Mara Liasson Drinks the Open Primary/Redistricting Commission Kool-Aid

Like Adam Nagourney before her, NPR’s Mara Liasson manages to do a story on whether open primary and redistricting reform in California cures hyperpartisanship without quoting the political scientists (such as Seth Masket, Thad Kousser and others) who actually study this stuff and finds that, at least thus far, these reforms are not having the effect of producing more moderate candidates.

As for the claims that such systems stop gridlock, give me a Congress with 2/3 Republicans and a Republican president, or 2/3 Democrats with a Democratic president, and I will show you a Congress that has no problem with gridlock. That’s pretty much the situation in California right now.

It is fine to suggest that the results are too early to know for sure, but you should not ignore the early evidence which so far contradicts your thesis.

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