Just thought I would mention...

link Kevin Wilson

Staff columnist

Here are a few thoughts I’ve been kicking around that don’t really deserve a column of their own, or maybe I can just make the point in too few words.

• An editorial in our newspapers last month argued that it’s time for New Mexico to do away with the closed primary because it lowers primary turnout and leaves independent voters without voices in elections their tax dollars also fund.

And then the case against open primaries was made in Mississippi, when Thad Cochran beat Chris McDaniel in a runoff election for the Republican nomination, largely due to Democratic voters who have little intention to vote for Cochran in November.

Does this mean New Mexico would be wrong to seek an open primary system? No. Mississippi set itself up for this. It created a crossover rule that said voters must have some sort of intent to support the candidate in the general election, but it made the law unenforceable. If you saw an open stretch of highway with a sign that said, “15 MPH, not enforced,” would you drive 15?

Mississippi didn’t create a law that limited runoff voters to primary election voters, giving Cochran the avenue to recruit runoff voters.

Mississippi did nothing to change such rules in 2008 when Rush Limbaugh started “Operation Chaos” to keep Hillary Clinton alive in the 2008 primaries or when Democrats employed similar tactics to keep Mitt Romney afloat in 2008. And Mississippi never bothered to change recount rules, so McDaniel can’t seek a recount.

If a voter so chooses to use a ballot to hurt the opposing party’s chances in the November general election, so be it. Who am I, and who are you, to tell another person what intent their ballot should possess?

• So LeBron James wants to be the highest-paid player on his team? Why the uproar? Name another field where the most productive employee should have no expectation to be its most compensated.

NBA teams don’t get in trouble because of how much their stars get paid; they get in trouble when they pay well above average salaries to players who are only slightly above average. The Miami Heat didn’t lose to the San Antonio Spurs because LeBron James was paid in the upper echelon. They lost because Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh were paid the same as James but didn’t nearly reach his level of production … and to pay for that excess, Heat management cut expensive but valuable assets (Mike Miller) and replaced them with players who were inexpensive (Michael Beasley, Greg Oden) because they weren’t likely to reach their prior potential.

• The Supreme Court is well within its rights to argue that a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics suppresses the First Amendment rights of people who truly wish to counsel, not harass, the clinic’s customers.

And we’re allowed to disagree with the Supreme Court. But we have to stay 252 feet away from the court to do so, because that’s the buffer zone that’s set up.

“Equal Justice Under Law” might not be the best motto for the Supreme Court, after all. Maybe, “Supreme Court Rulings Do Not Necessarily Apply to Supreme Court.”

Kevin Wilson is a columnist for Clovis Media Inc. He can be contacted at 763-3431, ext. 319 or by email:

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