TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 7/26/10

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Independent voters rise in county (By JIM SECKLER/The Mohave Daily News - AZ) The county now has 113,266 registered voters as of June 1. The Democrats have seen losses in Bullhead City and Mohave Valley and slight increases in Fort Mohave and Topock. Independents increased in numbers by 3 to 1 over Republicans.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• CA: Flawed primary in California (Press Connects - Bingingham )Californians should recall that in 2003, there were 135 candidates for governor. With enough people running, a candidate can advance to the general election with the support of only a miniscule and possibly extreme portion of the electorate.
• OK: Primary Tuesday (By Tulsa World's Editorial Writers) Remember that Oklahoma does not have an open primary. Republicans cannot vote in Democratic races and Democrats cannot vote in Republican races. Depending on a voter's party affiliation, some races may or may not be represented on the primary ballot.
• PA: Bill Kennedy: races should be non-partisan (Carroll County Times - PA) Not having a representative of each party on the ballot in the general election leaves those without a candidate disenfranchised in the election of their Commissioner or Sheriff or States Attorney, just as we all are in the election for the state Attorney General.
• MI: CONNELL: Republicans choose; Dems crown (The Times Herald - MI)  Michigan has open primaries. This means a registered voter can walk into the polling place and pick a party. A chest-thumping liberal can ask for a Republican ballot without apology, and a conservative from the deepest part of right field doesn't need a disguise to play ball with the Democrats. The caveat is you only get one choice. For instance, if you vote on the the Democratic side for governor, you cannot switch to the Republican ballot for legislative races.
• SD: Marking proposes system of voter input to guide him (By: Tom Lawrence, The Daily Republic - Mitchell Republic - SD) A registered independent his entire life, Marking also calls for open primaries, which would allow anyone to vote in them, as well as an end to corporate financing of campaigns.

THIRD PARTIES

• AZ: Libertarian contenders hope to tap unsettled electorate (Rhonda Bodfield, Arizona Daily Star)

CALIFORNIA

• Ralph Nader: ‘California Enshrines the Duopoly’ (By Ralph Nader at Nader.org VIA Independent Political Report) Last month, Big Business interests shamelessly dealt our already depleted democracy a devastating blow by misleading California voters into approving Proposition 14, without their opponents being able to reach the people with rebuttals. This voter initiative provides that the November elections in that state for members of Congress and state elective offices are reserved only for the top two vote-garnering candidates in the June primary.

COLORADO

• Wadhams: GOP is not looking at lawsuit in Tancredo ballot threat (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post) State Rep. Kathleen Curry, for example, is a running as a write-in candidate. She changed her voter affiliation from Democratic to unaffiliated last December, but had not been unaffiliated long enough to get on the ballot as an independent. She and a county commissioner candidate in the same boat challenged the ruling, but lost.

IDAHO

• Trial Date Set in Idaho Republican Party Case Over Open Primary (Ballot Access News)

MASSACHUSETTS

• Massachusetts Pro-Life Group Endorses Governor Candidate Tim Cahill  (by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor)

NEW YORK

• Indy 'pay-to-play' - GOPers backed after hiring chief's pal (By DAVID SEIFMAN City Hall Bureau Chief, EXCLUSIVE NY Post)
• Probe opened by Staten Island of Independence Party's $10G loan in exchange for City Council nod (BY ADAM LISBERG, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER)
• In wake of Independence Party flaps, wary Daniel Donovan spurns party in A.G. race (Tom Wrobleski, SI Advance)
• Party for sale (NY Post) Tabacco is now suggesting that "contracting with [MacKay’s firm]" seems to be "a prerequisite" to winning the backing of the Independence Party, which he now labels "a political patronage mill.
• NYC Independence Party Chief Cathy Stewart - see VIDEO: The public debate on Top Two in New York City has helped to underscore the difference between the city and state Independence Party. For the city party, our concern has always been the democratic reform of the political process to give more voters—including independents—the right to participate. And we thank the Mayor and the Commission for creating the opportunity for a vigorous public study of non-partisan elections. Sadly for us, this vibrant debate is in sharp contrast with the conduct of Independence Party’s state chairman. Frank MacKay has spent years effectively outlawing democracy inside the party, reducing the party’s agenda to the most cynical patronage and quid pro quo, and now, if press reports of the ongoing investigation by law enforcement are accurate, may also have committed criminal offenses in the name of “party building.” As is well known, the Independence Party of  New York City has long opposed MacKay’s politics and practice.... READ text 

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• Look to New York City for reform (By Jerry Goldfeder, Albany Times Union)
• Mayor Bloomberg is trying to give nonpartisan elections another push after it failed in 2003 (ADAM LISBERG, Daily News)
• On missing a chance to shape New York (BY KATHARINE JOSE, Capital New York) The 1989 Charter Commission devised a plan for “fair share,” which Eddie Bautista, executive director of the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance, said has become “meaningless.” Fair share requires, in the city charter, that every year the city makes an assessment of proposed developments to assess whether certain neighborhoods are overburdened or underdeveloped. But it’s not enforced, Bautista said (a number of speakers brought up the same issue). As a result, he said, waste transfer stations and other undesirable but necessary urban fixtures are clustered in poor, non-white neighborhoods. Asked later what his vision of the 21st century city would be, Bautista said, “It’s a city that doesn’t use 1962 zoning resolutions.”

LAST WORD

• Wisconsin Candidate is "NOT the White Man's Bitch" (Brian C. Thomas, chicago Now)  
• Inflammatory Language Rejected From Wisc. Ballot (CBS News)