Word: minow
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...widen the area of choice by taking nominations out of the hands of party bosses and giving a much larger voice to ordinary voters. It is enough to make many politicians, and ordinary citizens, long for the old smoke-filled room. The current system, says Chicago Lawyer Newton Minow, who was Federal Communications Commission chairman under President Kennedy, is "guaranteed to give us bad choices...
...primary process, which so many experts had predicted would be a long, taxing ordeal, seemed to have turned out to be a rather short, taxing ordeal. This prompted criticism, especially from those who did not like the apparent results. Contended Newton Minow, Chicago lawyer and former FCC commissioner: "It's an atrocious system guaranteed to give us bad choices because the broad center of the country does not participate in the primary process." Complained Louis Masotti, director of the Center for Urban Affairs at Northwestern University: "It's terribly confusing and is a period of unusual and cruel...
...electorate. Because a greater degree of understanding of candidates and issues is needed to cast a primary ballot, those who vote tend to be articulate, highly motivated, upper middle income citizens, who are usually more ideologically committed, whether to the right or to the left. Writes Chicago Lawyer Newton Minow, former chairman of the FCC: "The current version of primaries turns the decision over to what, in a sense, is a new kind of political boss. A small handful of party activists dominate the primaries. The result is a process that tends to fragment rather than unify and to confuse...
...Minow proposes a more elaborate scheme to give political leaders additional influence. No delegate would be bound to any candidate if the primary vote is less than two-thirds of the party's registered voters. In practice, that would mean that almost all delegates would go to the convention uncommitted. Furthermore, independents would not be allowed to cast their ballots in the party primaries. Instead, they would have a vote of their own. The independent vote would have no official standing, but it would be taken into consideration by the party delegates when they attend the convention. They would...
...executive suites, the bewilderment is no different. Said Bell & Howell Chairman Donald Frey: "I'm both puzzled and appalled. I just can't get the words and the music together." Sighed lifelong Democrat Newton Minow, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and a Carter supporter: "The Cabinet is not the problem. It is the people in the White House. Elevating Ham Jordan is no answer...