TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• 2 views on open primaries in today's Allentown PA Morning Call
• Washington Post weighs in on mayoral control in New York citing national ramifications

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Independents approve of Sotomayor for top court by 61% according to Quinnipiac
• California Assembly passes law to require poll workers to tell independent voters that they may choose a ballot in the primary -- if you haven't seen the Agnes & Myrtle video, please do!
• Louisiana state legislative committee quashes return to open primaries

sotomayor

an american story

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• White House Cheat Sheet: GOP Weighs Strategy on Court Fight (Chris Cillizza, Washington Post/Voices/The Fix) For Republicans to have any chance of defeating Obama in 2012, they must find a way to convince independent voters that the president is far less than advertised on the issue of bipartisanship.
  
• Specter lead over Toomey narrows, poll shows (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) Sen. Arlen Specter has lost some ground, but would win re-election comfortably if the 2010 Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race was held today, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll released this morning.
  

OPEN PRIMARIES

Electing judges: Mend it, don't end it (By NATHAN R. SHRADER, Philadelphia Daily News)

INDEPENDENT MAYOR BLOOMBERG 09

• Potential New York mayoral rival to Bloomberg quits (James Pethokoukis, Reuters)
  
• Keep mayoral control: Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's plan offers hope for city schools (Daily News)
  
• Barrett: Dems Discuss Restricting Bloomberg's School Control (By Wayne Barrett, Village Voice/Runnin Scared)
  

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• New Jersey needs open primaries!
  
• Anthony Weiner drops out of almost running for the Dem nomination for NYC Mayor, Avella hangs in there for Repubs...
• The Bloomberg-Sotomayor connection....
• The Bloomberg-Carolyn McCarthy connection!
  

Talk Talk: Labor, Capital and Consistency

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Every weekend CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist and philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogues compiled on Sunday, May 24, 2009 after watching selections from "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," and several Charlie Rose interviews. Read the entire Talk Talk here. Salit: How would you characterize what is going on in the world?   Newman: That's what I'm characterizing, what's going on.   Salit: Are you agreeing that it will work?   Newman: I'm not agreeing that it's going to work.   Salit: OK.   Newman: But that's what's going on. And it might work for some time, and I'm even agreeing that it might be what's needed right now to get the world over the hump of the current crisis. But I don't know that it's where things have to wind up. I think the interests of capital are, in some fundamental sense, antithetical to the interests of labor.   Salit: So, in other words, it's not clear there can be a workable synthesis?   Newman: Yes. But that's a different discussion.    Read Talk Talk in its entirety here.

american pie

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS

• Officials look to fill Cov. town bodies (HANNAH CLARKIN, Kent County Times - RI) In the former policy, applications went before the town council, in an earlier draft of the council’s new policy, applications would go to party chairpersons. “As Mr. Spear and I talked about it, we realized that unaffiliated and independent voters might not want to go to the chairs of political parties to submit their applications.”
  
• State GOP to pick leader and direction (By MARK BINKER, Greensboro NC News Record) Include independents in primaries? Well, maybe not....
  
• Could budget defeat lead to reform? (Jerry Roberts, Phil Trounstine, San Francisco Chronicle) Open primaries key to more democracy in California
  
• Political Outsider Finds a Fight Inside City Hall (MONICA DAVEY, Tuscaloosa News) Whatever stereotypes there are for politicians, Mr. Funkhouser, who considers himself an independent, fits none of them. He is 6-foot-8, bearded and gangly. He has a Ph.D. in public administration and sociology but grew up in the hills of West Virginia and once worked in an aluminum factory. And for almost two decades, he was Kansas City’s auditor, a fearless, headline-grabbing critic of city programs who was unafraid to poke at Kansas City’s business establishment, its developers and its political elite.
  

 

he's safe!

h/t to marian rich for this photo

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• The Hill picks up the Pew Research piece on the centrality of independent voters in today's political climate, as does the St. Louis Post Dispatch,., and pal-item from Richmond, Indiana...
  
• Joe Gandelman comments on the Pew poll over at The Moderate Voice -- he says that "more than ever the true battleground for elections is going to be over which party can win over independent voters — since independent voter identification and centrism are surging." Ok, but let's not forget the option that independent voters are becoming a voting bloc increasingly voting against partisan interests and in favor of their own interests -- a tough battleground for the parties to operate on....
  

• It seems that New York City isn't the only place where school reform is on the table -- Boston considers returning to elected school committees...
  

• And Errol Lewis has some observations on why Mayor Bloomberg is running HARD for re-election... [And just by the way, that 7-point gain since February in popularity for Mayor Mike is a result of the New York City Independence Party endorsement....]
  

• Scranton PA Times Tribune calls for open primaries
  

• Independent journalist Stephen Thompson gives us a picture of what happened to the Perot movement in Washington State...
  

Independent Voters: Centrist or "True Independents"?

h/t to Burr Demming for inspiring this post... (if you haven't checked out burr Demming's blog FairAndUnbalanced, please go now!)

From my vantage point, the distinction between "centrist" and "independent" is the single most important distinction we can make right now. The AP piece, written by Liz Sidoti, calls independents "fickle" and then "warns" Pres. Obama (Liz might have an application in to Fox News?) not to move further to the left "lest they turn off middle-of-the-road voters whose support was critical in 2008 and will be important in upcoming elections..."

Hmmmm.... What's wrong with this picture?

Two words: Partisan politics!

What Liz Sidoti (and her editors at the Associated Press) doesn't understand is that, far from "fickle", independent voters in our country not only HAVE NOT changed their ideology to suit the times (see the recent Pew Research study), they also feel that the "fickle" ones are the politicians (and the journalists who never seem to interview and quote real independents, but who just regurgitate the message that their bosses tell them to.... -- For a more nonpartisan take on current political trends, see independent stratagist Jackie Salit's "How the Independent Movement Went Left by Going Right"--an important analysis of where the independent movement came from, where it is, and where it might be going...)

Ideology is dead. Long live activity!! As Mother Jones said, Don't mourn, organize!

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

More about that Pew Research poll showing independents taking the lead among US voters:

• Fox News makes note of "surge under Obama" of voters calling themselves independent...
  

• AP chooses the headline which I find interesting for its pompousness, but also for its sensationalism worthy of the best Brit tabloid.  "Country in midst of centrist era" Never mind the real deal is that we're at the beginning of an independent era! But hey, that's journalism....
  

What's the difference between centrism and independence? Think "American Revolution"! America has never been a country of moderates -- we are a country of innovators and risk-takers. You don't win a war of independence from the most powerful empire of the 18th Century with middle-of-the-road ideas. 

George Washington warned of the baneful effects of party, and boy was he on the money! Our founding documents claim the rights of "We the People" to supercede tyrants and despots. It will take true independents of whatever ideology, marching together, to overcome the death-grip that the parties have over our democracy.

Damn the AP, full steam ahead!!

-NH

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• * Independents Take Center Stage in Obama Era-Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2009 (Pew Research Center for the People & the Press)
  
• * Pew: Independent Voters Are Conflicted, Centrist and At a 70-Year High (Politics Daily blog)
  
• * Pew Poll Notes Rise In Independent Voters (NPR) Kohut says this just means that independent voters are "unbalanced centrists"
  
• * A Headline That Tells Half The Story-From the Huffington Post:  Obama's New Electorate: Poll Shows GOP Deteriorating (Politics.The Atlantic)
  
• * Dems Making Massive Gains As GOP Deteriorates: Pew Poll (Thomas B. Edsall, Huffington Post)
  
• * Power players - POLITICS: With GOP influence dwindling, moderate Democrats may be the only senators who can slow President Obama’s ambitious agenda (Edward Lee Pitts, World Mag.com - Todays News, Christian Views)
  
• * LETTER: Democrats are keeping people of color down (South Coast Today.com (MA)
  

OPEN PRIMARIES

• * American Idol holds big lessons for American democracy (Examiner - DC) Here are just a few of American Idol’s lessons for American democracy: 1.  Open primaries....
  
• * The Experts Expound - “What’s the first thing you would you do to fix the Capitol’s structural mess? Simple-majority vote for budgets and taxes? Eliminate term limits? Open primaries? Part-time Legislature? Something else? (Capitol Weekly - the newspaper of California government)
  

Onward to a more independent (non-partisan) America!

The Pew Research survey that came out today heralds the coming of an independent America!

While Pew Research chooses to introduce their statistical analysis with the obligitory "centrist" definition of independent voters -- and if you HAVE to have a definition (DSM XXVV) of independent ideology, it might as well be "centrist", though independents are notoriously anti-label, anti-ideology, and defy definition, but hey.... that's what a funded study will get you -- the meat of the story is that independents have "emerged as a dominant factor in public opinion as the Obama era begins... Both political parties have lost adherents since the election and an increasing number of Americans identify as independents."

And as a companion piece, WATCH THE VIDEO "How the Independent Movement Went Left by Going Right" with an analysis by an actual independent who has helped lead independents to a position of power nationally -- Jackie Salit's brilliant analysis of the emerging black and independent alliance that elected Barack Obama, and the movement that is growing and still to-be-built. 

-NH

Queens Spring Chair Reception 2009

Queens County Independence Party Chairwoman Molly Honigsfeld talks about the strength of the independent movement in Queens at the 8th Annual Spring Chair Reception last Saturday.

Queens Independence Party Spring Chair Reception May 16

Queens Independence Party members and guests gathered at La Terrazza in Forest Hills last Saturday to celebrate another growthful year. (l-r) Cathy Stewart, New York County Chair; Molly Honigsfeld, Queens County Chair, NY State Sen. Frank Padavan (11th CD); Dr. Lenora Fulani; Jerry Everett, Queens Chair Emeritus.

Democrats and Mistakes, Independents, and Republicans

Democrats and Mistakes: Earlier I posted a link to a post on Polit Bureau "Independence day for Democrats" that I credited to Newsday. Thanks to David Reich-Hale Editor Long Island Business News for the correction! (I can't speak for the correctness of Nassau Co. IP's endorsements....)

Independents: Meanwhile, the New York City organizations of the Independence Party of New York have endorsed independent Mayor Mike Bloomberg for a third term. There's a rally in Harlem on Thursday June 4 at the A.M.E. Bethel Church.

Republicans: And the Queens County Independence Party just honored long-time independents Dr. Fred Newman and Dr. Lenora Fulani, along with independent Republican NY State Senator Frank Padavan (11th CD) at its 8th annual Queens Spring Chair Reception. Sen. Padavan pointed out that there are more independents in his district than Republicans, so it is because of independents that he is in office. We might also add that Sen. Padavan is one of those rare elected officials who actually listens to his constiutents (regardless of party or non-party) and is thereby much less beholden to partisan interests than most. Cudos, Senator Padavan!

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Committee for a Unified Independent Party on the blogs (Roland's Ramblings)
  

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• The First 1,000 Days-Bloomberg reflects on Obama (Michael Bloomberg, NEWSWEEK)

OPEN PRIMARIES

• 57,000 area voters don't get a say today in primaries (PennLive.com Editorial)
  

NEW YORK POLITICS - INDEPENDENCE PARTY

• Mayoral control of schools hinges on state Senate GOP (BY KENNETH LOVETT AND GLENN BLAIN, DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU)
  
• Independence day for Democrats (Newsday)
  
• Golisano's Parting Shots (Daily News/Daily Politics)
  
• Smith: Mayoral Control Isn't About Bloomberg (Except When It Is) (Daily News/Daily Politics)
  

Bloomberg on Obama's first 100 days

Mayor Bloomberg has written an insightful analysis of President Obama's first 100 days for Newsweek.

He credits Obama for governing as an independent and overcoming the partisanship of Washington.  

Inifinite Monkeys with Jackie Salit on the independent movement

Don't miss this podcast by Infinite Monkeys:

audio by artist ben boychuk robb leatherwood jackie salit

The Ben and Joel Podcast: Viva la Independencia!

Wed, 05/13/2009 - 13:11 — Ben

It's independent's day on the podcast, which returns with gusto after a brief hiatus. Ben Boychuk and guest host Robb Leatherwood talk "post-partisanship" with Jackie Salit, an activist, political consultant, executive editor of the Neo-Independent and spokeswoman for IndependentVoting.org.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

Even The Economist is talking about open primaries for California....

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• New Gallup Poll: Obama at 66 percent (Seattle Post Intelligencer/Strange Bedfellows blog)
  

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY

• Bloomberg flunked: Bill in Albany would take away mayor's control of city education policy panel (BY KENNETH LOVETT, DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF)
  
• Bloomberg and the Teachers' Union (By Wayne Barrett, Village Voice)
  
• Recommended reading: THE STRIKE THAT CHANGED NEW YORK This book revisits the Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis - a watershed in modern New York City race relations. Jerald E. Podair connects the conflict with the sociocultural history of the city and explores its influence on city politics, economics, and culture. Podair shows how the crisis became a symbol of the vast perceptual chasm separating black and white New Yorkers. And the legacy of this critical moment, when blacks and whites spoke past each other like strangers, has ever since played a role in city issues ranging from mayoral elections to budget negotiations, disputes over police violence, and debates on welfare policy. The book is a powerful, sobering tale of racial misunderstanding and fear, a New York story with national implications. http://books.google.com/books?id=gEEA0RxSR3EC

ON THE BLOGS

• Could You Possibly Be An “Independent”? (Orange Juice Blog)
  
• Rant Power of the Independents – GOP Beware (Rant Rave blog)
  
• Analyzing How the Independent Went Left by Going Right (Ordinary Person blog)
  

Ocean Hill-Brownsville Redux????

h/t the RICHARD KAHLENBERG

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OPEN PRIMARIES

• MS: Littleton denies harassing voters (By William Browning, Greenwood Commonwealth)
  
• Broken system must be fixed (San Bernardino Sun)
  

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY

• Beyond black and white: Obama-Bloomberg alliance signals a less tribal time in city politics (Erroll Lewis, NY Daily News)
  
• Cities Cry Foul on Stimulus Cash - Several Mayors Challenge the Way Governors Are Doling Out Project Funds (By SUZANNE SATALINE, Wall Street Journal Online)
  
• Weiner will decide on mayoral run by month's end (By Jason Fink, amNY)
  
• DOWNSTATE Candidates stepping up for Southampton supervisor race (Rick Brand, Newsday)
  
• Is President Obama Going to Stay Out of the NYC Mayor's Race? (Political Punch, ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper)
  
• Albany Panel Signals It Won’t Give the Mayor Carte Blanche on Schools (By JENNIFER MEDINA, NY Times)
  
• Silver backs mayor’s school control (By Josh Rogers, Downtown Express)
  

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

REPUBLICAN PARTY

• It's Alive! Obituaries For The Republican Party In The Northeast Appear To Have Been Premature (John Mercurio, National Journal)
  
• Steve Francis: Sunshine ahead for the GOP? (San Diego News Network)
  

OPEN PRIMARIES

• California Budget part five: How Abel Raised Cain (By Sheila Kuehl, California Integrated Waste Management Boardmember, California Progress Report)
  

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY

• Queens Republicans Relent, Endorse Bloomberg For Mayor (John Toscano, Queens Gazette)
  
• Obama meets with Sharpton, Gingrich, Bloomberg (By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, AP)
  
• Obama, Bloomberg meeting not an endorsement (Newsday)
  

Bloomberg-Fulani 2009

NYC is all a-twitter

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Queens Repubs cry uncle on Bloomberg endorsement ...
  
• John Mecurio says Repubs are not dead yet
  

h/t to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News -- ever a keen eye to the independent and third party movement, he called me yesterday to let me know that I had mistakenly identified a town in Connecticut (Redding) as being in Pennsylvania (Reading) in a report about Mike D'Agostino's petition drive to create a third party there. Thanks, Richard!

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• A third party in Redding PA? D'Agostino starts petition process
  
• Idaho's Huntsman Rising, Weaver Advising Rising, Weaver Advising 
  
• Fulani on Bloomberg and Black Independent Alliance
  
• Hello Dolly Llama on partisanship
  
• Repubsneed to attract independents -- but will they?
  

Queen Independence Party Spring Chair Reception May16

Please join us

Saturday, May 16th

4-5:30pm

Forest Hills (Queens) New York

The 8th Annual Spring Chair Reception

For more information or to purchase aticket, call 646-567-6641

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS:

• Independents' Day (Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic/Daily Dish)
  
• Obama's test of impartiality for Souter's successor-Justice must be blind, not partisan. The Supreme Court can't be another political battleground. (Christian Science Monitor's Editorial Board)
  

 

OPEN PRIMARIES:

• Ballot package not the answer --Anything short of political reform is a bandaid ( Bernardino Sun) 
  
• Specter among last of dying breed: liberal Republican (Reading Eagle PA) PA's closed primary system keeps partisanship alive and well...
  

Independents Day has come early this year!

Check out the new independent social website Independents Day! 

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Failure of bi-partisanship? [Bipartisanship is still partisanship to me!]
  
• The Specter haunting the parties
  
• Obama and the independents
  
• South Carolina's open primary in danger from Repubs
  
• New Yorkers choose between Bloomberg and uhhh... who? NARAL endorses Mike