… Under California’s system, which was approved by voters in a 2010 ballot proposition, the top two finishers for each office advance to the general election regardless of party. In as many as three Republican-held US House districts across Orange County that Hillary Clinton carried over Donald Trump in 2016, Democrats today face the risk that GOP candidates will finish one-two in the voting — and thus guarantee the party holds the seat in November. …
It’s beyond ironic that California, the state that styles itself the capital of the resistance to Trump, could now provide Republicans their most tangible step since his election toward holding their House majority by allowing the GOP to lock down one or more swing seats that Democrats have coveted. If that occurs, there will be plenty of blame to go around.
A major part of the problem is conceptual: Candidates and the parties still mostly behaved as they do in a typical primary, while the California system has revealed itself this year to be something very different — especially when subjected to the blast-force pressure of the modern electoral struggle between the parties.
In fact, with its unusual combination of features, the California system isn’t accurately described as a primary at all. It is a hybrid that has combined the usual chaos of a primary with the concrete consequences of a general election. Though the parties have much less ability to influence the results in June than in November, they face the risk that high-profile races will be decided Tuesday. CONT.
Ronald Brownstein, CNN