Legislators need to finally step up, protect vulnerable Arizona children

(PNI) Regarding "CPS crisis deepens" (Republic, Friday):

I have lived in Phoenix since 1974, and nothing for the better has changed at Child Protective Services. While this angers me, it doesn't surprise me.

There is plenty of blame to go around, but, ultimately, it is time for the legislators of our state to get their stuff together and do something to fix this ongoing problem. The children in our state are depending on them to protect them.

So far, they have not done the job.

--Bruce J. Parkhouse, Phoenix

Where is CPS oversight group?

A photo with the article "CPS crisis deepens" on Friday shows at least nine members of an overstaffed oversight committee on Child Protective Services.

Oversight? Where have you been?

--J.B. Shevlin, Payson

New approach to CPS required

The children of Arizona deserve better. We must improve Child Protective Services.

That requires an independent agency, led by an exceptional, dedicated professional who will attend to the morale and resilience of the staff. This is the most emotionally demanding work imaginable: faced daily with life-and-death decisions, caught up in intense and sometimes frightening disputes, and double-bound by the state mandate for family preservation and the humane goal of child protection.

While working closely with police, it should not be a part of an already overstretched public-safety agency.

We need to recognize that there are not enough alternatives available, as foster services are insufficient to compensate for the number of family failures. Poverty is frequently a factor in family breakdown, and as income disparity increases, more and more families live with fewer resources.

We should look for leadership out of state.

--H.G. Whittington, Sun City West

Senate rule change is ill-advised

Regarding "Senate Dems limit GOP use of filibusters" (Republic, Friday):

Changing the Senate rules, which have existed nearly since the beginning of our nation, to remove the option of some filibusters is a radical step that shows the lengths President Barack Obama and the left will go to achieve their revolutionary agenda.

The rules protected the rights of minorities, a very central theme implicit in much of what our founders created. They wanted to ensure that elections could not create a tyranny of the majority, especially after what they experienced as British subjects. The Senate and its rules were a salient aspect of those protections.

President Obama and the Democrats used deceit on "Obamacare" and Benghazi, Libya, to pass the law and to steal an election. The electorate was fooled into believing, so the Democrats in power pushed their agenda. Now that the public sees through the lies and the administration has lost public support, it is abusing its power to change the rules, so it can continue to force upon Americans a revolution they do not want.

The radical left doesn't care that its policies don't work for America. The left, specifically in the persons of President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, will go to any lengths to win, to force their ideology and will upon all of us, no matter what we want.

--Dennis Santillo, Cornville

Rule for in-flight cellphone calls

Any change allowing cellphone calls in flight should be accompanied by isolated grouped seating, so that callers could be limited to annoying each other.

--Dale Woods, Prescott

Filibuster change is far overdue

The filibuster was part of the Senate rules back in the days of the new republic, when transportation was slow, to allow senators to delay a bill and let other senators of their party to arrive to vote. The filibuster has been used and abused by partisan politics by both parties to the detriment to the American people.

President George W. Bush and his Republican Senate were given the mandate by the electorate to govern. President Barack Obama and the Democratic Senate are given the mandate by the electorate to govern. The abuse of the filibuster has reduced and often stopped both administrations from their ability to govern this country.

We are the only democracy in the world that requires 60percent of a body to vote to pass appointments or legislation. All other democracies only need 51percent to do the same. This is not the will of the people. I, as well as many others, I'm sure, am sick and tired of the stagnation in Congress, and in their partisan refusal to do their job.

Thank God there is the courage to put the filibuster to rest, and when the Republican Party is in control of the presidency and the Senate, they need to keep it at rest so they may govern as the electorate intended.

--Richard Ward, Phoenix

Ariz. pension fund has no shame

Arizona's Public Safety Personnel Retirement System's board approved last week retroactive pay raises and an inflation adjustment for some investment-staff members.

Government entities are making large contributions, and retirees had their cost-of-living raises suspended. The fund has done very poorly for several years. On the other hand, even the Arizona State Retirement System, which pays its staff less, has done a much better job. How does this kind of thing keep going on? Have they no shame?

--Barb Montgomery, Phoenix

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Arizona will lose 'a real workhorse'

Jon Kyl's 26-year career on Capitol Hill officially ends this week, and Arizona will lose an influential and hardworking senator whose legacy, particularly on water policy, could help shape the state for decades.

Jon Kyl: Retiring after 26 years in D.C.

Age: 70.

Party: Republican.

Family: Wife, Caryll; two grown children, Kristine Kyl Gavin, who lives in the Washington, D.C., area, and John Kyl, who lives in Phoenix.

Public office:U.S. senator since 1995. Elected GOP whip in December 2007. Served in U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 1995.

Legislative accomplishments: Sat on the influential Senate Judiciary and Finance committees. Was a former chairman of the Senate's anti-terrorism subcommittee and was recognized as a U.S. counterterrorism expert. Co-authored the Crime Victims' Rights Act. Negotiated and shepherded through Congress several landmark water settlements.

Professional background: Lawyer at Jennings, Strouss & Salmon in Phoenix. Former chairman of the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce.

Education: Bachelor's degree in political science and law degree from the University of Arizona.

Notable: Recognized by Time magazine in 2010 as one of the 100 "people who most affect our world." He appeared in the "Leaders" section of the annual "Time 100" list, with President Barack Obama and other well-known political figures. In 2006, Time named him one of the 10 best senators.

Kyl, 70, spent 18 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years before that in the U.S. House, rising from a low-profile, rank-and-file Republican to become Arizona's highest-ranking lawmaker in Washington in decades. He decided not to seek a fourth Senate term, and at 10 a.m. Arizona time on Thursday, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., will become the state's 11th senator.

Kyl served with five presidents, and his tenure spanned the impeachment and Senate trial of President Bill Clinton, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. In December 2007, his GOP colleagues elected him to the job of minority whip, making him the No. 2 Senate Republican leader and boosting Arizona's political clout.

But Kyl also quietly earned a reputation as the go-to guy in Washington for Arizona issues. As Sen. John McCain, the state's senior senator, dominated the national limelight as a two-time Republican presidential candidate, Kyl tackled the less glamorous but often vitally important issues and projects around Arizona.

A one-time practicing attorney specializing in water law, Kyl negotiated and ushered multiple landmark Arizona water-rights settlements through Congress. The water deals resolved legal entanglements between the federal government and Indian communities in Arizona that stretched back decades.

"I can't tell you how many people would say, 'When I really need something done, I go to Jon Kyl,'" said Bruce Merrill, a veteran Arizona political scientist who has followed Kyl's political career from his first House race in 1986. "I put Jon Kyl in the same status that I put Barry Goldwater in terms of what he's done for the state. This guy was a real workhorse for Arizona."

Kyl mastered the Senate process.

He was credited in 1999 with using under-the-radar tactics to orchestrate the Senate defeat of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty sought by Clinton. In naming Kyl one of "America's 10 Best Senators," Time in 2006 dubbed him "The Operator" and hailed his expertise at legislative "subterfuge."

And although his partisan credentials were never in doubt -- Democratic critics slammed him as obstructionist during President Barack Obama's first term -- Kyl at times also could reach across the aisle. He co-sponsored a 2007 bipartisan comprehensive immigration-reform bill with the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., that spurred a backlash against Kyl from the right. He collaborated with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on crime-victim legislation and other issues. While in the House in the early 1990s, Kyl helped bring attention to the House banking scandal that hurt several of his fellow lawmakers, including then-Rep. Jay Rhodes, R-Ariz.

"Senator Jon Kyl served the people of Arizona with distinction," former President George W. Bush said in a written statement to The Arizona Republic. "He is a highly intelligent man who was well-briefed on the key issues of our time. He earned respect not only in the Senate, but in the White House during my Presidency."

Kyl wasn't prone to grandstanding, and he figured out early on that much can be accomplished quietly, outside the media spotlight and especially if taking credit isn't a priority. Kyl is the son of a former Iowa congressman and never had any interest in running for anything but federal office. He immersed himself in issues, big and small, and prided himself on preparation, becoming known as one of the most knowledgeable lawmakers in the chamber.

Once described by The Republic as having "the sober-minded earnestness of a Presbyterian minister," he comes across as serious and professorial. Kyl is a stickler for details and facts and can be prickly if he believes his integrity has been impugned. While he became a man of the Senate, he never became a creature of Washington, returning most weekends to Arizona, where his family has a cabin in Greer.

There was never a sense that Kyl would say something in Washington that he wouldn't say in Tucson or Kingman.

Kyl also never begrudged the better-known McCain for his spot on the national and international stage, saying they each served their state in different ways. He hinted at how he viewed the relationship when on election night in November, he referred to Flake as "another wingman" for McCain.

A national leader

In his Dec. 19 farewell remarks on the Senate floor, Kyl characterized his political career as an effort to maximize personal freedom through pro-growth economics, social values and national security that reflected a "strong and sovereign America."

"I am deeply honored to have served for 18 years as Arizona's 10th senator, and for four terms in the House of Representatives before that," Kyl said. "Now, it's time to move on."

Kyl is tight-lipped on his intentions, but it's widely believed he will stay involved with the shaping of public policy in some way. He has donated his official papers to the University of Arizona, his alma mater. He doubts he will write a memoir and emphatically says he is through with running for public office.

"I want to continue to serve in ways that, in the private sector, I can make a contribution to public policy," Kyl said in an interview with The Republic. "Probably some politics. If I can serve in an advisory and counselor role, I certainly want to do that. And I very much want to have a lot to do here in Arizona even though I will probably also be doing some things in Washington."

Kyl's exit will result in a loss of stature for Arizona. Only three other Arizonans have ascended to the top echelon of Senate or House leadership: Sen. Ernest McFarland, a Democrat who was Senate majority leader from 1951 to 1953; Sen. Carl Hayden, a seven-term Democrat who was Senate president pro tempore, and third in line to the presidency, from 1957 to 1969; and Rep. John Rhodes, a Republican who was House minority leader from 1973 to 1981. Others took different paths to national notoriety. Former Rep. Stewart Udall, D-Ariz., was secretary of the Interior in President John F. Kennedy's and President Lyndon Johnson's administrations, while Goldwater and McCain, respectively, won the Republican Party's nomination for president in 1964 and 2008. Rep. Morris Udall, D-Ariz., also made an unsuccessful 1976 bid for the White House.

"He ranks right up there with the very, very best that we have ever had," McCain said of Kyl.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called Kyl "an absolutely invaluable partner" whose "good judgment" and cooperation will be missed by the Senate GOP caucus.

"There are two things I think you need to know about Jon Kyl before you begin any discussion," McConnell told The Republic. "Number 1, he's absolutely brilliant, and, Number 2, he knows how to play team ball. Being in a legislative body is a team sport, but there's not much of a payoff for it because (the media is) always looking for someone who is not playing team ball."

When Kyl spoke, people actually listened, something not true of every senator, McConnell said.

"To be effective in a group with a bunch of class-president types requires a particular skill, and he has that in great abundance," McConnell said. "And whatever he chooses to do next, I'm sure he will be conspicuously successful with that as well."

The respect for Kyl extends to the other side of the aisle.

Feinstein, the California Democrat, said she enjoyed working with Kyl, whom she characterized as "a dedicated public servant," particularly on crime victims' rights. They also collaborated over the years on border-security and anti-terrorism issues.

"Because of our work together on the Crime Victims' Rights Act, victims of violent crimes are now afforded many critical protections, such as the right to restitution and the right to make statements in court," Feinstein told The Republic. "Senator Kyl's tireless work on victims' rights provides a great insight into his character."

Even before he began climbing the rungs of Senate leadership, Kyl was making a name for himself among the Washington elite.

In 2000, Kyl was interviewed as a possible vice-presidential running mate for Bush, who was a Texas governor. Kyl said his VP vetting got "pretty far" before Dick Cheney, who led the search, decided to take the job himself.

"I would have loved to have been selected, but I'm glad Dick selected himself," Kyl said.

In a telephone interview with The Republic, Cheney said he could not confirm the details of the 2000 running-mate search because the process was confidential, but he did stress the high regard in which he holds Kyl, whom he got to know when both served in the House, and said he considers him a personal friend.

"I'd have been very happy with Jon Kyl as the president of the United States," Cheney said. "I think he was that good."

Arizona legacy: Water

Kyl will be remembered nationally as a GOP leader known for his conservative posture on national security, including his strong support for missile defense and his sharp criticism of those who leak classified information, as well as judicial issues. But his work forging complicated Indian water-rights settlements could cement his long-term reputation in his home state.

Kyl, a water-law expert who as an attorney argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, helped negotiate multiple agreements to resolve decades of legal entanglements and disputes between the federal government and Arizona's Indian communities, including the 15-years-in-the-making 2004 Arizona Water Settlements Act.

He retires from the Senate leaving a major water settlement involving the Navajo and Hopi tribes unfinished.

"We still had one big one that we didn't get done, but we did a lot of the work on it and the parties had agreed to it, it's just that they didn't want to go forward with the legislation to effect it," Kyl said. "So that's a disappointment, and yet all of the preceding ones were important to our state."

Generally speaking, Kyl said, he believes his legacy won't come into focus for some time, and he declined to speculate how history might remember him. But he acknowledged that his work on the water settlements, as well as public-land use and national forests, will resonate most with his constituents.

Jack August Jr., an Arizona political historian and authority on the state's political fights over water, said Kyl's emphasis on the state's water future was in the tradition of Hayden, the long-serving senator known as the father of the Central Arizona Project, the 336-mile network of canals and pumping stations that delivers Colorado River water to Phoenix and Tucson.

"Kyl was a warrior for the conservative movement, but at the same time he's one of our great water senators, like Carl Hayden," said August, author of the 1998 book "Vision in the Desert: Carl Hayden and Hydropolitics in the American Southwest." "I would put him right there. He's a brilliant guy. I admire him as a historian."

McCain said Kyl's contributions to the Indian water settlements shouldn't be underestimated.

"His achievements on these water-rights agreements with our Native Americans are landmark and have historic implications," McCain said. "He has been indispensable, and obviously unique because he had all this background as a water-rights lawyer. They are the most complex issues that you could ever address. Out of 100 senators in the United States Senate, he is the only one who has that kind of capability and credibility."

Kyl does not dispute that of the two senators, he did much of the heavy-lifting when it came to Arizona issues, saying his relationship with McCain "worked out fine." He noted that McCain ran for president in 2000 prior to securing the nomination on his second try in 2008, so naturally some of the Arizona-specific duties would fall to him. And despite being the state's senior senator, McCain never once pulled rank, Kyl said.

"I think Arizona got its money's worth," Kyl said. "You had two different kinds of senators, and we complemented each other to a large extent."

Critics, controversies

Arizona Democrats have long argued that Kyl's conservatism is out of step with the changing demographics of the state, which they argue is getting more moderate.

While he never became as well-known as a foe of earmarks as McCain or Flake, Kyl's rejection of pork-barrel politics drew criticism from those who believe that senators and representatives should try to secure as much federal funding for home-state projects as they can. Kyl's vote to convict Clinton in his 1999 Senate impeachment trial and opposition to Obama's 2010 health-care overhaul also won him no fans among Democrats.

But some also give Kyl his due.

Paul Eckerstrom, a former Pima County Democratic Party chairman, disagrees with Kyl on many issues and is especially bothered by Kyl's opposition to allowing the government to negotiate drug prices as part of the Medicare Part D program. But he said he was impressed by Kyl on water issues. "I always thought he was very smart, and a formidable political opponent because of that," Eckerstrom said.

Former Sen. Dennis DeConcini, the Democrat whom Kyl succeeded, said that despite philosophical differences on policy, he has always considered Kyl a gentleman. "I've seen him work very well with people and not be a showoff or anything like that," said DeConcini, who served from 1977 to 1995. "He's a smart, smart guy."

For all of his recognition as one of the more cerebral senators, a 2011 gaffe about Planned Parenthood helped define Kyl negatively on social-media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

After Kyl misspoke on the Senate floor by saying abortions made up 90 percent of Planned Parenthood's services -- the correct figure is 3 percent -- Ryan Patmintra, his then-Washington-based press secretary, made things worse by telling CNN that Kyl's comment "was not intended to be a factual statement." That nonsensical response, which Patmintra said Kyl neither saw nor approved, entered the national lexicon after going viral. Television comedians and Democrats roundly mocked the phrase.

In addition to the unfinished business of the Navajo-Hopi water settlement and a land swap that could have resulted in a massive new copper mine near Superior, Kyl acknowledges some regrets, such as how the Iraq war, which he supported, turned out.

"I don't regret the positions that I have taken, but I do wish things had worked out differently than they did," he said.

But, overall, he is proud of the way he represented Arizonans for more than two decades.

"What an honor," Kyl said in summing up. "It all comes to an end now, but in politics nothing is ever over. It's a continuing battle of ideas, so you can't put yourself in the position of the indispensable person. It goes on after you, and I'm just happy to have had the opportunity to serve."

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Embarrassing Arizona again

(PNI) On Monday, Barack Obama was officially re-elected president. Some Arizona Republican leaders used the occasion to show that they still don't understand messaging.

Mitt Romney's 11 Arizona electors gathered to cast their Electoral College votes for the Republican nominee, reflecting the election's results here. If that's all they had done, it would have been a non-story.

But state GOP Chairman Tom Morrissey and two other electors, Don Ascoli and John D. Rhodes, offered their opinion that Obama does not meet the constitutional requirement that the president be native-born.

Amazing.

Sure, this long-discredited conspiracy theory is still bouncing in the fringes. That's where such foolishness belongs. If there were any truth to it, don't you think Hillary Clinton, John McCain or Mitt Romney would have long ago produced the evidence?

Obama was born in Hawaii. End of story.

When the elected leader of the state Republican Party repeats this nonsense at what should be an event as formal and solemn as its prescription in the Constitution, he does his party and his state no favors. He only reaffirms an image that neither should want.

There are times when platitudes -- or silence -- are sufficient.

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Arizona political icon Steiger dies at 83 <nbsp/><nbsp/>

Sam Steiger, an Arizona icon known for his brutal honesty and wry sense of humor who served five terms in the U.S. House, died Wednesday. He was 83.

Perhaps best known for shooting two burros while he was a congressman and painting a crosswalk between the Prescott courthouse and Whiskey Row, Steiger's long, storied political career began with a bet.

But his friends and family remember him most as a public servant from a bygone era, who worked with the likes of Mo Udall, Barry Goldwater and John Rhodes.

"Those guys met every week, once a week to talk about what was good for Arizona," said Steiger's son, Gail. "He helped a lot of people, just because that's what you did for your constituents."

Born in New York City, Steiger first visited Arizona as a teenager, attended Cornell University and graduated from Colorado A&M. He settled on a Prescott ranch after earning a Purple Heart as a U.S. Army platoon leader in the Korean War.

Voters first elected him to the state Senate as a Republican in 1960 and he quickly established himself as a brash, independent politician. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1964 in what was then Arizona's 3rd District, but took the seat two years later after redistricting made his district more GOP-friendly.

During five terms in the U.S. House, Steiger burnished his reputation as a bomb thrower with frequent attacks against politicians he saw as self-serving tools of lobbyists. He was a staunch conservative who earned praise from hard-line constitutionalists and derision from environmental groups.

In August 1975, Steiger went to investigate constituent complaints about a herd of burros running loose near Paulden. He discovered 14 burros in a pen and said later that they charged at him when he went to check their brands, so he shot two of the animals in self-defense.

The burro shooting prompted a criminal investigation, a civil lawsuit from the burros' owner, and brought picketing children to his congressional office.

Steiger later told the Prescott Daily Courier: "I could find a cure for cancer and they'd remember me as the guy who shot the burros."

The following year he won a bruising GOP primary for U.S. Senate against John Conlan, but lost the general election to Dennis DeConcini.

Steiger's political career largely went south from there. He lost a 1978 race for state Senate and, after switching to the Libertarian Party, got trounced in the 1982 governor's race.

But his populist star would rise again in May 1986, after a state road-resurfacing project eliminated the crosswalk on Prescott's Montezuma Street between the Yavapai County courthouse and Whiskey Row. The Prescott City Council failed to restore it.

Steiger took a striper machine and painted a new crosswalk. Police arrested him and he was charged with criminal damage and disorderly conduct. When police approached to ask Steiger what he was doing, according to an account in the Prescott Sun, the former congressman replied: "A little historical preservation."

The disorderly conduct charge was dropped and a jury took 25 minutes to acquit Steiger of criminal damage.

Steiger returned to state government with the election of Gov. Evan Mecham, but the administration did not turn out well for either man. Lawmakers impeached Mecham and removed him from office three days before a jury found Steiger guilty of an extortion charge.

Steiger was accused of threatening a justice of the peace with his job if he didn't vote to retain a fellow parole board member. An appeals court later overturned Steiger's conviction.

Steiger made his second-to-last run for public office in 1990, switching back to the Republican Party to take on Fife Symington in the primary. Symington went on to win the election, was re-elected in 1994 and then resigned following a bank-fraud conviction which was later overturned on appeal.

Political consultant Joyce Downey, a longtime friend of Steiger, business partner and campaign aide, said he was one of the smartest and funniest men she'd ever met. He was from a different era, she said, where elected officials spoke their minds, regardless of how it might play with voters.

She recalled a campaign swing through Green Valley during the 1990 gubernatorial primary. If he were elected governor, a woman asked Steiger, what would he do about overdue library books?

"Ma'am, I have never given it one thought and I never intend to," Steiger replied.

"I had a hell of a ride with Sam," Downey said. "I wouldn't have missed a minute of it."

During the 1990s, Steiger wrote a book, became a radio and TV talk-show host, published a newsletter called The Burro Chronicles and worked in the Phoenix office of U.S. Sen. John McCain. He served one term as Prescott mayor from 1999-2001. He was sidelined by a stroke in 2002 and spent most of his last 10 years in an assisted-living home near downtown Prescott.

Steiger is survived by his children, twin sons Gail and Lewis, daughter Delia and a grandson, all of Prescott. A memorial service for Steiger has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Yavapai County Mounted Sheriff's Posse House on Sheriff's Posse Trail in Prescott.

Reach the reporter at maryk .reinhart@arizonarepublic.com.

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Push is on for open primary in Arizona

Political moderates for years have bemoaned Arizona's partisan primary system.

Voter participation is typically light, they complain, giving outsize influence to diehard party activists who often are either more conservative or more liberal than most rank-and-file party members and independents. And Democratic or Republican voters in districts dominated by the other party frequently have little or no choice once the general election arrives.

Many centrists blame the status quo for the state's increasingly divisive political climate.

This year, Arizona voters may get the opportunity to overhaul the process. An initiative drive aims to place on the statewide ballot a proposition that would establish a new kind of open primary in which the top two vote-getters would face off in the general election.

All voters, including independents, could participate in the new "top two" primary, meaning the candidates would have to appeal to an array of voters beyond their ideological base in order to succeed. It would apply to all elections in the state except for nonpartisan municipal elections and the state's presidential-preference election.

"You're no longer voting for a nominee of the Democratic Party or a nominee of the Republican Party, you're winnowing down the number of candidates down to two," said David Berman, a senior research fellow at Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy who has studied the issue.

"So, it's not a partisan primary anymore. It's a system by which you screen candidates down to the top two."

The pros and cons of the "top two" primary idea, which is in use in Louisiana and Washington and will go into effect in California this year, will be debated today during a panel discussion organized by the O'Connor House. The organization, named after retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's former home, advocates for centrist and nonpartisan policy solutions and civil discourse.

The event is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Burton Barr Public Library, 1221 N. Central Ave., Phoenix. The event is free, but seats must be reserved through oconnorhouse.org.

Panelists set to appear at the O'Connor House forum include:

Grady Gammage Jr., a longtime Valley land-use attorney who helped write the Arizona primary initiative.

Alan Maguire, an Arizona political consultant who opposes the proposal.

Steve Peace, who led California's similar initiative campaign to passage.

Richard Winger, San Francisco-based publisher of Ballot Access News and a fierce critic of "top two" primaries.

Berman, of the Morrison Institute, said his research on "top two" primaries was somewhat constrained by the fact the system has been in operation for only two election cycles in Washington, although he said initial evidence is somewhat promising in terms of encouraging moderation.

His 2011 paper on the subject notes that Louisiana's process, which, unlike Arizona's proposal, allows top vote-getters to win outright in the primary if they garner more than 50 percent of the vote, "has not been regarded as having had much of an impact on party competition or voter participation," and its influence on moderation is unclear.

"There isn't a lot of history to find out exactly what's going to happen, but my impression is that there is a slight effect toward moderation just in the general tone because you have people who have to appeal to a broader electorate rather than just the party faithful," Berman said.

If Arizona voters pass this year's initiative, they will be trading traditional party primaries for a system similar to, but not exactly like, city elections. Candidates could still identify themselves on the ballot by their party or as an independent.

It's possible, and in some Arizona congressional and legislative districts even probable, that the top two vote-getters in the primary would belong to the same party.

Unlike in city elections, the top vote-getter would not be able to avoid the runoff by clearing more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary. A general-election match-up is guaranteed.

In the case of Arizona House of Representatives elections, where two seats are up for grabs in each legislative district, the top four contenders would head to the general election.

More than just shaking up the election process, the 2012 initiative "is about trying to change the outcomes so that we end up with a more reasoned debate and more people are included in the process," said former Phoenix Mayor Paul Johnson, who is helping spearhead the proposed ballot measure.

Today's partisan primaries require "ideological purity" and stoke hostility toward the other side, making bipartisan cooperation on major issues less likely, he said.

"Twenty years ago, it was normal for people to cross the aisle and work with other people and look for common ground. People felt like they had a responsibility to people in both parties," said Johnson, who was the 1998 Democratic gubernatorial nominee but is now registered as an independent. "Today, politics is a team sport. It's not about the state. It's not about the country. It's about: What team are you on, the blue team or the red team?"

However, Winger doubts the new system would have a substantial impact on the partisan rancor in the Arizona Legislature. The Democrats and the Republicans will concentrate on making sure their preferred candidates move forward, he said.

Winger also predicted it will be all but impossible for a third-party or independent candidate to break through and advance in a three-way primary race that includes two major-party candidates.

"We've seen how this system works in Louisiana for 38 years and in Washington state for four years," Winger told The Arizona Republic. "It just ends up with Democrats and Republicans being the only people who can run in the general election."

Berman didn't dispute that but noted Libertarians and other third-party candidates don't have much of a track record of attracting votes anyway.

"I don't think it'll hurt the major parties," Berman said. "It'll hurt the minor parties."

Jaime Molera, a Republican consultant and a former Arizona superintendent of public instruction, said the "top two" primary initiative is another bad idea from the same sort of government reformers who brought the state publicly funded campaigns, an Independent Redistricting Commission and the existing semi-open primary system in which independents can choose either the Democratic or Republican ballot. So far, none of those "fixes" has done much to make Arizona politics more moderate, he said.

The real problem, Molera said, is low voter turnout, and "I'm not sure there's any kind of a magic bullet that would fix that."

"Ultimately, people have to decide for themselves if they want to participate in a democracy," he said.

The Open Government Committee championing the "top-two" primary system has until July 5 to submit 259,213 valid petition signatures to secure a spot on the ballot for the initiative. If voters pass the measure, the "top two" primary would go into effect during the 2014 election cycle.

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