TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

REFORM California nonpartisan redistricting..... Missouri open primaries..... Maine initiative and referendum.... North Carolina fair ballot access.... Oklahoma ballot access

• CA: Proposition 11 levels the redistricting playing field (Mercury News)
• CA: House Dems oppose Calif. redistricting measure (Daily Comet)
• MO: In our view: Consider local races (Joplin Globe) Our recommendation is that party affiliation is secondary to ensuring that competent people are elected to our county offices.
• ME: AUGUSTA Charter panel mulls petitions and their limits (Kennebec Journal)
• NC: Ballot laws hurt democracy-N.C. obstructions thwart third parties, independents (Daily Tarheel, UNC)
• OK: Barr fight: Ballot access is candidate's focus (NewsOK.com, The Oklahoman Editorial)

BONUSGATE PENNSYLVANIA

• Green Party candidate wants case reopened (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Bonusgate, a distraction we don’t need (The Sentinel) Meanwhile, a serious reform — a constitutional amendment to take partisanship out of the redistricting process — languished in committee, which means it can’t be passed in time for the next round of reapportionment following the 2010 census.
• Something’s Rotten in the State of Pennsylvania (Dissident Voice) Bonusgate involved the use of state employees to challenge the nominating petitions of Ralph Nader in 2004 (Also see Political Profiling in Pennsylvania, CounterPunch )

THIRD PARTY NEWS
Editorial: Barkley: IP gets a serious candidate (Minneapolis Star Tribune)