South Dakota Democrats Choose Open Primary

Former Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer says the Bush White House was "welcoming and open-minded" (but Fleischer has also said AG Holder's torture investigations are "disgusting," so what does he know?).

Meanwhile, the South Dakota Democratic Party is showing how welcoming and open-minded it can be in public: At yesterday's state central committee meeting in Chamberlain, the Dems approved opening the party's primary elections to independents.

So, want to see a test of who the moderate centrists are in this state? Watch the primaries. We Dems are opening the door for folks who don't care to associate with a particular party label to participate in one more level of choosing their public officials. Almost inevitably, that means in a fair primary fight between a moderate, centrist Democrat (like, oh, say, Scott Heidepriem) and a good fire-breathing Wellstone-Kucinich Democrat that would win a leftist Madville Times endorsement (like, oh, say, Ron Volesky—go, Ron!), the centrist will have an advantage.

And South Dakota Democrats are saying, "We can work with that." We'll welcome independents at our primary debates. We'll be open to their participation in choosing our candidates. We'll surrender a little bit of power of picking candidates in-house in favor of involving more people in the political process. And in return, maybe, just maybe, we'll see some independents make the early buy-in and stick with our candidates in the general election.

Do you think South Dakota's Republicans will follow suit? Do you think they should?