Minnesota Report
One factor is clear and DFLers should take notice, as anticipated the Pot Parties only affected DFL candidates even though only the Legal Marijuana Now party fielded any candidates this election. Now, ignorant voices are being raised and calling for Ranked Choice Voting to solve this problem. Problem is RCV comes with its own spate of problems. The only real solution is to forgo the partisan primary process and shift to a California style “Jungle Primary” where all candidates can vie even multiple candidates with the same party label and the two highest vote total winners advance to the General Election.
It is not conspiracy theory to recognize the discussed recruitment of Pot Party candidates by the Republican Party to be a mischievous candidate to help undermine the DFL base vote.
The importance of the party endorsement system will remain intact and it’s likely candidates from the two major political parties, DFL and Republican will emerge, but also in certain areas the inter-party factionalization can be exposed and progressive or conservative candidates can stand against more mainstream representatives of their respective parties and sort themselves out.