TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 8/3010

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• NEWSWEEK Poll: Democrats May Not Be Headed for Midterm Bloodbath - Obama's approval continues to slide, but Bush's legacy still haunts the GOP. (Newsweek) Democratic voters appear just as willing as Republicans to vote for their party. But independents skew heavily toward the GOP. Forty-five percent of independents say they’ll vote for Republican candidates, compared with just 33 percent for Democrats.
• Poll: Nevada voters unhappy with Senate candidates (By Associated Press, Boston Herald) Two-thirds of Angle’s supporters said they would have preferred another GOP nominee, and nearly 80 percent of registered voters who are undecided or don’t like Angle or Reid said they would have preferred a moderate rather than the conservative, according to the Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey.... Independent voters and those who say they don’t prefer Reid or Angle said they might vote for "none of these candidates."
• Most N.M. Voters Give Congress Poor Ratings (By Michael Coleman, Albuquerque Journal) A majority of independent voters in New Mexico — 57 percent — said they disapprove of the job Congress is doing, with 20 percent voicing approval. Twenty-three percent of those independents responding to the Journal poll said they were either undecided, had mixed feelings, didn't know or were unsure of their opinion of the current Congress.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Hasten: Say goodbye to party primaries (BY MIKE HASTEN, The Town Talk - Central Louisiana) In most states, party primaries really thin out the crowd of candidates and often only the party winners are on the ballot in the general election.
• Debate Over Primary Elections Heats Up (Memphis Daily News) Wiseman: Our community is not well served by partisan primaries. … We have enough divisions in the community. Creating these further divisions does not serve our community well.”

FLORIDA

• FL: Candidates put faith in No Party Affiliation voters (BY DEREK CATRON, Daytona Beach News Journal) They were the fastest-growing segment of registered voters, even before Gov. Charlie Crist bolted the Republican Party for an NPA designation in his run for the U.S. Senate. Now, nearly 1 in 5 voters in Florida carries the NPA designation, making it the third-most popular "party," behind Democrats (41.5 percent) and Republicans (36 percent). And, while the major parties have been watching their percentages decline, NPAs have been on the rise, their percentages increasing almost 2.5 times since 1994.
• Crist looks for middle ground between two opponents (From CNN's Jeff Simon) According to a Quinnipiac University poll conducted August 11-16, Crist, who is running as an independent candidate, holds a 39 percent to 32 percent lead over Republican candidate Marco Rubio. Rep. Kendrick Meek, who secured the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, trails the two front-runners with 16 percent.
• District 3 candidate supports open primaries (Submitted by Matt Dixon, Florida Times Union/Death, Taxes & Politics) Martin Terry-Back, an independent candidate running against Corrine Brown, has signed a pledge to support an open primary system.
• Open primary could heal Florida's low voter turnout (By Matt Dixon, Florida Times Union - Jacksonville) "I think clearly [an open primary] would improve voter turnout," said Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida. "It just seems like the best way to [increase turnout]."

WFP

• Working Families Has Nominees This Year in Six States (Ballot Access News)

NEW YORK

• DAs expanding probe of Independence haul (David Seifman, NY Post)
• Lew Fidler Challenges Charles Barron's "Freedom Party" Petitions (BY CELESTE KATZ, Daily News/Daily Politics)

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• Lauder Won’t Bankroll New Term-Limits Campaign (By Michael Howard Saul, Wall Street Journal/Metropolis) According to Rubenstein, Lauder is mostly “pleased” with the commission’s decision on term limits, though he disagrees with the panel’s decision to allow all incumbents to serve three four-year terms, no matter what the voters decide in November.
• Voters will weigh in on term limits in November (By Howard Koplowitz, Your Nabe Queens)
• Getting Your Say on Charter Revision (Gotham Gazette) The Campaign Finance Board is asking for pro and con submissions on the charter reform proposals to include in its voter guide.