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TanzPunk's avatar

Fascinating to read this history from my former political stomping grounds (Franklin and Benton Counties / 9th LD). I moved back to the state of my youth in 2008 and got officially politically active with the local Democrats a few years after the events you described here, so I didn't have much awareness of the history of the Top 2 and brief life of RCV. I was the chair of the Franklin County DCC for a time and ran for State Legislature 2.5 times, begrudgingly as affiliating with the Dems after recognizing an Independent run was a non-starter. I resigned after winning the 3rd primary I never wanted to be in mid-pandemic 2020, then immediately put nearly 3,000 miles of physical distance between myself and the party of dysfunction and infighting to ensure my escape. The whole experience left me me with little hope for American's ability to work together for the common good, even in life and death situations, so I now live safely tucked away in Europe. Anyhow, it's interesting to see how all that infighting and lack of vision or cooperation far preceded the Bernie years.

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Kate De Jong's avatar

Great explainer that helped me understand, as a life-long Dem who has become fed up with the “party system”, what the promise of party and political associate can be IF not abused by party-elite. I’ve taken to calling RCV a voter-centric reform, but this gives me ideas of how to message the benefits of RCV to parties.

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