TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

For independent voters -- and many partisan Dems and Repubs -- it was a Bloomberg Week. Does the Mayor's re-registration as an "unafiliated" voter lay the groundwork for an independent run for President? Is Kevin Sheekey the mastermind of a grand scheme to capture the White House?

One thing the media doesn't want to talk about is the fact that, whether or not Mayor Bloomberg runs for the top office in the country, the way he got elected in New York City was with the support of the New York City Independence Party organization.

A sophisticated game plan put experienced independent operatives in the field to pull 60,000 votes on the IP line for his margin of victory in 2001, and another whopping 47% of the black vote out of the Democratic Party in a coalitional effort between independents and black voters in 2005. If you haven't already, read Jackie Salit's "The Bloomberg Story" - Salit was also quoted in the Boston Globe this week - the story the New York Media won't run....

• Bloomberg's America is different from Ross Perot's (CNN commentary)


• Bloomberg Sounds Like Independent Candidate (The Nation)


• Maybe Bloomberg is really running for Kingmaker (New York Times Week in Review)


• Third Party Candidates don't win in a Two Party System (Wall Street Journal)


• Bloomberg by a hair--the country is there (By David S. Broder, Washington Post)


• Lowell Weicker Jr. thinks a Bloomberg candidacy wouldn't just be a novelty (Greenwich Time)


• Bloomberg won't get voters to sign on (Michael Goodwin, Daily News)


• Cash alone won't clear 3rd-party hurdles (Indianapolis Star)