TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 11/10/09

Continued wrap-up commentary of November elections with the addition of some of those wonderful non-partisan independent voices from New Hampshire. Up-tick in self-financed campaigns. Rhode Island has a serious independent candidate and a new third party for 2010. New York's fusion election shows media ignoring NYC Independence Party's 142,817 votes (double the 2005 vote) -- in an election where Dem and Repub votes went down -- and going after Working Families Party. And d. eris at Poli-Tea has an interesting post. I hope he'll consider a brief study of what the NYC IP has been able to accomplish within a duopoly ideology!


NONPARTISAN POLITICS

• Local voters are the core of the political process (Citizen.com - Laconia NH) Democrats have been on a roll since capturing control of Congress and it was reinforced a year ago by the election of President Barack Obama. Democratic leaders want to keep the machine well oiled and Republicans are struggling to make a comeback. But looking for partisan gains in nonpartisan elections is a poor exercise in terms of time and energy. It underestimates the intelligence of people who live in those communities. 
• Idaho races get scrutiny (AP-Idaho Statesman) Steve Shaw, a political scientist at Northwest Nazarene University, noted that nonpartisan elections in Idaho tend to draw much lower turnouts than the higher-profile partisan races for state and national office. Shaw said a switch to partisan races for cities might attract more voter interest. [Waaaat?? Partisan logic has no bounds!]
• Greg Moore: Tuesday's message from voters: Butt out, party bosses (Union Leader) These two races should be a warning to party leaders nationally. Both the Republican and Democrat brands are tarnished, and voters want ideas and principles from candidates, not a partisan seal of approval.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

• Candidates pour more of own cash into races (By John Fritze, USA TODAY) Driven partly by a growing number of competitive primaries, self-funding in the first nine months of the year outpaced a 14% rise in all campaign receipts. The number of candidates who gave themselves $500,000 or more jumped to 15 from five in 2007, Federal Election Commission data show.
• Politics & Poker: Self-Funders Could Influence Several ’10 Contests (By Josh Kurtz, Roll Call)

GOVERNORS RACES

• Nontraditional candidates spice up 2010 governor's race in R.I. (Ben Schreckinger, Brown Daily Herald) “It has the potential to be a very unique general election,” said former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee ’75, who is running as an independent. ....The high proportion of unaffiliated voters in the state benefits third parties, Hunsinger said, and the Moderate Party’s statewide organization is already comparable to Republicans’, she added.... 

BLOOMBERG 09

• Bloomberg wins third term (By Brian Donohue, Irish Emigrant Online) Many New Yorkers were troubled with this turn of events [overturn of term limits], however the strong Bloomberg supporters including the Irish American community came out in full force and a last minute surge of votes from Bloomberg strongholds in Queens pulled him into a clear lead. [I was at a Sunnyside poll and I'd say not only did the Irish American community come out in force, they also voted on Column C, the Independence Party line!]

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY

• Who'll dare to probe the WFP? (By JACOB GERSHMAN, NY Post) Spurred by an election lawsuit filed by Randy Mastro, a top aide in the Giuliani administration, Donovan's office has "begun a preliminary review" of Debi Rose's WFP-boosted campaign for City Council, say sources.

ON THE BLOGS

• On the Dialectic of the Subjective and the Objective in the Reproduction of the Two-Party State (d.eris, Poli-Tea) It may well be the case that the greatest barriers to third party and independent politics are subjective in nature, the set of political prejudices that constitute duopoly ideology and create the conditions necessary for the reproduction of the two-party state even against the better judgment of a majority of the population.