LETTER OF THE WEEK

In a democracy, the vote belongs to the people, and in the Tom Harman

case, it allowed me to vote for a qualified Republican candidate with

experience.

Without Harman, to get a conservative to win, I would have had to vote

[in March] for an unknown, never-before elected individual whose only

qualification was “party apparatchik,” reminiscent of how things are done

in the old Soviet Union.

Huntington Beach should not be robbed of its vote by the party money

machine.

The Soviets liked to exclude independent thinkers. If the parties want

to exclude voters, the parties should pay for the primary and not use tax

dollars. If I, as an American, decided to put “decline to state” on my

ballot, I should not be prevented from having my vote count in a taxpayer

financed activity.

I am one of those former conservative Republicans that, like so many

of my friends, left the Republican party because of its poor

environmental record and the fact that the party money machine would

usually pick an unqualified, inexperienced candidate, i.e. [Jim]

Righeimer.

The blanket primary allows me to vote for a qualified, experienced

Republican candidate. Without the blanket primary, my vote would have

been wasted on someone who has no qualifications and no experience.

The voting process belongs to the people, not the party nor the party

money machine. Taxpayer money should not be used for what now is a party

function.

PAUL ARMS

Huntington Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: The Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 last week that blanket

or open primaries, which allowed voters to choose candidates of any party

during a primary election, are unconstitutional.