Independents, Massachusetts and the Good Ol' Tea Party

Independent voters have the upper hand. But who are they and what do they want? The independent movement is a broad movement defined increasingly by its own activity at the grassroots to reform election laws to include the 40% of the electorate that doesn't consider itself aligned with either major party. These reforms include open primaries, fair ballot access for independent candidates and appointments of independents to entities such as the Federal Election Commission and local redistricting commissions. Below are the headlines from the past week since the election of Scott Brown as Senator from Massachusetts.


Also, I highly recommend the article by Patrick Coolican in the Las Vegas Sun about the subjective state of the new old time right wing Tea Party movement. 


INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Third party: Both parties have lost credibility (LETTER Florida Times Union - Jacksonville) Perhaps the emergence of such a party would break the seemingly intractable political gridlock that has served the nation poorly for far too long and give all Americans a reason to once again feel optimistic about the country's future
• Independents are calling the electoral shots (Doyle McManus, LA Times) In any case, most independents -- contrary to claims from the "tea party" camp -- are looking for bipartisanship and centrism, not bloody-shirt populism.
• Main Street's Message (by Salena Zito, Townhall) No party that tells Americans what to do, socially or financially, is safe from independents.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• South Dajita: Lawmakers ponder changes as Democrats open primaries (By: Bob Mercer, Mitchell Republic Capitol Bureau)
• Standing Up for Change (by SASHA ABRAMSKY, The Nation) Electoral Reform. The Monterey-based group Reform for Change is leading the charge to build public support for changes in how elections are conducted--particularly for open primaries and new methods of redistricting that would make elections more competitive.
• Do Two California Ballot Measures, Both on the June 2010 Ballot, Conflict with Each Other? (Ballot Access News)
• Here’s the point: Unenrolled voters shouldn’t have party say (By Richard Greeley, Wicked Plympton MA News)

INDEPENDENTS AND MASSACHUSETTS

• Salit: Obama Is Losing Independents (By Azi Paybarah, NY Observer)
• Exit Survey Of Massachusetts Voters Confirms Lack Of Enthusiasm Among Progressives Hurt Coakley (Think Progress blog)
• Mazzaglia: Victory for the independents (By Frank Mazzaglia, Waltham MA Daily News Tribune)
• Florida Senate race comes down to independents (BY MYRIAM MARQUEZ, Miami Herald)
• G.O.P. Used Energy and Stealth to Win Seat (By ADAM NAGOURNEY, JEFF ZELENY, KATE ZERNIKE and MICHAEL COOPER, NY Times) “For us, this is not so much about Scott Brown as it is about the idea that if we really collaborate as a mass movement, we can take any seat in the country,” said Eric Odom, executive director of the American Liberty Alliance, who helped organize last spring’s Tax Day Tea Party rallies to protest government spending from his home in Chicago.
• Casulaties of Corporatism, Obama-Style (Carl Horowitz, Townhall)
• Coakley's mistakes enabled Brown (By JIM COOGAN, Cape Cod Times) Neither John Kerry in 2004 nor Martha Coakley in 2010 connected with independent voters.
• The militant middle gets its revenge (Metro US, Tom Foreman)
• The New Political Rumbling-Massachusetts may signal an end to old ways of fighting. (By PEGGY NOONAN, Wall Street Journal)
• Massachussetts Shift Wasn't Vote For Republican "Ideals" (By Raynard Jackson, BlackStarNews)
• What Exactly is Voter Anger? (by Robert L. Hanafin, Veterans Today)
• Democrats in denial (By A.B. Stoddard, The Hill/Pundits' Blog) Indeed President Obama and healthcare reform are both more popular than Martha Coakley in the Bay State, as I mentioned in my column this week, but national Democrats should have seen the power of more than 49 percent of unaffiliated voters in Massachusetts. They did not.
• Obama Embarks on Listening Tour-Ohio Trip to Focus on Jobs, not Health Care (By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON, Wall Street Journal)
• The Declaration of Independents (Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post)
• The Great Unalignment (By MATT BAI, NY Times)
• Scott Brown’s Massachusetts win fueled by independent voters (By Tracey D. Samuelson, Christian Science Monitor)
• Hit the reset button-- Dems must get independents back (NY Post, Kirsten Powers)
• Ex-RI Sen. Chafee: independents swung Mass race (Boston Herald)
• Mass. Senate race is a sure sign Democrats should hold on to something heavy (Andrea Tantaros, NY Daily News) New York has not only the Independence Party - which has its own line on the ballot - but also a large group of unaffiliated voters...
• Coakley’s failure to communicate (By Dan Payne, Boston Globe) Coakley’s campaign also didn’t understand the anger and fear in the electorate. Unemployment, Wall Street bonuses, stimulus money that didn’t stimulate, small businesses that can’t get loans and US Senators practically bribed to back health care reform. That was the wave that Brown caught and rode to victory.In November, incumbent New York mayor Michael Bloomberg almost got drowned by that wave; he spent $90 million of his own money and nearly lost to an unfunded nobody.
• Independents' anger in Massachusetts a sign of things to come? (By Ed Hornick, CNN)

RHODE ISLAND

• Chafee runs in R.I. as budget hawk (By RAY HENRY Associated Press Writer, The Day)

BARACK OBAMA

• White House Advisers Promise Sharper Focus on Jobs (By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, NY Times)
• One year of Obama--Our view: The campaign promise the new president has made the least progress in fulfilling is the one voters want most ? a change in the way Washington works (Baltimore Sun)
• Reacting to Mass. Rebellion, White House Beefs Up Outside Political Arm (ABC News/Political Punch, Jake Tapper)
• Obama's Big Sellout (MATT TAIBBI, Rolling Stone) The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway

TEA PARTY

• The Tea Party’s (old) paranoia--Today’s fervent ideological movement has roots in post-World War II right (By J. Patrick Coolican, Las Vegas Sun)
• TEA Party factions in Tennessee bear differing agendas (By Bartholomew Sullivan, Memphis Commercial Appeal)
• The Big Question: What is the Tea Party movement, and could it change US politics? (By Rupert Cornwell, The Independent - UK)