Thread: CA. Backers of new political party hope ‘Common Sense’ prevails

Column: Backers of new political party hope ‘Common Sense’ prevails

[People trying to create a new political party believe hyperpartisan politics in California will make their pitch appealing to voters looking for a different way.
(Union-Tribune file photo)


An effort to create another political party in California has signed up 10,000 people, but the bar to become official and relevant is high

By MICHAEL SMOLENS COLUMNIST
SEP. 25, 2019 5 AM

Is it time for Common Sense in politics?

Julie Meier Wright and a growing list of some 10,000 California voters think so. Wright is the former head of the San Diego Economic Development Corp. and served as Gov. Pete Wilson’s secretary of trade and commerce in the 1990s. She’s on the ground floor of the movement to create the Common Sense Party.

Getting a political party established is a huge undertaking, and making it relevant is an even higher hurdle. The history of third party dreams is littered with disappointment.

With virtually all of the focus on the Democratic and Republican parties, it’s easy to forget that California has four other official political parties, which rarely have electoral impact: the American Independent Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party, and Peace and Freedom Party.

But Wright and others, including former five-term Congressman Tom Campbell, who serves as chair of Common Sense, believe their would-be party’s fact-based, problem-solving approach and pledge for inclusiveness will make it an appealing alternative, particularly in the current political climate they say is overwhelmed by dogma.

“The mindless partisanship is permeating government at all levels,” she said. ". . . I think that people are exhausted and they’re looking for a place to go where things are calm and focused on getting things done about the problems they care about.”

For now, the fledgling party largely eschews ideology beyond a general notion of being socially moderate, fiscally responsible and supportive of election reforms that include open, nonpartisan primaries. Once the party is established, the leaders will look to the membership to further develop philosophy and platform.

But the first order of business is to become a recognized party by the state of California, which takes some doing. The Common Sense Party must collect 67,000 valid signatures of registered voters willing to become members. The goal is to reach this threshold next year, with the focus on participating in the 2022 election.


“I was thrilled we got 10,000 so quickly,” Wright said. The party said it gathered those signatures in just over a week, according to the Independent Voter News website.

The party has held an organizing meeting and elected temporary officers — requirements of the state’s qualification process, according to the California Secretary of State’s Office. In addition to Campbell, Debbie Benray, communications director of San Diego-based IVC Media, serves as vice chair.

Wright and Campbell are longtime friends and had discussed the potential for a new political organization for some time. They are among the founders of the Common Sense Party.

There has been a growing belief in some political circles that California may be fertile ground for a new, centrist political party. The sharp partisan divide is one thing, but that’s something present in most states across the nation. In California, there’s a severe political imbalance. Democrats have a monopoly on state government, where the party commands supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature, and there hasn’t been a Republican statewide officeholder in more than a decade.

“That party does a lot of good things, but I think the robust debate of different points of view is missing,” said Wright, who like Campbell is a former Republican who re-registered as a nonpartisan years ago.

Significantly, there has been a surge of independent voters. The California GOP has suffered a steady drain of members for years and Republicans are now third in the number of registered voters behind the Democrats and voters choosing “no political preference.”

The Common Sense website highlights statistics that suggest Californians may be willing to give a new party a shot. Sixty-one percent of Californians say a third party is needed, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. Democrats dominate state politics, but 57 percent of registered voters belong to other parties or have no political party preference.

“Look, the major two parties have not served California well,” Campbell, who also served as state finance director, says in a video posted on the Common Sense website. “They seem more intent on fighting each other than on reaching common-sense solutions to our problems. We’re the party for the rest of us.”

At least at the start, the new party expects to focus on district-level campaigns, such as for the Legislature and Congress, and not statewide offices. The party also will be open to endorsing “common sense” Democrats or Republicans.

An essentially nonpartisan organization dedicated to achieving data-driven solutions may seem like an appealing refuge for voters in these times. But political realities are still stacked against any new party, regardless of focus.

Garry South is a longtime Democratic consultant in California who managed the 1998 and 2002 campaigns of Gov. Gray Davis. In a column published by the Los Angeles Times earlier this year, he laid out arguments as to why he doesn’t think a viable third party will happen in California:

• Most “independents” really aren’t. PPIC polls regularly show that most independents lean toward Democrats or Republicans, meaning true independents are a fraction of the voters. Further, polling shows that the majority identify as liberal or conservative — “only four in 10 view themselves as ideologically middle-of-the-road. Not exactly the makings of a centrist third way.”
• Most no-party-preference voters register that way because they don’t want to be affiliated with any political party. As registration statistics show, being “independent” (or NPP) has considerable currency. (Voter registration during last November’s election: 43.5 percent Democrats, 27.5 NPP, 24 percent Republican, 5 percent other parties.)
• Independents don’t tend to be as politically engaged as party members and may have too many differences on issues to join forces.

“I doubt these voters — some of whom are first-time registrants but most of whom are dropouts from the Democratic Party or Republican Party — have enough in common to coalesce into a third party,” South wrote.

Even if a party gets created, it’s a long haul to build an organization that has real influence. Then there’s the matter of swimming in the same water as everybody else.

“I am confident that we will stay above the swamp created by partisan politics,” Wright said. “I truly believe people are hungering for a party that is open, responsible and focused on getting things done.”

Perhaps. But growing an effective party structure in a state like California will take big money, and sometimes that brings big problems to politics.

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...sense-prevails

Of the 19,696,371 California voters registered for the November 6, 2018, general election:^[3]

• 43.5% were Democrats

• 24.0% were Republicans

• 5.0% were affiliated with other political parties

• 27.5% were unaffiliated ("Decline to State" or
• "No Party Preference") voters