A2 Politics & The Nation


Former U.S. attorneys argue the GOP’s case in House races................A3 A forceful voice in Obama’s security team.............................................A4 ’Los Samaritanos’ reach out across border............................................A6 Ala. Democrats seek new star after Artur Davis’s defeat .....................A8


GULF COAST OIL SPILL


Cap placed on well is slowing flow of oil into the gulf ........................A11 The World


On the frontiers of stem cell treatment................................................A12 Bombing at Afghan provincial governor’s office kills policeman......A13 Garish ’poppy palaces’ lure affluent Afghans ......................................A16 Foreign Digest Sunni candidate assassinated in home ..............................................A12


Opinion


Dana Milbank: The secular religion of trusting corporations such as BP................................................................................................A17 Kathleen Parker: Grown-up boys in the South who misbehave.........A17 Ombudsman: A gripping saga that took a family by surprise............A17 Topic A: Politics as usual in the Obama White House.........................A17 Editorial: How the Obama administration should revamp regulation after the oil spill. ....................................................................................A18 Editorial: What Freddie Mac needs. ....................................................A18 Editorial: Traffic grinds to a halt in step with the Virginia governor’s transportation “plan.” ...........................................................................A18


George F. Will: The Democrats’ plan to bail out teachers. .................A19 David S. Broder: Without a federal infusion, school reform is at risk. A19 Stuart A. Levey: Al-Qaeda will struggle without its financial export. .A19


Jim Hoagland: A disciple spreads South Africa-style moderation. ..A19 Post Partisan: All murders of women deserve attention. ..................A19


CORRECTIONS


 Because of a production error, a screen grab of an error-404 page at Ubuntu Linux’s Web site ran with Rob Pegoraro’s Fast Forward column in the May 30 Sunday Business section. The correct screen grab ap- pearswith today’s column on G4.


The Washington Post is committed to correcting errors that appear in the newspaper. Those interested in contacting the paper for that purpose can:


·· E-mail corrections@washpost.com. Call 202-334-6000, and ask to be connected to the desk involved — National,


Foreign, Metro, Style, Sports, Business or any of the weekly sections. The ombudsman, who acts as the readers’ representative, can be reached by calling 202-334-7582 or e-mailing ombudsman@washpost.com.


TALK SHOWS


Guests to be interviewed Sunday on major television talk shows:


FOX NEWS SUNDAY (WTTG), 9 a.m.: Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R); Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, national incident commander for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill; and Michael B. Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN), 9 a.m.: Allen and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist; Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Lt. Gov. Bill Halter of Arkansas, who will face


off this month for the Democratic Senate nomination in their state THIS WEEK (ABC, WJLA), 10 a.m.: Allen; Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and John Cornyn (R-Tex.). NEWSMAKERS (C-SPAN), 10 a.m.: Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack. FACE THE NATION (CBS, WUSA), 10:30 a.m.: Allen; Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.). WASHINGTON WATCH (TV One), 11 a.m.: EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson; George Washington University law professor Paul Butler.


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SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2010 California’s possible solution to partisan politics


DAN BALZ The Sunday Take


alifornia Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado (R) minced no words when he talked about changing the polarized politics that he said are killing his state. “The system we have today is taking our Golden State to its knees,” he said. “It’s frankly embarrassing.” Few Californians would disagree that their state is in a terrible mess, and that gridlock and partisanship in Sacramento have contributed to it. Whether people agree with Maldonado’s prescription for change will be answered Tuesday, when voters will decide the fate of a ballot proposal, Proposition 14, that would dramatically change the way political candidates are nominated. Proposition 14 calls for the


elimination of the party primaries that now select candidates for the general election. In their place, California would institute a system that would put all candidates for the state legislature, Congress and statewide office on the same primary ballot, open to all voters. The top two finishers, regardless of party, would advance to the November general election. As with Washington,


Sacramento is a bitterly divided capital. The partisan divisions, along with structural impediments requiring supermajorities to raise taxes, have left the state’s finances in a shambles. Prop 14 is the latest attempt to create a more hospitable environment for moderates in the two parties to come together in the center. “The system we have today


makes candidates go to the extreme right on the Republican side and the extreme left on the Democratic side, and when they come together [in Sacramento], they can’t govern,” Maldonado said. “Governing is hard, but we must govern.” The current primaries in


RICH PEDRONCELLI/ASSOCIATED PRESS


California Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado, left, shown with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, sponsors a measure aimed at easing partisanship.


California attest to that. Republican gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay, and Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner, spent part of last month trying to outdo the other on who would be tougher against illegal immigrants. Whether Whitman, the front-runner, has damaged herself for the general election remains an open question. In the GOP Senate primary, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, the current front-runner, has proudly touted her endorsement from Sarah Palin to help demonstrate just how conservative she is. But the more moderate candidate, former congressman Tom Campbell, points to one recent poll that shows him in a stronger position to beat incumbent Barbara Boxer (D) in November. The Los Angeles Times, in endorsing the proposition, wrote: “When voters are no longer restricted to candidates of their own party, candidates will be compelled to seek consensus positions rather than play to the party extremes.” But would Proposition 14 produce the outcome claimed by its proponents? On that question, there is plenty of doubt and disagreement. “The effect is likely to be marginal,” said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He pointed to a study by Eric


McGhee, published by the Public Policy Institute of California, that


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examined the arguments for the “top two vote-getters” system of nominating candidates. Proponents argue that if candidates had to appeal to all voters in a primary, rather than just those in their party’s base, more moderates would make it to the general election. McGhee said the evidence, mostly from past experience in the state with a related system, “points to a slight advantage to moderate candidates.” Proposition 14 has the support


of outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican. He has been repeatedly frustrated by his inability to bring along the rest of his party to support budget compromises with Democrats that include tax increases. Prop 14 went on the ballot as


part of a deal struck between the Democrats and Maldonado, then a state senator, to pass such a budget last year. A grateful Schwarzenegger later made Maldonado lieutenant governor. The ballot initiative has plenty of opponents, including the Democratic and Republican state chairmen, who think it would weaken political parties. Ron Nehring, the state Republican Party chairman, said if voters approve the initiative, the GOP would revert to a system in which candidates are selected through party caucuses and conventions. He said that would be a step


backward, handing more power to political insiders. “These [conventions] will be dominated


by party activists,” Nehring said. “So instead of 5 million people nominating candidates [in a primary], you’ll have a couple of hundred nominating them.” The process Nehring envisions would allow a political party to designate its favored candidate in advance of the open primary. Others in the party could still put their names on the open primary ballot, but the party would put its money and get-out-the-vote muscle behind those chosen through the convention system. Other opponents include representatives from minor parties, who argue that the system would prevent them in all but rare cases from making it to the general election ballot. The proposition also excludes write-in candidates from the general election ballot, a flaw that some proponents said should be corrected if it should pass Tuesday. Still another complaint is that in heavily Republican or Democratic districts, the two candidates who advance to the general election would be from the same party. California tried a version of this in the late 1990s under somewhat different rules known as the blanket primary. All candidates were placed on the same ballot, which was open to all voters. The voters could pick any candidate they wished, but the top vote-getter from each party advanced to the general election. The Supreme Court ruled that system unconstitutional. Proposition 14 is patterned after a later Washington state law that has passed constitutional muster with the high court. Recent polls have shown a


majority of voters supporting Proposition 14. Although there are many opponents of the measure, proponents have spent far more money on the campaign. That gives supporters hope that it will pass, though they are not especially confident. Whether changing the rules will change the culture of politics in California, or elsewhere, is unanswerable. Some skeptics think only a change in behavior by politicians will truly mend the dysfunctional politics of Sacramento — or Washington. But if Californians say yes to Proposition 14 on Tuesday, the rest of the country will be watching the results closely. balzd@washpost.com


Melanoma drug found to extend life


Study done on people with advanced stages of skin cancer


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Researchers have scored the


first big win against melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. An experimental drug signifi- cantly improved survival in a ma- jor study of people with very ad- vanced disease, researchers re- ported Saturday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s an- nual conference in Chicago. “We have not had any therapy


that has prolonged survival” until now, said Lynn Schuchter of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, a skin cancer specialist with no role in the study or ties to the drug’s maker. The drug, ipilimumab, works by helping the immune system fight tumors. The Food and Drug Administration has pledged a quick review, and doctors say the


drug could be available by the end of 2010. “People are going to have a lot of hope and want this drug, and it’s not on their doctors’ shelves,” although some might be able to get it through special programs directly from its maker, Bristol- Myers Squibb, Schuchter said. Melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. Last year in the United States, there were about 68,720 new cases and 8,650 deaths from the disease. World- wide, more than 50,000 people die of melanoma each year. “The incidence is rising faster than any other cancer,” said one of the study’s leaders, F. Stephen Hodi of Dana-Farber Cancer In- stitute in Boston. “When it spreads to vital organs, it’s almost always fatal.” The study involved 676 people around the world with advanced, inoperable melanoma who had tried other treatments. They were given one of three treatments: ipilimumab by itself, with an- other immune-stimulating treat-


ment, or the immune-stimulating treatment alone. After two years, 24 percent of those given the drug alone or in combination were alive, vs. 14 percent of those given just the immune-stimulating treatment. Average survival was 10 months with ipilimumab vs. just over 6 months for the others, which worked out to a 67 percent improvement in survival for those on the drug, said one of the study’s leaders, Steven O’Day of the Angeles Clinic and Research Institute in Los Angeles. Doctors also reported Saturday


at the conference that an experi- mental drug for lung cancer pa- tients with a certain gene showed extraordinary promise in early testing. The drug, Pfizer’s crizotinib,


targets a gene that promotes tu- mor growth and is found in about 4 percent of lung cancers, espe- cially among younger, nonsmok- ers.


— Associated Press


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