The little article in the Metro section yesterday of the New York Times about Michael Bloomberg's trip to Minnesota to address the Independence Party there belies a big national movement that has been established by independent voters to open up the primaries.
During the primaries, indies voted (mostly Democrat, and responsible for tipping the balance to Obama) in some version of "open primaries" in 33 states. In the remaining 18 states (or territories), independents were locked out of the first round of voting in one of the most open elections in our lifetime. (Nancy Ross at CUIP ran a primary season campaign for open primaries that asked indies to write letters to the editor and get involved at the local level. CUIP has a national network of activists working on reform issues in 40 states. They're planning August caucuses to discuss the issue.)
Independents wrote letters, blogged, and blogged, called their Board of Elections, and one activist even sent out a media advisory letting his local press know that he, an independent, was going to the poll to try to vote, saying the press might want to be there to see him TURNED AWAY!
The Hankster officially welcomes Mayor Bloomberg to the fight for open primaries. Thanks Mike!
1 comment:
I "heart" Mike Bloomberg :) Great Mayor. Intelligent, driven, savy politician (more so than people give him credit for). That would have been a fantastic Independent presidential bid. People were begging him to run. When Mayor Mike went to that Indie conference in Oklahoma several months ago, I thought he was getting ready to run. Apparently his internal polling (he hired an entire polling firm!) showed that with two candidates (Obama and McCain)able to appeal convincingly to Independents, there was simply not enough room for him in this election cycle.
He could have had my vote, he's a little authoritarian on issues like smoking, trans fat regulation etc. for my tastes, but he's been a great leader. Would've been fun.
Post a Comment