Storm's Brewin'

Well, this really got interesting now.

As the dominoes fell last week after Rep. Jerry Lewis announced his retirement, it was interesting to see how people lined up for the chance to take their shot at the seat.

And with state Sen. Bob Dutton's announcement Wednesday, it got even more intriguing.

But then, going through some of the political news sites out there, it dawned on me how interesting and intriguing this is going to be.

See, back in 2010, while Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina were bombarding our TV's and radios with ads, it seems we approved a measure that's going to make the District 31 battle, for lack of a better word, bloody.

Prop. 14 -- remember it? No? Well, it changed our primary system for most of the races we will vote on become open, and only the top two finishers in the primary will move on to the November general election.

What in the hell were we thinking?

As far as what races will become open, well, here's what the Secretary of State's website has to say:

Except for the office of U.S. President and county central committee offices, offices that used to be known as "partisan offices" (e.g., state constitutional offices, U.S. Congress, and state legislative offices) are now known as "voter-nominated" offices.

So, now, instead of a battle between the two big-spendin' Republicans -- Rep. Gary Miller and the aforementioned Dutton -- for the right to represent the GOP in November, it's going to be every man for himself in June.

Which means a couple of things. One, the Democratic party has its work cut out for it in the next five months. And two, our mailboxes are going to be absolutely packed with candidate mailers every day.

See, I had forgotten about the Prop. 14 changes. In my head, Gary Miller was going to have an uphill climb in having to make his way into a new district where he wasn't quite as well known as he was before. And even more so now with an established name from the region running against him as a Republican.

But now? All he and his campaign funds (and current Republican support) have to do in June is finish second. He doesn't have to fight Dutton and his local name recogition if he doesn't want to. All he and Dutton have to do is drum up support amongst their base to beat a local mayor (Pete Aguilar) and a community activist (Renea Wickman) to punch their ticket to a November battle.

Of course, the idea was to get the best two people to face off for our votes, regardless of political party. But man, this is going to test local voters' patience with this new system. Because if those two big-time, big-money Republicans push their way through, can you imagine the complaining that will come from the other side? Or vice versa?

The odds of it happening may not be as bad as I'm imagining it, mostly because the as something they want to grab. Which means that even more money (and mailers) will be poured into this race.

So brace yourself. A storm's coming. And I have a feeling it's going to get really nasty (and give you enough mailers to wallpaper your living room).