How to dilute an election

It appears to be a benign word, “dilution,” the watering down or the process of reducing the concentration or similar.

In the world of politics, it means the “kiss of death.” Dilution means that if there are many candidates for a seat, as in my race, it becomes very, very difficult to receive the majority of the votes at the primary election. Why? Because there are so many candidates from the same party.

That means having a run-off election, where so few people actually visit their polling station again that the winner is decided by who gets out the vote.

By “kiss of death,” it also means that your dollar cost of running increases very quickly. Why? Because you have to win two races before you can even get to the real election, the one in November. States have gerrymandered districts after every census so usually one party or the other has a clear majority.

For example, I don’t think that President Obama cares for Republican House Speaker Boehner. And yet, John Boehner ran unopposed by a Democrat challenger in the last election cycle, as that person wouldn’t have had a chance. Boehner’s district is Republican since 1939. That’s gerrymandering in action.

Ignoring gerrymandered districts, it also means that the exhausted winner moves to the next and final round, the November General Election.

If there isn’t an opposing party candidate, the election is always won at the primary. If there is an opposing candidate on the ballot, a lot more money has to be spent to put up a decent fight. The only way for a write-in candidate to win in Georgia is for a primary winner (usually the incumbent) to die after the primary and before the general election. The winner primary losing challengers are not counted, only the write-in candidate.

As I wrote, even though districts are heavily biased one way or the other, once in a while there is a hiccup and the “wrong” party wins. So the fight continues.

If you’re been through the primaries and won, you have probably exhausted your campaign contributions and have to start again. Getting votes is easy; raising campaign funds is not especially if you haven’t come up through the ranks like most congresspeople.

That’s another problem not approved of by our Founding Fathers – turning serving your country into a lifetime career where moving up the ladder is like getting promoted, a career path. They thought it better, like I, to be elected to Washington, doing what needs to be done and leaving. The “leaving” part has long been forgotten.

The problem is similar to a long boxing match. It’s the strategy that will win the match, not some flailing around in the first round or two.

It’s the same with the national presidential debates of excluding a third party. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans want that. It just dilutes the votes, and ruins the odds for their candidates.

That’s bad for business. The ruling class likes to rule.