Dick Leinenkugel: In beer and in politics, competition is a good thing

While it may sometimes feel like an unnecessary obstacle, competition is almost always a good thing.

I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times during my tenure as president of Leinenkugel’s that I’d wished the only choice you as consumers had was whether to order our Original Lager or Honey Weiss at the bar. But the truth is, the competition that we had at Leinenkugel’s was good for both you as the consumer and us as brewers. It gave you more options and pushed us to be better and more innovative at our craft. Competition benefits everyone, not just in the beer market, but in politics, as well.

According to recent studies, more than 80% of districts for the United States House of Representatives across the country are either solidly Democratic or solidly Republican. By the time we reach the general election, a small group of voters has already decided the outcome of the election for all voters. The healthy competition in our general elections that our democracy needs is absent for most of our country.

The ripple effects from this lack of competition can be seen every day — elected officials seem out of touch, interest groups exert more and more influence over the legislative process, and there’s a complete lack of bipartisanship. The dirtiest word in Washington these days is a value we were all taught as children — cooperation. Elected officials know that cooperation and compromise will be seen as weakness and will be met with a more extreme primary challenger in the next election. The system incentivizes gridlock rather than problem solving or serving interest groups while the rest of us get left behind.

Wisconsin businesswoman Katherine Gehl, former CEO of Gehl Foods and Co-Founder of Democracy Found, has developed a voting system based on the free-market principles of business called “Final Five Voting.” This system eliminates partisan primaries and makes all candidates, regardless of party, run in a single primary election, creating fair and open competition. Once primary votes are cast, the top five vote getters (again, regardless of party) move on to the general election.

In the general election, voters rank up to five candidates in their order of preference via a single ballot and the winner is determined via instant-runoff. In each round of this runoff, the last-place candidate is eliminated, and any voter who had that candidate as their first choice has their vote transferred to their second-choice candidate. The process is repeated until a winner is chosen by a true majority of voters.

Eliminating partisan primaries by implementing Final Five Voting can free us from the undue influence that interest groups, party leadership and primary voters currently have over our electoral and legislative processes and re-inject some much needed healthy competition into our democracy. Final Five Voting will give elected officials the freedom to work together to solve meaningful challenges, delivering results to keep their jobs. It is the best way to return to the truly democratic core principles our republic was founded upon.

Sound too good to be true? Seem like a political pipe dream? Think again. Alaska has already passed a form of Final Five Voting, and there are active campaigns in several states, including here in Wisconsin, Georgia and Nevada. This is a reform that is practical, achievable and will produce real results for the betterment of our democracy.

I am proud that our legislators in northwest Wisconsin are leading the charge to bring Final Five Voting here. I applaud my fellow veteran, Republican Sen. Jesse James, and Democratic Sen. Jeff Smith for their support of Final Five legislation. The common sense of real people in northwest Wisconsin can see through the noise of political hacks telling them they should or shouldn’t like something, and they appreciate the independence of their legislators doing what’s best, even if — especially if — it is done in a bipartisan way.

If you agree that our democracy is due for an upgrade, and that we need the competition our political system has been missing, then I encourage you to voice your support for Final Five Voting and our legislators who are leading the charge to bring it to Wisconsin.