The Republican State Central Committee will hold a meeting in Shreveport to consider a proposal allowing registered voters not affiliated with a particular party to vote in Republican primaries March 14.This proposal would have been unnecessary prior to 2006 because Louisiana had a unique system for choosing elected officials.Beginning in 1978, Louisiana had what might be called a “jungle primary.”Under this system, all candidates for office would run together on one ballot. If no candidate received a majority of votes, there would be a run-off election between the top-two vote recipients.This system had many marks against it — including a gubernatorial race in 1991 between two candidates many people didn’t want to vote for: Edwin Edwards and David Duke.In Louisiana, political parties mattered very little. Since the end of Reconstruction in the 1870s until the end of the 1970s, Republicans played only a marginal role, if any, in state politics.The primary system adopted in the 1970s might be seen as carrying on the tradition of marginalizing the influence of national parties within the state. Party affiliation shouldn’t have mattered because anyone could vote for any candidate. However, Republican registration rose during this period.Two things happened: Money from the Republican Party began to flow into Louisiana elections as Democrat incumbents switched their party affiliation to run for another office, and Ronald Reagan made republicanism more popular.As the voting population became increasingly more educated and well-informed, new voters began pulling the lever for candidates in the opposite party of their parents’ party of choice. The Democratic stronghold that developed in Louisiana began to break down in the 1980s as the values of the populace began to change. Staunchly Democratic voters who were blue-collar union members began raising children who became white-collar adults.Accompanying this change in outlook was a change in the political landscape.No longer was it necessary in Louisiana to be a member of the Democratic Party. A new voter could register as a Republican or even as an independent and still have an equal voice in choosing who was elected to office.All this changed in 2006 when the Legislature approved a new primary system requiring both major parties to hold closed primary elections for national office.With the new primary system, candidates have to appeal more to the base of their respective party.As the influence of national parties grows, candidates will have to run to their extreme base.When the new system was introduced, Democratic leaders in the state chose to allow independent voters to participate in the primary process while Republicans didn’t.The message was loud and clear to independent voters — the Republicans don’t want you.The Louisiana Republican Party announced its commitment to being the party of exclusion by disallowing the voices of independent voters to be heard in the selection of their representatives in the general election.Partisanship by another name is elitism.Republican numbers swelled as a result of the open primary system because independent-minded voters began breaking with the traditional Democratic mentality. Now the Republicans are worried about the influence of independent voters on choosing candidates to run for office.Instead of running moderate candidates, the party has chosen to appeal to the more radical element within the party and has excluded independent voters in the process.The Republican Party is setting itself up to lose the influence it has gained since the 1970s and should abandon its arrogant, elitist policy toward independent voters by opening their primaries to those not affiliated with any party.–Contact Drew Walker at [email protected]