The Public Policy Institute of California’s September survey asked several questions on proposed political reforms, and one that that caught the attention of PPIC head Mark Baldassare and a number of observers was an apparently contradiction on issues of legislative reform. Voter confusion about political reforms is nothing new, but this one stood out.

When asked whether an open primary with a top two runoff was a good or bad idea, 70 percent of voters favored it. But when asked if a part time legislature was a good or bad idea, only 23 percent were in favor.

“Californians seem to be yearning for political reforms that will build on the independent redistricting initiative that they passed last November. Seven in 10 voters across party lines would like to change the closed primary system to an open primary – allowing the top two vote-getters regardless of party affiliation to square off in the general election,” Baldassare wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle.

PPIC phrased the question this way: “Registered voters could cast ballots for any candidate in the primary and the top two vote getters – regardless of party – would advance to the general election.” Seventy percent of voters thought this was a good idea, and the survey found no differences between Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. PPIC pointed out that this represented a nine percent jump in support since their last survey when 61 percent were in favor.

When the legislature placed the top two open primary on the June 2010 ballot earlier this year, they also wrote the ballot title the voters will see: “Allows all voters to choose any candidate regardless of the candidate’s or voter’s political party preference. Ensures that the two candidates receiving the greatest number of votes will appear on the general election ballot regardless of party preference.”

The key concept is allowing voters to choose among all candidates. Voters are convinced that one of the reasons for the dysfunctional legislature is lack of choice in how legislators are elected. This was why they passed Proposition 11 last fall to reform the redistricting system and take it out of the hands of legislators. As Baldassare correctly points out, voters want to build on the independent redistricting process they enacted last fall, and they see opening the primary process as a step in that direction.

Why then would they not want to take the next step and go back to a part time legislature? Less than a quarter of voters think this reform is a good idea. In his analysis of the polling results, Baldassare wrote of that voters “don’t see this change as a path to more responsive and effective representation in Sacramento.”

But voter concerns may run deeper than just “effective representation.” Voters actually think the legislature is more or less part time as it is. They seem to never get their job done on time, can’t seem to balance the budget, and waste too much time squabbling with the governor. Lately all the voters have heard about the legislature was the sexual escapades of one member with lobbyists. So voters do not see making a de factor part time legislature officially part time as the solution. The words “part time” seem to kill off this reform.

An initiative creating a part time legislature is awaiting its ballot title and summary at the Attorney General’s office. Supporters of the concept seem to have realized that they have a problem as they resubmitted their measure on September 11, and have included a 50 percent cut in legislative salaries as part of the deal. They seem to feel this will bring their numbers up.

But that may not happen. Voters have little idea what legislators are paid, and probably think the salary is too high no matter what it is. So there has been little enthusiasm for cutting the pay of legislators; rather voters seem to want them to earn their pay by doing a better job.

Voters certainly seem to think that giving themselves more choices on how they elect their legislators will improve the final product, but as of now they do not see going from a full time legislature to a part time legislature as achieving that goal.