Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Sunday, February 28, 2010

JP Avlon -- Photo-op centrism is not enough: Can centrists and independents come together on systemic policy issues?

A round roundup of what's on the minds of independent pundits and voters from Florida to Massachusetts to New York. Starting out with a little ditty from newly acquisitioned Daily Beast/former New York Sun journalist John P. Avlon (John P. Avlon is senior political columnist for The Daily Beast and author of the new book "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America.")


Avlon says in his CNN post yesterday "Why centrist voters are fed up":

But photo-op centrism is, of course, not enough. It must be followed by substance. To really change the culture of Washington, we need to change the rules that reinforce this predictable partisanship.
The quickest policy cure would be to change the rigged system of redistricting that creates congressional 'safe seats' and replaces competitive general elections with closed primaries, where party activists reign supreme. Nonpartisan redistricting and open primaries would reward politicians who reach across the aisle, and would empower independent voters.
Can centrists and independents come together on these systemic policy issues? I think so! And because independents do (NOT) = centrists, we have a shot. (-NH)

And while you're here on The Hankster, don't skip Florida's redistricting issues, or a possible new Massachusetts independent party.

And as for New York -- what's going on in the Empire State? Well, the first independent mayor of New York City (Michael Bloomberg), backed by the NYC Independence Party county organizations (When does the county count more than the state? HINT: When the NYC IP is involved...) (Full disclosure, I'm the Treasurer of the Queens County Executive Committee of the Independence Party of New York, and a long-time activist for independent politics) gave money to the NY State Independence Party, which gave money to a local Repub operative who gave money to ____? Where will it all end? Hopefully, in the hands of the people.

Not really sure about this. But NY media is really excited. And a note about the "other" third party, the Working Families Party, which (having played a major role in the election of the "other" city-wide offices City Comptroller (former Queens City Councilmember John Liu) and City Advocate (Betsy Gotbaum's old job) is now under attack from the official election regulation bureaucracy. Small wonder...

Read on!

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
FLORIDA
MASSACHUSETTS
NEW YORK

No comments: