Political Dilemma

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Last week, I began walking door-to-door in my precinct, and I finally met someone I have been hearing about all my political life: A Democrat registered as a Republican so that she can vote in Republican primaries.

I was told about such people when I first became active in Democratic politics in 1988 in Somerset County, New Jersey. Somerset County at that time was the third richest county in the country. It was home to estates owned by Jacqueline Onassis, the king of Morocco, and Malcolm Forbes, among others.

There had been no Democratic member of the County Board of Chosen Freeholders since the days of Lyndon Johnson. Most of the state legislators from the districts including part of the county were Republicans, and the two Democrats were anti-choice and fairly conservative. Both of them were replaced by Republicans during the time I was active.

In other words, the Republican candidate on the ballot in November was sure to be the winner of the race. The only voters who had a say in who would be their representative at the county or state level were the people who voted in the Republican primary. Many Democrats, we were told, registered as Republicans in order to vote in those primaries.

But I never met one, probably because I didn't do a lot of door-to-door canvassing. It was something everyone there pooh-poohed as old hat, no longer effective. The secret to winning elections at that level, they thought, was to send out more and better mailings, which meant more and better fundraising.

Obviously, many Democratic candidates here in Sedgwick County have proven them wrong. For example, in 2006, Terry McLachlan was out-spent by his opponent, but he walked his district, identified his voters, and mobilized them to turn out and vote. He won by 51 votes. Terry was ill during the 2008 election and couldn't walk as much. He lost by 52 votes. It is said that Raj Goyle walked his district three times in 2006 and he beat Bonnie Huy by a large margin.

But what to do about this woman who was registered as a Republican but voted Democratic? I will mark the information in my part of the database provided by the state party so that the eventual candidate in my district will know to treat her as a Democrat, but that begs a larger question. If there is a Republican primary in my state house or senate district, do I want her to vote for the candidate I think will be the better legislator or do I want her to vote for the candidate who will be easier for the Democratic candidate to beat in the general election?

In some cases, the answer to those questions will be the same person. The person who holds the opinions close to mine will be the person that Republican voters will be less invested in and therefore will be less likely to turn out for, meaning that high Democratic turnout will be able to beat low Republican turnout.

But in other cases, the opposite will be true. The person easier to beat will be the more conservative candidate, because he or she is too far "out there" and will turn off all but the most ardent Republicans. A good example would be a candidate from the John Birch Society. The other candidate, however, although still staunchly conservative, might make decisions from a perspective closer to the middle, but not close enough to be decisions I want to see coming from my legislator.

Do I want her to vote for the John Bircher, giving the Democratic candidate a better chance of winning? Or do I want her to vote for the more rational conservative, keeping the John Bircher out of the running but making it more difficult for the Democratic candidate to win?

In other words, do I want her to vote like a moderate Republican or like a Democratic spoiler? I don't know, which is one reason I'm not a registered Republican.

What would you do?
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