A U.S. Supreme Court decision about California elections forced Washington to change its primary system. Now the payback could come.

The Supreme Court rebuffed challenges by both parties to allow the Top Two primary to proceed in Washington. (Curiously, the 7-2 decision was authored by Thomas and Scalia dissented, which is at odds with the typical pattern on the court.)

Under Top Two, when the primary is held, voters can vote for anyone on the ballot. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general.

That would mean bitterly contested primaries — like, say, the 2006 Assembly race won by Jean Fuller — would be bitterly contested general election campaigns.

“I think it could sweep the nation, and will probably start in the West, probably by way of initiative in Oregon and California, out here where reforms have been so popular in the past century,” Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed told AP's David Ammons.

Washington had the blanket primary — where voters can vote for anyone, and the top vote-getter from each party advances to the general — until California picked it up, the California parties sued, and the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the parties. After some lawsuits and initiatives, Washington was stuck with an open primary, which party officials loved and voters and elected officials loathed. Now the state can go to the top-two, making the primary less a nominating process and more a winnowing election.

-- James Geluso, former Washington state resident