What does closed primary get you? Idaho politicians who are happy to blow off voters | Opinion
U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher is happy to blow off his opponents — Democrat Kaylee Peterson, Libertarian Matt Loesby and Brendan Gomez of the Constitution Party — as longtime political commentator Chuck Malloy noted this week in a column about Fulcher’s decision not to participate in debates.
“We monitor these things closely, and there is no objective metric of a viable campaign,” Fulcher told Malloy.
What a weak excuse.
Let’s grant Fulcher that his opponents are in a very weak electoral position. Let’s grant him that he’s destined for victory, whether he debates or not. Let’s grant Fulcher that if for some reason he was unable to stand for election at the last minute, whatever fill-in with an “R” behind their name would also almost certainly win. Given all of that, he should still participate in debates.
He should explain his policy positions and his vision for the country.
He should answer for his record.
Why won’t he?
“To sign up for a debate would be the single largest contribution they would have, and I’m not in the business of campaigning for my opponents,” Fulcher told Malloy. “I’m not afraid to debate, but I’m not stupid either. They’re going to have to do their own campaigning.”
It’s not possible to miss the point any more than this. Fulcher doesn’t owe his opponents a debate — he owes Idaho voters.
But under Idaho’s current election system, Fulcher and other top Republicans have increasingly been opting out of debates because they’ve learned that they can simply ignore the voters.
In a democracy, voters are supposed to be the boss. In Idaho, they’re window dressing.
Candidates don’t have to clearly state their views to voters so that voters can hold them accountable. They don’t have to listen to questions from voters. They don’t have to defend their record in front of voters. They don’t have to demonstrate to voters whether they retain their mental agility.
This is the world of the closed primary, where Democrats don’t matter, independents don’t matter — and Republican voters don’t matter much either. Not enough for candidates to spare an hour of their time, anyway.
It’s a world where incumbents are happy to kick their feet up and relax because the election is nearly over before it starts.
Our democracy is broken. And it won’t be fixed until everyone’s vote matters in every election — until candidates are sufficiently worried about what voters will do that they feel accountable to them.
That won’t happen until the closed primary ends.