I think it was because of all the money coming in from the right trying to get it passed. Made me suspicious, too.
I sort of do too; at least if both sides are using the smoke-filled room method, you have the chance that the people in the room might pick someone competent and experienced on their own merits, instead of letting the general public pick someone on the basis of how photogenic, glib, inflammatory, demagogue-ish, or whatever they are. It may not be “democratic”, but it makes more sense.
I mean, the current Texas Lieutenant-Governor elect basically won the Republican primary through an obnoxious tea-party ideological campaign promising to fight Obama and secure the border, neither of which is within the purview of the Lieutenant Governor’s job. But it played well with the Republican primary public, so he got the nomination. I can’t help but think there’s no way on earth a smoke filled room would have chosen such a chump.
Open primaries seem kind of pointless, unless the parties in question have some sort of mechanism for limiting who actually can run in the primary. Otherwise, it’s just a popularity contest where the decorations are red and blue, and have a donkey or an elephant on them, and any old idiot can run for that party, and worse, people can go vote AGAINST viable candidates of the opposite party in hopes of facing the lesser opponent in the general election.