TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 8/13/10

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Why People Hate Politics (Gautam Dutta, Huffington Post) If SB 6 kicks in, California will switch to a radical version of "Top Two" elections.
• Limiting voters' choices (LETTER Marin Independent Journal by Eugene E. Ruyle, Oakland, Peace and Freedom PARTY candidate for Congress) We need a publicly funded electoral system with proportional representation. Only then will we be able to elect officials who represent working people instead of corporations and the rich.

IDAHO

• Gubernatorial candidate charges City Club of Boise of debate cover-up (By Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter)

MASSACHUSETTS

• Independent candidate for governor Tim Cahill proposes redistricting commission changes (The Associated Press, MassLive) Three members would be Democrats, three would be Republicans and three would be independents.

NEW YORK

• The Cuomo Conundrum: Can the King and the Court Find a Way to Get Along? (By Reid Pillifant, NY Observer) Mr. Wright, who doubles as Manhattan's Democratic chair, had just peeled away from an array of Democratic officials gathered on the steps of City Hall, who were baking in the mid-afternoon sun. While the partisans wiped their brows and fiercely defended the prerogative of the Democratic Party, the top of the ticket was upstate, pledging to clean up a government that's already controlled by Democrats.

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• It's Official — Term Limits Will Appear on Ballot, Charter Commission Says (By Jill Colvin, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer) After months of passionate protest and debate, the commission, which was convened by the mayor to examine flaws in the city's Charter, chose not to include a referendum on nonpartisan elections as a means of increasing dwindling voter turnout.
• The Charter Revision Commission has its final say, at length (BY COLBY HAMILTON, Capital New York) As the meeting began and Goldstein laid out what the commission would tackle that evening, what wasn't mentioned was as significant as what was. Term limits was on the agenda. The issue of nonpartisan elections, once an important goal for Michael Bloomberg and his allies in the Independence Party, but which voters rejected in 2003, was not.
• Bloomberg: Term Limits Issue Up To The Voters (By: Grace Rauh, NY1)
• Mayor Faults Term Exception (By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL, Wall Street Journal) The current Charter Revision Commission considered placing nonpartisan elections on the ballot again this year, but opted against it. The mayor said he was "disappointed" that the panel "didn't seem to have a lot of stomach for it."
• Suddenly, Bloomberg Has Nothing To Say About Term Limits (BY ADAM LISBERG, NY Daily News)  Nonpartisan elections will not be on the ballot, after a quiet effort by Bloomberg operatives to win support for it failed. The mayor made clear, though, that he thinks the commission missed a golden opportunity:

  “I’m disappointed that the commission, which is independent, didn’t seem to have a lot of stomach for it. I have always believed, as you know I financed a campaign when I first came into office to try to change it and I do believe that is the way the system should be. And without that, most people don’t t realize that they don’t have, in a practical sense, a vote.”