LEDE

• How Prop 14 Election Overhaul Could Change California (By MAX FISHER, The Atlantic Wire) Victory for Independent Voters The Moderate Voice's Nancy Hanks writes, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that this will take power away from the parties and put it in the hands of the people, which is what we wanted to do." Hanks cites the statement from an independent voters group: "As a result, the 3.4 million Decline to State independent voters will have equal access to our political process. At the rate voters are choosing to become independents here in California, we expect to be over the four million mark by our next election cycle."

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Kansas Democrats Open Primary; GOP Says No (Reporter: 13 News WIBW)
• Voter wants blanket primary (By M.J. Ellington, Montgomery Bureau, Times Daily AL)
• New California primary system could be good for Arizona (by Linda Valdez, The Arizona Republic)
• New York Now Lagging California In Race for Non-Partisan Elections (By HENRY STERN, Special to the NY Sun)
• California Goes Nonpartisan (Gotham Gazette/Wonkster)
• Dems open August primary (BY TIM CARPENTER, Topeka Capital Journal) "Allowing unaffiliated voters to join Democrats as we choose our candidates will strengthen our candidates and continue our long tradition of inclusion as a party," Gates said.

PROP 14

• Proposition California ensures electoral blandness (By George F. Will, Washington Post) Proposition 14's purpose is to weaken and marginalize parties, traditionally the principal vehicles for voter education and mobilization.
• California campaign: We need straight talk from the candidates (EDITORIAL LA Times) Last week's party primary could be the last state election for quite some time in which a Democratic front-runner like Jerry Brown can secure an issues-free ride to the general election by using his fundraising prowess to scare off opponents, or in which a Republican front-runner like Meg Whitman need only dominate the airwaves and repeat platitudes that cater to her conservative base to win a spot in the final.
• An un-American attack: California's dangerous 'reform' will empower people who want to buy democracy (ERROL LOUIS, NY Daily News)
• Editorial: Hand grenade (Gainesville FL Sun)
• Would California's new election system fly in Florida? (By Howard Troxler, Tampa Bay.com - St. Petersburg Times) In fact, Winger said, independents generally tend to mirror the dominant attitude in their area anyway. They're not registered in a party, but they tend to produce the same kind of election results.
• Governor Schwarzenegger Discusses New Era Of Government With Passage Of Proposition 14 (by Imperial Valley News)
• Thomas D. Elias: Voters serious about reform (Appeal Democrat)
• Primaries should be open to all (LETTER HERALD NEWS NJ)
• California is showing the way with open primaries (LETTER Daily Record)
• The great race, stay tuned (By DAVID S. BRODER, Seacoast Online) An impromptu transcontinental race has begun, with nothing less at stake than the future of the American political and governmental system.
• Voters are trying to make government work - Legislative redistricting and open primary measures have become law. Congressional redistricting is on November ballot and legislative term limits probably will be too. (By George Skelton, LA Times/Capitol Journal)
• TWIPC: Will California’s Prop 14 make for more civil elections? (Joe Anello, College News) If it goes the way its supporters hope, however, then California will be the guinea pig for the rest of the nation. An election with an open primary would give voters a legitimate choice between candidates and adequate information about each of them.
• Schwarzenegger, Congressman Waxman say Prop 14 will boost bipartisanship (Kitty Felde, 89.1 KPCV Southern California Public Radio) L.A. Democrat Henry Waxman, head of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, agrees. He says Prop 14 reminds Republicans that voters want movement on issues — like more Medicaid money for California — and that voters will punish them on Election Day for just saying “no.”
• Proposition 14 challenged, for good and better reasons (posted by Mark Landsbaum, OC Register/Orange Punch) Moreover, the everyone-in-the-pool primary approach will result in marginalizing ideological candidates and encouraging compromise candidates to pander to as wide an audience as possible. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a prescription for easier-to-impose taxes.
• Schwarzenegger says he would not have been able to win a Republican primary (LA Times/PolitiCal)
• Schwarzenegger: Open Elections Can Change Politics (NPR) "If there would have been no recall election, I wouldn't have been able to win, because I would not have been able to win a Republican primary because I'm too much in the center and I'm not that far to the right."
• Arnold Schwarzenegger Contemplates His Legacy (Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic)/
• Daniel Weintraub: Prop. 14 is triumph for state centrists (By Daniel Weintraub, Sac Bee) The victory for the open primary, Proposition 14, represents the second time in two years that voters have blessed one of the governor's proposals to change the way we elect legislators and other state officials. In 2008, at his urging, voters took the job of drawing political boundaries away from the Legislature and gave that task to an independent commission. The two measures combined, if they survive court challenges and politicians' attempts to undo them, will leave the state with a system that should elect more moderates like Schwarzenegger and fewer politicians who come from the far left and far right of the ideological spectrum.
• California Notes: Proposition 14 (Blue Wave News) More to the point, the state of Washington has an identical system now, whose legality and Constitutionality was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2008. For that reason, I do not think Prop 14 is likely to be struck down by any legal challenge. As this takes effect in January of 2011, its effects won’t be tested until 2012, but it will be very interesting to see what will happen then. Whatever Abel Maldonado thinks, I don’t think it will be the end of polarized politics in California. However, it may very well shift the focus from party affiliation to personal political views. 
• Prop 14 Opponents Look at Options (KCBS - San Francisco/Oakland) ”The Supreme Court said we do not think it violates freedom of association on its face, but it might, as applied,” said Winger. “But in order to have an as-applied challenge you have to use it first and gather evidence.”
• Results Summary SAN FRANCISCO June 8, 2010 Consolidated Statewide Direct Primary Election
•  CLICK HERE FOR MORE COUNTY RESULTS 
• A Disaster for the Republican Right (By Tony Quinn, Political Commentator and Former Legislative Staffer, Fox & Hounds Daily) Start with the long term: Proposition 14, the top two open primary. This measure will have a bigger impact on Republican candidates, because there is not a single district in California with a Republican registration majority.  
• Cooling partisan gridlock in the Capitol (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Under the radar: Another view of Election Night (By Anthony York, Capitol Weekly)
• Five lessons learned from Tuesday's election (LA Daily News) 2. Voters are tired of the status quo.

BALLOT ACCESS

• Minor Party/Independent Candidate Constitutional Lawsuits Pending in 21 States (Ballot Access News)
• Twelve Independents and One Minor Party Candidate File for Alabama Legislature (Ballot Access News)

COLORADO

• Prosecutor: Greif e-mail not bribery (by Shane Benjamin, Durango Herald)
• Curry still awaiting ruling on ballot-access claim (John Stroud, Post Independent, Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado) “I've always said my job is to move forward with my message regardless of what the Democrats decide to do,” Curry said. “If I'm in write-in mode, it does put the bar even higher for me to get that message across.”

ILLINOIS

• Bill Brady Leads Governor Pat Quinn in New Poll (The State Column) The poll also shows Brady leading Quinn more than two to one among independent voters while 10 percent of those polled remain undecided on a candidate. The poll also shows 57 percent of voters disapprove of Quinn’s job performance as governor.
• Cohen says he has enough signatures (Southtown Star) Scott Lee Cohen said he isn't having trouble collecting the 25,000 signatures he needs to get on the November ballot as an independent candidate for Illinois governor.

MAINE

• Maine voters showed us their wisdom (Opinion, Sea Coast Online) But it could well be that the average Mainer, including that wide swath of independent voters, will find problems with both LePage and Mitchell and seek a third choice in one of the three independents who will be on the ballot. One of these, Eliot Cutler, could present a formidable challenge. Cutler's background is as an environmentalist, helping Sen. Edmund Muskie craft the Clean Air Act and then working on energy related issues in the Office of Management and Budget and for President Jimmy Carter.

NORTH CAROLINA

• SEIU drafts independent candidate against Kissell (By Kevin Bogardus, The Hill/Ballot Box) SEIU submitted more than 34,000 signatures in North Carolina to qualify Wendell Fant as a candidate against Kissell. Only 17,000 were needed to qualify Fant to run this coming November. 
• Union-Led Group Turns in NC Candidate Signatures (By Associated Press Writer, WNCT Greenville)

SOUTH CAROLINA

• S.C. Strikes Again (By GAIL COLLINS, NY Times)

OREGON

• The Independent Party of Oregon is a Force to be Reckoned with in the State's New Fusion Voting System (Damon Eris, Poli-Tea) Third party voters and activists disappointed by the passage of Proposition 14 in California may be heartened by consideration of the new electoral fusion system that has gone into effect this year in Oregon.

NEW YORK

• New York's Third Party Mess (Daniel Collins, Huffington Post) The Independence Party, which was born out of the Ross Perot movement in the 1990s, is currently divided between an upstate and a New York City faction. The New York end is run by Fred Newman, a psychotherapist who spent years as the head of the New Alliance Party, which began as Marxist, flirted with Lyndon LaRouche, and was frequently accused of being a cult centered around Newman's psychotherapy.
• Working Families Party future in doubt - Cuomo rejection, federal probe could erase left-wing group from ballot (By Nick Reisman, Gannett Albany Bureau) "Some political parties are more like social movements," said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic Party strategist. "Their time may just have passed." Formed in 1998, the Working Families Party was meant to push mainstream Democrats to support left-leaning policy stances favored by unions.
• Cuomo's rejection of Working Families ballot line a blow to the movement (By Nick Reisman, Albany Bureau, Ithaca Journal)
• D.A. Cy Vance steps up criminal probe into mystery $750,000 from Bloomy's campaign last fall (BY BARBARA ROSS AND ADAM LISBERG, DAILY NEWS)
• DA: Independence Party Slowing Probe of Bloomberg Donation (By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL, Wall Street Journal) Mr. Haggerty is the target of the probe, but prosecutors could still consider filing criminal charges against the party and its operatives, a person familiar with the case said. Mr. Bloomberg has said he's been told he is not a target of the investigation. According to court documents, the party has failed to comply with 19 of the 23 subpoenaed-document requests from prosecutors.
• NEW POLITICAL PARTY IN THE WORKS (by Mary Alice Miller, Room Eight)
• Even with donations to Independence Party under scrutiny, there's no stopping Mayor Bloomberg (ADAM LISBERG, NY Daily News)
• Bloomberg: BP Exec ‘Didn’t Exactly Blow Up the Well’; Pelosi: ‘BP Is Not Paying’ (NY magazine)
• State's minor parties can play a major role (By WILLIAM STEVENSON, Albany Times Union)
• NY judge orders party lawyer to testify in probe (AP - Albany Times Union)
• Independence Party’s Lawyer Is Ordered to Testify (By JOHN ELIGON, NY Times)
• MacKay: Oneida Indy Case ‘A Local Issue’ (Liz Benjamin, Capital Tonight.com)
• Working Families Party's future clouded by Cuomo snub (By Nick Reisman, Ithaca Journal Albany Bureau)

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• Charter Revision Commission forum tonight in New Dorp to focus on local control of government (Staten Island Advance)
• Charter panel meets at Staten Island Tech: Local control proving elusive (Peter N. Spencer, SI Advance)
• Quinn Defends Council's Clout Before Charter Commission (By: Grace Rauh, NY1)
• Commission's voter dilemma (Riverdale Press) Mr. Diaz also noted that allowing for non-partisan elections, something also rumored to be considered by the commission, would not help increase turnout, and said he would not support them.
• De Blasio Wants Office Strengthened (By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL, Wall Street Journal)

BOOK REVIEW

• Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America (POSTED BY JOE GANDELMAN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF IN AT TMV. The Moderate Voice) But that’s the way it goes for centrists, moderates and independents: when people on the left or right agree with them, then they are moderates, independents and centrists. But if they disagree they MUST be “really” on the other side, or liars. If they agree with them, then they have principles; if they don’t, well, then they are “mushy” or “wishy washy.”