Preprimaries in New Mexico:  Out of Date Dinosaurs?

Part I

The pre-primary party convention and straw vote was instituted in New Mexico with bipartisan support during the late 1970s.  It was abandoned during the 1980s, and then reinstated again.  The original argument for instituting the practice was sound, and it had the desired effect for many years.

Background:  during the 1970s single-issue causes--the environment, abortion, gun control, affirmative action for minority groups and women, etc.--began to grow in popularity in American politics.  Single-issue advocates tended to be more focused, more passionate, and more capable of raising money for their followers.  They also tended to embed themselves in one of the two major parties.  This created a good deal of mischief against the interests of party leaders, who were more concerned about winning elections rather than being ideologically pure on various issues.

Pro-choice advocates for women in the 1970s, for example, tended to identify as Democrats.  Their passion, activism, and access to funding often gave them an edge in primary elections, resulting in disproportionate numbers of pro-choice candidates within the Party.  But their positions were stronger than those of the public at large.  Political consultants quickly learned they could successfully brand the Democratic candidate as hopelessly out of touch with common folk on this issue in the general election, raising the probabilities the Republican candidate would win.  These "wedge issues"--issues popular within one party, but not so among general election voters--soon became the battleground in many elections.  The personal qualities of candidates and their skill in campaigning and fund-raising remained important factors in determining an election, but wedge issues were increasingly important, and media attention tended to make sure voters understood these.

This was not welcome news to leaders in the two major parties, where the game of politics was to find candidates who could credibly claim to represent the moderate middle, the "big tent," in the general election, where they had a better chance of winning.

At that time party leaders in each party--those who attended party meetings and got themselves elected as delegates to party conventions--tended to be big tent advocates, hoping to recruit candidates with moderate views on most everything--bland, possibly, but winnable candidates.  But party leaders found themselves often losing a general election race because the candidate was in the extreme wing of a wedge issue, and vulnerable to attacks from the middle or opposite side.  

In New Mexico the pre-primary convention, which gave candidates winning the straw vote the advantage of being first on the primary ballot, was designed specifically to lessen the influence of single-issue candidates and strengthen the hand of political leadership in both parties.  Active party members--far more experienced in finding ways of winning elections--would form the bulk of delegates voting in the straw poll.  In selecting candidates for the favored No. 1 spot they would be more likely to vote for candidates who could win in November, rather than candidates whose views might be popular among fellow partisans, but not necessarily among the voting population at large, including independents, in the November elections.  And--this is a critical point--to the extent voters trusted their party leaders, the Número Uno designation, the party's choice, would serve as a strong insider cue to uninformed voters who to vote for.

At first, the pre-primary process had the desired effect.  Those candidates who were first on the ballot tended to be more moderate, and hence electable, in their views, reflecting the wisdom of experienced party leaders.  And they were proven to have a better chance of winning in a primary race if they were No. 1 on the ballot.  So far so good.  Party leaders were happy, their power now enhanced.  And moderate candidates tended to win in both parties.

Stay Tuned for Part II:  Why Toney Anaya did away with pre-primaries