VIDALIA &045; Thirty years after Louisiana switched to the open primary system of elections, Concordia Parish Clerk of Court Clyde Ray Webber says he wishes the state would switch back.

In the open primary system, all candidates &045; no matter what their party &045; run against each other in the primary, with the top two candidates facing off in a runoff election later.

That’s opposed to states such as Mississippi, which holds Democratic and Republican primaries. In such states, winners of the primaries go on to the general election, where they face each other and any independent or third-party candidates.

This session state Rep. Charlie Lancaster, R-Metairie, has filed legislation that, in addition to having Louisiana elect U.S. senators and congressmen in November instead having December runoffs, would switch the state back to closed primaries.

When he represented the state’s clerks of court on a statewide committee studying the change in the mid-1970s, Webber thought changing to open primaries was a good idea.

&uot;I thought it would be a good idea, that we’d save money because we would have fewer primaries,&uot; said Webber, Concordia’s clerk of court for more than 30 years. &uot;And we do save a little money.&uot;

But there are significant political costs to having open primaries, Webber said.

&uot;When you have 10 people in a race and you have an extreme liberal and an extreme conservative, they get blocks of votes and the middle-of-the-roaders’ (votes) are watered down,&uot; Webber said.

As a result, the far-right or -left candidates are elected in many cases. That was the case, for example, in recent political history with the election of Edwin Edwards and the strong showing of David Duke, Webber said.

And it will take quite an extreme candidate getting elected to convince Louisianans to change back to the closed primary system, he predicted.

Of course, that may not happen soon. &uot;If you’re elected under the open primary system,&uot; Webber said, &uot;you don’t care about messing with that.&uot;