With the legislature set to debate the status of the primaries starting tomorrow, Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser leaves no doubt as to where he stands on the whole thing – if it was up to him, he’d scrap the closed primaries altogether and go back to open primaries. Nungesser says closed primaries are a major reason why the political climate in this country is as bad as it’s ever been.
“The rhetoric is so horrible on both sides. What better way to try to bring this country together, to where you’ve got to be a little nicer if you’ve got to rely on everybody who could vote for you,” Nungesser said.
Nungesser says whereas open primaries yield a more representative government, closed primaries usually leave general election voters a choice between two extremists.
“When you’ve got a red district, and all you’ve got to do is get the primary support, and in the general election you got to choose between usually the far right and the far left, the people in the middle are left out,” Nungesser noted.
Nearly every state in the country has party primaries for federal offices; California, Washington and Alaska are the only states in which all candidates of all parties appear on the same ballot. Nungesser says if all states followed their lead, the rhetoric would be toned down considerably on Capitol Hill, and things would actually get done for the benefit of the American people.
“If there was open primary for all states, I think the government would go back to work. So Democrats would be able to vote with Republican and vice versa, at times when they believe it’s in the best interest of the country,” Nungesser said.
Nungesser says more than 70% of Louisianans favor open primaries, and the legislature should listen to them and scrap the closed primaries.
