ranked choice general election. Ultimately, they decided on a measured approach with higher probability of success.
“We did five statewide surveys trying to see if we could get that done, which would be a Final Five open primary, " says Coughlin. “I concluded in June of last year that that was not possible.... Paul and his colleagues came back and said, ‘Hey, we just want to do an open primary.’”
Listen to the episode as Chuck and Paul share the data behind their incremental approach to election reform.
Past Rivals Work Together
We also hear how two political rivals (Paul & Chuck) joined forces in advocating for more sensible elections and pragmatic representation in the highly polarized state of Arizona.
“I always liked to tease Chuck that the only job that he had in the governor's office was to destroy my career,” says Paul Johnson of two Gubernatorial campaign losses to candidates supported by Coughlin. “And he likes to tease me back, he did a pretty good job.”
Is this the year Arizona voters embrace the principle of treating all voters and candidates the same in their elections?
In fact, this Arizona amendment could precede further general election reform via the legislature or citizen ballot process. Opening party-run primaries could even happen in the near term.
Looking Ahead
This episode is part of our season-long non partisan election reform series. Previous episodes have visited Washington DC, Idaho and South Dakota. Upcoming episodes travel to Nevada, Colorado and Alaska.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
“I like to say the stars are aligned for open primaries right now,” says South Dakota Open Primaries Director Joe Kirby. “I think there’s a realization that closed primaries simply don’t make sense when you’re in a single party state.”
“I also think that Open Primaries will foster a more representative and functional government,” adds De Knudson, former Sioux Falls City Councilor and Co-Director of “Amendment H” - an effort to create a single unified primary of all candidates from which the top two advance to the general election. This 2024 South Dakota measure is more modest than reforms advanced by the same team eight years ago which failed by ten points on Election Day.
“We learned a valuable lesson in 2016,” admits Kirby, a business entrepreneur also involved in political reform efforts for three decades. “We tried to do two things at once. We tried to bring open primaries to South Dakota at the same time we tried to remove party labels.”
In this episode, John Opdycke, Founder and President of the national organization Open Primaries, explains why the 2024 crop of non-partisan election reforms is more robust and more diverse.
“Part of what I think is so healthy is that the national groups are saying, Hey, let us show you our research, let us show you what this looks like from up looking down,” says Opdycke, one of the nation’s foremost experts on election reform. “And the local people say, great, that's really helpful. Let us show you what our local polling looks like. Let us show you what our political culture looks like.”
For Joe Kirby, De Knudson and many other supporters, Amendment H is an effort to turn away from political extremism and divisiveness and back toward traditional South Dakota values.
“I really love South Dakota,” says Knudson. “I care lots about government. I just knew that I didn't have a choice. I had to give this one more shot, and I really am confident that we will win this on November 5th.”
Tune in to find out more about the 2024 South Dakota open primaries initiative– past lessons learned and prospects for passage this year.
This episode is part of our season long series on state level non partisan election reform ballot measures in 2024– from Washington DC to Alaska with numerous states in between– Idaho, Nevada, Colorado, South Dakota, and, next up, Arizona.
With a record number of state level reforms this year, stay tuned to see if the stars align in South Dakota and on a national level.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
In this bonus episode we revisit the vast nation-sized state of Alaska, model for election reform in numerous states around the country even as that voting system of an open, unified primary plus instant runoff general election faces a potential 2024 recall ballot measure back in the frontier state.
The Purple Principle has made three previous audio visits to Alaska, arguably our least partisan, most indy-minded state with 60% of voters choosing not to register with either major party. We first revisit our initial Alaska episode from the fall of 2020 to learn how campaign manager, Shea Siegert, was persuaded to take on that challenge by his own family’s enthusiasm for non-partisan voting reform.
“I was having a conversation with my mother who lives in Boise, Idaho the other day,” Siegert confides. “And she said, every time I look at the news, I think about your ballot measure. And it just makes more and more sense.”
Next we hear from independent Alaska House Member Calvin Schrage in the fall of 2022 as the Alaska voting model is put to the test for the first time. That election produced a pragmatic split ticket outcome with reelection of conservative governor Mike DunLeavey, moderate indy-minded US Senator Lisa Murkowski, and the pragmatic centrist House Democrat, Mary Peltola.
Our recent season four discussion with Native Alaskan Mary Peltola completes our trek across three episodes, highlighted by the advice she received some years before upon election to the Alaska state legislature.
“So when I was first elected, I was in my mid-twenties and I imagined, like most people do, that I was going to Juneau to fight, to fight against our enemies and fight for my district,” Peltola tells us. “And when I got there, one of my colleagues told me you have to have 59 best friends if you want to accomplish anything.”
Tune in to find out how Rep. Peltola broke bread across the political aisles in this bonus episode with Alaska-related insights from Katherine Gehl, architect of Final Five Voting, Eric Bronner of Veterans for All Voters, as well as Doug Goodman of Nevadans for Better Elections and Lisa Rice of Make All Votes Count DC, both of whom have looked to Alaska as a model for their own reform efforts.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. -
It was nearing summer temperatures on this early June primary voting day outside a polling station in Washington, DC. Lisa Rice, official Proposer of Initiative 83, is wearing a sandwich board with the message, “Ask Me Why I Can’t Vote Today?” “Why can’t you vote today?” asks a woman on her way to vote. “Because I’m an independent,” Lisa replies. “ I'm not affiliated with the Democratic party or the Republican party and we're barred from voting in the primary…”
“All day people came up to me and asked at every polling place,” Lisa tells us in this extended episode introducing several members of the Make All Votes Count DC team. “So people definitely wanted to know why and it was great conversations all day long.”
We also meet Philip Pannell, Make All Vote Votes Count Treasurer, on this episode. A long time Democratic Party official and activist, Philip was widely recognized at the Capital Pride Parade where we met him. Yet despite his storied credentials, Philip’s encountered no small amount of negative reaction to his support for Initiative 83 from longtime Democratic Party colleagues.
“Independents are pretty much left out of the decision making because all the action is pretty much in the Democratic Party,” Philip tells us, adding he still believes the Democratic party is the best vehicle for opportunity and justice. “They like to say that if you want to participate in our primary, you have to be a Democrat. That's not forward of thinking, that's not bringing more people in.”
Kenyatta Smith is a District Outreach Coordinator for the predominantly African American areas in East D.C, where gentrification creates added challenges for Initiative 83 outreach. “I want to keep it black too,” Kenyatta confides. “I want us to be in power still. I feel strongly about that. But I also want to challenge my community to educate themselves on something new.”
Meet these and other members of the Make All Votes Count DC team this episode, another in our series on the record number of non-partisan election reform initiatives in play for the 2024 election. And learn how leadership and teamwork have come together behind the Initiative 83 effort, now in its final stages of signature collection for the November 2024 Washington DC voter ballot.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests:
From Make All Votes Count DC: Lisa D. T. Rice (Proposer of Ballot Initiative 83), Philip Pannell (Treasurer), Kenyatta Smith (District Coordinator), Miguel Deramo (Steering Committee Member), and Nate Roseboro (Volunteer Petitioner).
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Make All Votes Count DC social media accounts:
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Additional Resources / Fact Checking:
Ballotpedia – Initiative 83
Wikipedia – Initiative 83
Party affiliation among adults in the Washington, DC metro area. Pew Research Center (2014).
About Us. Make All Votes Count DC.
Registrant Disclosure for Make All Votes Count DC. The District of Columbia - Office of Campaign Finance E-Filing.
End Taxation Without Representation Tags. DC Department of Motor Vehicles.
Phillip Pannell, Longtime LGBTQIA+ Activist, Leader, Emphasizes Continued Advocacy for Local Communities. Washington Informer. -
In April of 2024, Luke Mayville, co-founder of the grassroots organization ReClaim Idaho, addressed volunteers on the final day of signature gathering for this year’s Open Primaries and Final Four Voting ballot initiative.
“We are here today because we are tired of playing the same old game under a broken set of rules,” Luke told the 50 or so volunteers gathered in Boise’s IvyWild Park that morning.
“The root of the problem,” Mayville stated, “ is the fact that there are 270,000 independent voters who are blocked from voting in the most important primary elections. And the root of the problem is that we don't even have competitive general elections.”
Continuing our Purple Principle (TPP) series on the record number of nonpartisan state-level election reform efforts in 2024, this episode profiles the coalition working to advance Idaho’s Open Primary initiative. The initiative is patterned in part after the Alaska “Final Four Voting” model first proposed by Katherine Gehl, author, business leader, and TPP guest earlier this season.
Margaret Kinzel of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, or MWEG, represents another important member of this non-partisan coalition. “ One of the things that helped me sign on to being active in this effort was hearing how many of our races are uncontested in the 2022 election,” Margaret explains. “Nine of the 38 districts, the race for state senator and the two-state representatives were uncontested. So you had no choice to vote for; you either voted for the candidate or you didn't.”
Retired Attorney General and former Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice, Jim Jones, is another important coalition leader. “After the 2022 Alaska election, “Jones explains, “ it appeared to me that this was the answer to Idaho's problem because we had gotten so involved in culture wars, and the culture warriors were essentially picked by the Republican Party, which had been taken over by extremists.”
Tune in to learn more about the Idaho coalition that collected and submitted over 90 thousand signatures toward election reform in a largely conservative state and meet coalition leaders Luke Mayville (Reclaim Idaho), Margaret Wentzl (Mormon Women for Ethical Government) and former Idaho Supreme Court Justice Jim Jones.
Sometimes a village is not enough and it takes a broad coalition to take on “a broken election system.”
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests:
Luke Mayville, Co-founder Reclaim Idaho. Margaret Kinzel, Co-Liasson, Mormon Women For Ethical Government. Jim Jones, Former Attorney General Idaho.
Join Us for Premium Content:
Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple
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Find us online!
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Resources:
https://www.reclaimidaho.org/
https://www.mormonwomenforethicalgovernment.org/
https://idahocapitalsun.com/author/jim-jones/
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/05/01/having-exceeded-goal-idaho-open-primary-supporters-submit-final-signatures-for-verification/
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/04/24/idaho-open-primary-supporters-make-final-push-before-may-1-deadline/
https://sos.idaho.gov/elect/primary_elections_in_idaho.html
https://represent.us/2024-campaigns/idaho-final-four-voting/
https://store.hbr.org/product/the-politics-industry-how-political-innovation-can-break-partisan-gridlock-and-save-our-democracy/10367
https://sos.idaho.gov/elect/stcon/article_I.html#:~:text=All%20men%20are%20by%20nature,POWER%20INHERENT%20IN%20THE%20PEOPLE
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/05/23/almost-24-of-idahos-registered-voters-voted-in-primary-election-initial-estimates-show/ -
Katherine Gehl, co-author of The Politics Industry and Founder of The Institute for Political Innovation, has always asked herself what she needed “to do in order to change the political situation.”
“So at first I needed to sell my business,” Katherine tells us. “Then I needed to make the intellectual case.. And then I needed to try to sell this reform to people. It just went like that.”
Today, in 2024, after many years of effort and adaptation, Katherine Gehl’s Final Four or Final Five voting initiatives are now poised to be on the ballot in another four states (Nevada, Idaho, Montana and Colorado) having passed in Alaska back in 2020, which then held the first such election in 2022.
Katherine recounts that in the time she’s been working on these reforms, “going all the way back to 2013, but really trying to raise money actively since 2015, the reception has changed dramatically.”
In this episode, which launches our extended series on 2024 election reform initiatives, we’ll learn how non-partisan, competition-based election reform has gained traction among donors, reformers and voters alike. We’ll also get a better understanding of how her institute and action fund “catalyze” grassroots leaders in reform-minded states, such the former Idaho Attorney General Jim Jones and Reclam Idaho founder Luke Mayhew.
“The combination of someone like Luke with Jim Jones is a bit of a dream that you could put that together,” Katherine recounts, while also detailing emerging efforts in Colorado and Montana and the second ballot initiative in Nevada this cycle as required by the state constitution.
Will this be the year Final Five Voting moves onto the national stage and transforms the incentives of elected officials in these pathbreaking states?
Tune in to learn more from Katherine Gehl, co-author of The Politics Industry (with Harvard Business School Professor, Michael Porter) and a central catalyst in the nation’s growing non-partisan election reform movement.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guest:
Katherine Gehl, Reform Strategist & Founder, The Institute for Political Innovation (IPI)
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Resources:
Institute for Political Innovation
https://hbr.org/2020/07/fixing-u-s-politics
https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_election_results,_2022
https://www.uniteamericainstitute.org/research/alaskas-election-model-how-the-top-four-nonpartisan-primary-system-improves-participation-competition-and-representation
https://store.hbr.org/product/the-politics-industry-how-political-innovation-can-break-partisan-gridlock-and-save-our-democracy/10367
https://www.veteransforallvoters.org/
https://ballotpedia.org/Nevada_Question_3,_Top-Five_Ranked-Choice_Voting_Initiative_(2022)
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/after-restructuring-is-nevada-ranked-choice-ballot-measure-ready-for-election
https://vote.nyc/page/ranked-choice-voting
https://www.rcvmontana.org/petition
https://rcvforcolorado.org/
https://idahocapitalsun.com/author/jim-jones/
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/05/01/having-exceeded-goal-idaho-open-primary-supporters-submit-final-signatures-for-verification/
https://www.reclaimidaho.org/
https://www.reclaimidaho.org/medicaid
https://kentthiry.com/about/
https://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming/rankedchoicefaq.html
https://idahocapitalsun.com/2024/03/11/proposed-constitutional-amendment-to-block-ranked-choice-voting-fails-in-idaho-house/
https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/01/wisconsin-republican-voting-senate-assembly-legislation-bill-watch/ -
“The Presidential race might get thrown into the House of Representatives,” says Dr. Sam Wang of the Princeton Gerrymandering Initiative in this episode. “And in the House of Representatives, every state gets one vote.” Both a neuroscientist and recognized authority on gerrymandering, Wang is highlighting the connection between partisan gerrymanders in states throughout the country and following on effects at the national level in the US House but potentially also the White House. “And certainly when I’ve done cases involving congressional delegations, a piece of it is the one Sam mentioned,” echoes Paul Smith, Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. “Who’s going to control the delegation for this particularly unusual house resolution of presidential elections?”In this two-guest episode, we’ll discuss the strategies behind partisan gerrymanders and the leading defenses against them. These include lawsuits argued by Paul Smith and other litigators and the establishment of independent redistricting commissions at the state level.“A well-crafted citizens commission that's non-partisan is always going to do a more fair and balanced job than a partisan legislature,” says Smith, citing the cases of California and Michigan. “Right now, we’re stuck playing small ball, getting small things locally like, say, rank choice voting or redistricting reform,” explains Sam Wang, whose gerrymandering report cards are often cited in legal cases. “The long game is to start implementing some of the bigger reforms and repairs.”Tune in for two informed views on how the tide is turning against partisan gerrymandering in critical states like Wisconsin and how plugging the gerrymander leak in one state prevents even more significant problems at the national level. The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney. SHOW NOTESOur Guests:Sam Wang, Founder & Director, Princeton Gerrymandering Project.Paul Smith, Senior Vice President Campaign Legal Center. Join Us for Premium Content:Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApplePatreon: patreon.com/purpleprinciplepodcastFind us online!Twitter: @purpleprinciplFacebook: @thepurpleprinciplepodcastYoutube: @thepurpleprinciple Our website: https://bit.ly/2ZCpFaQSign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja Resources: https://campaignlegal.org/https://gerrymander.princeton.edu/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/11/09/house-democrats-got-more-votes-than-house-republicans-yet-boehner-says-hes-got-a-mandate/https://history.house.gov/Institution/Election-Statistics/https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_Congressional_elections_results,_2012https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2012/results/house.htmlnpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-says-federal-courts-dont-have-a-role-in-deciding-partisan-gerrymandering-claims/2019/06/27/2fe82340-93ab-11e9-b58a-a6a9afaa0e3e_story.htmlhttps://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/initiative-and-referendum-stateshttps://www.michigan.gov/micrc/about/meet-the-commissionershttps://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-constitution/section-11.1https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/us/redistricting-map-utah-salt-lake-city.htmlhttps://apnews.com/article/utah-redistricting-3cb3fb05e7253f3ec3d26749138bea9ehttps://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/01/wisconsin-supreme-court-rejects-democrats-congressional-redistricting-challenge-00144529
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The 700-plus attendees at the 2024 Principles First Summit in Washington DC come from various locations and backgrounds yet attended this event for similar political reasons: all are concerned about authoritarian trends within today’s GOP.
Blaire Egan, for example, had been questioning her GOP political orientation since interning on Capitol Hill for a Republican legislator. Jeff Mayhew points to congressional gridlock, especially within the US House, as a major obstacle to functional, representative government. Mike Cantwell has long been a politically engaged military veteran working on election reform, among other issues, from an independent perspective.
These are a few of the many attendees Producer Alex Couraud interviewed at this year’s Summit, held the same weekend as the Trump-dominated CPAC. Tune in to this season four episode to move beyond simplistic labels of red vs. blue, Republican vs. Democrat, and learn about various efforts looking to shore up American democracy at this difficult time.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production—original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guests:
Jeff Mayhugh, Blair Egan, Liam Kerr, and Mike Cantwell
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Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja -
“I’m still in it to hold a mirror up to my GOP colleagues,” former RNC Chair Michael Steele tells us in this episode. “To show them how unLincolnlike they have become.”
Michael Steele has borne painful witness to that transformation over the past two-plus decades as the first African American Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, then RNC Chair in 2009-2011, as well as US Senate Candidate.
Steele may have been one of the first prominent Republicans to push back on the populist redirection of the party back in 2009 when he tussled with popular right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh over who led the Republican party.
“It did say a lot about a base that had become very animated and defensively protective,” Steele recalls of the pushback from that episode, including a drop in RNC fundraising.
Steele reexamines that moment in recent GOP history and reflects on a GOP today that, in his view, has turned its back on conservative principles of personal liberty and freedom, and also long-held Republican positions on US foreign policy.
“Reagan is probably looking at their dance with Putin, Orban and others, going: who are these people?”
Join us for an informed, concerned discussion with Michael Steele, now an MSNBC host and commentator, on why Americans need to stay civically engaged despite the political theatrics of this 2024 election year and our current political era.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production; original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guest
Micheal Steele, MSNCB Political Analyst, Former RNC Chairman, and Former Lt. Gov, (Maryland). Twitter.
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Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja -
“I'm the only candidate that was Head of the DEA, that was in charge of border security in the Bush administration, governor for eight years,” says our featured guest, Asa Hutchinson.
Yet despite possessing perhaps the most impressive resume among GOP presidential candidates, Hutchinson failed to receive substantial media attention or garner significant support from Iowa caucus goers.
There's just so much happening in his world that you have to say is newsworthy,” says Hutchinson of Trumpian media attention. It's hard to get any other message out.”
Hutchinson also speaks to the possibility of a significant third-party candidacy for president in 2024, such as from the bipartisan group, No Labels.
“Right now you’ve got two major parties that are giving Americans what they don't want– “They don't want another Biden Trump rematch,” says Hutchinson. “So I think there is a potential for a third-party candidacy this year”.
Full episode are available on our website (purpeprinciple.com), on YouTube with video highlights, and on all major streaming apps.
The Purple Principle is Fluent Knowledge Production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guest
Asa Hutchinson, 2024 POTUS Candidate, Gov. Arkansas (2015-2023), US House Rep. (R-AK) 2001-2003. Hutchinson’s Twitter.
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Youtube: @thepurpleprinciple -
“I had been a conservative critic of mainstream media bias for many years,” says author and MSNBC columnist, Charlie Sykes, a “contrarian conservative” and our featured guest. “It suddenly occurred to me that we had succeeded in not just critiquing the liberal bias, but in destroying the credibility of fact-based media altogether.”
Sykes is the author of the notable 2017 book, How the Right Lost Its Mind. Within our interview, as in the book, he is unsparing of himself and other traditional conservatives for paving the way for MAGA populism. Yet he emphasizes there is still some degree of factionalism within the GOP.
A sizable number of these more traditionally conservative Republicans were in attendance at the 2024 Principles First Summit in Washington DC, where we spoke with Sykes. Held the same weekend as the feverishly pro-Trump CPAC event a few miles away, this year’s Summit included appearances by Adam Kinzinger, Alyssa Farah Griffin, and Cassady Hutchinson.
There are more than 700 people,” Sykes observes.” And you look at the panels, the people who are speaking, they represent some of the most prominent conservatives, influential conservatives of just the past few decades.”
Join us for this conversation with contrarian conservative, Charlie Sykes, author of How the Right Lost Its Mind and MSNBC columnist.
The Purple Principle is a Fluent Knowledge production. Original music by Ryan Adair Rooney.
SHOW NOTES
Our Guest
Charlie Sykes, MSNBC Columnist. Author of How The Right Lost Its Mind. Sykes’s book, and Twitter.
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Apple: https://link.chtbl.com/PurpleApple
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Twitter: @purpleprincipl
Youtube: @ThePurplePriniple
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Sign up for our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UfFSja - Visa fler
