Good news for independents: Open Primaries Stays in California

Good news for independents --  the California Supreme Court unanimously denied a request to block the Top Two Open Primary measure, Proposition 14, which takes effect in January. The launch on Monday of a new anti-party organization No Labels is stirring up lots of partisan rancor. The New York Independence Party is downgraded to Column E (5th place on the ballot) after holding Column C (ballot placement immediately after Dem and Repub) since 1999.



OPEN PRIMARIES

• Primary election overhaul clears state high court (Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle) The justices unanimously denied a request to block the measure, Proposition 14, which takes effect in January.
• Governor Schwarzenegger Statement On Supreme Court Denying Request To Block Open Primaries (Written by Imperial Valley News)
• Sen. Lamar Alexander rejects idea of closed primaries for TN (BY BILL THEOBALD • TENNESSEAN WASHINGTON BUREAU) "It would be saying to tea party voters, 'Sorry, we don't want you. Go form a third party,' " the Republican former governor said.
• Editorial: Reconsidering closed primary - GOP takes a second look: The arguments are strong against limiting voting in the primary to party loyalists. (Memphis Commercial Appeal)

OBAMA

• Might Makes Right Win Over Voters (John Zogby, Forbes/Data Place) By August of this year, Obama’s overall approval dropped to 43% , and to 32% among independents. Among Democrats, his approval in that poll dropped seven points to 83%. Since then, any fluctuation in the President’s approval has been due mainly to Democrats. On Dec. 10, 73% of Democrats gave the President their approval.
• Obama needs a shutdown, not a Clinton (by Dr. Jason Johnson, Chicago Defender) Let’s be honest about history, Clinton’s first term was pretty much defined by his capitulation to the right, his penchant for frustrating his own base and his tendency to betray his friends. Does that sound like a formula for Barack Obama to follow?

NO LABELS

• As Electoral Ground Shifts, Bloomberg Could Skip the Party (By MATT BAI, NY Times) Those who think Mr. Bloomberg would want to build a similar kind of organization, be it No Labels or something else, are assuming that the growing power and disaffection of independent voters who identify with neither Democrats nor Republicans make a third party more viable than it has ever been. In fact, though, the rise of the independents represents a movement in exactly the opposite direction — away from party organizations altogether.
  
• Lamm: No Labels is the anti-party (By Dottie Lamm, Denver Post)
• 'No Labels' Wants to Deliver on Public's Cry for Change, but Will It Work? (LINDA KILLIAN, Politics Daily)
• Why No Labelism in America is a fail (BY NIALL STANAGE, Capital New York) But what such a party cannot do is exist merely to give voice to the kind of airy, ideology-free pronouncements about "a place where ideas are judged on their merits" (a direct quote from the No Labels declaration) that are currently the order of the day here….
• Events of the last week give centrists a big boost (By WILLIAM MCKENZIE - The Dallas Morning News, in Merced Sun Star)
• Moveon.org for the middle: Can Nolabels.org cure partisan politics? (By Linda Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor)
• The unseriousness of "No Labels" (By Alex Pareene, Salon)

BLOOMBERG 2012

• Is the New York Times trying to make us dumber? - The paper prints even more ridiculously ignorant political analysis from Matt Bai -- this time about Mike Bloomberg (BY STEVE KORNACKI, Salon)
• Bloomberg for president? Nolabels.org could be just the vehicle. (By Linda Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor)

NEW YORK

• Minor party shuffle: Conservatives claim Row "C", WFP moves to Row "D" (By Robert Harding, Auburn Citizen)
• 2010 General Election Results Certified by State Board of Elections (by New York State Board of Elections, ReadMedia)
• Lawyers Allege Mayor Tried to ‘Hide’ Election Money (By Michael Howard Saul, Wall Street Journal)
• Low turnout, but third parties fare well (BY NICK REISMAN, Ithaca Journal)
• Outgoing State Senate Leader, Son Plead Not Guilty To Embezzlement (By: Michael Scotto, NY1)
• Day Before Indictment, Pedro Espada Blasted “Politically Motivated” Cuomo (By Andrew J. Hawkins, City Hall News) “When you really look at my case, nothing that’s in the lawsuit had to do with Albany behavior,” Espada said. “It had to do with private business dealings. And they were used in a timely way to embarrass and tarnish me and really set up the political defeat that I suffered.”