But what if candidates were willing to 'run under their true colors' but did not want the disadvantage that the Master Lever conveyed to them running not as Democrats - especially in a Presidential election year? That was my reality in my job of trying to recruit candidates for legislative races in 2012.
The Master Lever has no impact on 'top of the ticket' races like the Governor's race and the Presidential race. The Lever's largest impact is on the legislative, Town/City Council and School Committee races.
You are correct in opining that abolishing the Lever will not magically fix RI's political mess. But, it WILL in fact go a very long way in correcting a key element which contributes to our political imbalance. In a Presidential election year, the average Democratic legislative candidate for a Rep seat gets close to a NET 15% bump in votes compared to the same race in a non-Presidential year. 15%!!! That is the margin of victory in a great many races. And that 15% does not factor in the base Master Lever advantage conveyed to Democratic candidates in Gubernatorial year elections.
The Dem/GOP in our legislature does not mirror the ratio of political affiliations in our state. The key question you should be asking is why is this the case? The partial answer to that question is in fact the Master Lever. I can back every one of my statements up with data.
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