Rep. Corvese seems to dismiss the whole point of primaries.
His legislation would essentially make every general election a two-stage affair, with the primary being more like what we think of as the general and the general becoming something more like a runoff.
The idea of primaries is to help voters organized into parties find the best candidate within the scope of their party’s definition. That’s a problem in Rhode Island only because the deck is so thoroughly stacked, and Republicans have fallen into a ditch they can’t get out of.
If Corvese wants to find a solution for our multi-candidate elections and ensure that the winner ultimatley has a majority of votes, there are ways to do that without foreclosing the possibility that the GOP could find a workable path.
Perhaps he’s more concerned that the primary system means a progressive might unseat him among Democrats and that unhealth partisanship would prevent his winning as a Republican or Independent even if he would be the most representative candidate on the ballot.