Who Benefits From Nonpartisan Elections?
James Vesely, editorial page editor of the Seattle Times, wants to limit the influence of parties in elections. One way to get partisan politics out of public office is to force more candidates to run without party label. The idea of nonpartisan elections makes more and more sense, especially in the public-works areas of government — those places where management of the office is more important than setting policy. Vesely thinks there are many such places, but none of his examples seem to qualify. (If a position is truly a management position, rather than a policy position, then the holder should be appointed, rather than elected.) I am not wholly opposed to nonpartisan elections. They often make sense when the electorates are small. But they have one great disadvantage, well known to most political scientists, and unknown to almost all editors (or perhaps ignored by them). When electorates are large, political parties counterbalance the influence of the prominent — such as newspaper e
