TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Obama's America (Detroit News) We're seeing perhaps the rise of Independent America -- voters who are going blue sometimes, sometimes not, but who are certainly thinking for themselves outside of ideological boxes.
• Growing independent population key to Central Florida, parties say (Daily Commercial) In Sumter, the number of independent voters has increased modestly; they represent about 17 percent of the registered voter share compared to about 14 percent in 2000.
• Early vote very Democratic (THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH) So far, 42,498, or nearly half, of the county's 88,374 registered Republicans have requested to vote by mail versus one in three, or 73,292, of the 210,729 Democrats registered and 92,055, about one in five, of the county's 547,240 unaffiliated voters requested absentee ballots sent to their homes.
• A Primer On Election Demographics (Forbes) This month, based on the conference papers, the Brookings Institution Press published Red, Blue & Purple America: The Future of Election Demographics.
• Economy, war top list for Ohio's key swing voters (Cleveland Plain Dealer) Ohio has 8.3 million voters registered for Nov. 4, a record. The latest figures show 2.3 million registered Democrats (28 percent) and 1.5 million registered Republicans (17 percent). The majority, 4.5 million or 55 percent, are unaffiliated voters, meaning they did not cast a ballot in the most recent primary.
• Why is N.C. up for grabs? Consider the newcomers--Voter registrations are also skewing to Democrats. North Carolinas has registered more than 780,000 new voters this year, 48 percent of them Democrats, 22 percent Republicans and the rest unaffiliated. So far in early voting, which began Oct. 16, more than 700,000 people have gone to the polls – 60 percent Democrats, 24 percent Republicans and the rest unaffiliated. (Charlotte Observer)

INDEPENDENCE PARTY

• Minnesota Independence Party Makes No Endorsement for President (Ballot Access News) This outcome represents a setback for Frank MacKay, state chair of the New York Independence Party.
• No endorsement from Minnesota Independence Party (Minneapolis Star Tribune) Democrat Barack Obama's campaign had pulled out of consideration earlier.

BLOOMBERG/TERM LIMITS
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's '09 run may be on Democrat line for third term (Daily News/Daily Politics) Bloomberg aides have indicated the Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent mayor would likely run on a third party line of his own creation in 2009 if the term limits extension he pushed through the City Council last week holds up in court.