Page:The Wisconsin idea (IA cu31924032449252).pdf/123

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ELECTORAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHANGES
99

the solitary candidate of the minority to be chosen as the party nominee. By thus naming the candidate of the majority faction of the dominant party the boss is 'all potential.'" Under the second choice law he holds that "the leader of the majority faction would have had no such power, for several men of known loyalty to the principles of the majority faction could be candidates, secure in the knowledge that those who voted for them as a first choice would give their second choice to some candidate representing the same principles and advocating the same line of legislation, thus precluding the nomination of the minority candidate. The boss or leader might still properly give his support to some one of the candidates, but it would be plainly a matter of personal preference, and not justified on the ground of safeguarding the rights of the majority to name the candidate of the party."


Under the primary, without the second choice he holds that:—


"It is necessary that the 'boss,' or leader, should 'eliminate' the candidates of the majority before the primaries are held, otherwise the candidate of the minority would be the nominee of the party. Under the second choice feature… the voters do this 'eliminating' at the primaries. Until this opportunity of selection is placed in the hands of the people there can be no true representative government."


No election has yet been held under the law. Its opponents have shown many diagrams to the effect that it will produce quite the opposite effect from that intended. In a newspaper election held by a Milwaukee paper the voters seemed loathe to use the second choice