I haven't yet commented on the big changing of the guard at the Register, with Kathie Obradovich taking over the old Yepsen job. But once she was up and flying, it only took me a couple days.
Obradovich replies to reader responses to her first column, ans one reader writes:
I was troubled by your comment “I skip the primaries and register as no-party.” In my opinion the primaries are the most important part of the election process.
Obradovich responds:
The primaries are important and I plan to pay a lot of attention to the winnowing process and encourage voters to do likewise. What I plan to avoid is registering as a Republican or Democrat, which is required to actually cast a ballot in a primary.
I don’t like having to refrain, but as a journalist I choose to give up some opportunities for direct participation in order to avoid sending mixed signals about my party preferences.
It's that kind of self-disenfranchisement, opting out of primaries in a journalistic form of priestly celibacy, that was Yepsen's tradition, a tradition that's clearly continuing. That was also what led me to quit journalism in the first place in 1992, staying out of the business until a new paradigm grew and pulled me back. But to each her own.
But Obradovich continues:
Most voters can switch parties or return to no-party status after a primary without having to explain it.
As I noted at great length last week, if you're not a Democrat, you shouldn't choose the Democrat's candidates. If you're not a Republican, you shouldn't choose the Republican's candidates. On this point Obradovich and I find both agreement and disagreement: she opts out of primaries herself, yet condones "switching back."
It's fully within your legal rights, of course, but if you're asking "how soon can I switch back" when you're getting your primary ballot, you shouldn't be voting in that primary in the first place.
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