Is White House Avoiding Independent Voters?

The U.S. House will be voting next week on abolishing public funding for Presidential candidates that can raise at least $5,000 over twenty states. This vote is the first of many that will try and abolish some sort of federal spending. Another bill in the Massachusetts senate was voted down in a landslide which proposed having an independent panel control redistricting lines, citing that "there’s no evidence that states with independent commissions draw better maps than those that rely on legislative committees". We also have an interview between ABC's John Tapper and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. An interesting aspect of this interview is when Tapper asks Gibbs what he thinks Obama needs to do to "win back independents", why does Gibbs so carefully avoid using the word "independent"?

REDISTRICTING

• Mass. Senate nixes independent redistricting panel (By Associated Press, Boston Herald) The senate voted 34-5 against the GOP plan, largely along party lines.

CAMPAIGN FUNDING/SPENDING

• U.S. House Expected to Vote Next Week on Abolishing Public Funding for Presidential Candidates (Ballot Access News) Minor party presidential candidates who got primary season matching funds included Sonia Johnson of the Citizens Party in 1984, Lenora Fulani of the New Alliance Party in both 1988 and 1992 (she got over $1,000,000 in 1992), Ralph Nader in 2000, 2004, and 2008, John Hagelin in 1992, 1996, and 2000, and Pat Buchanan in 2000.
• House to vote on abolishing campaign matching fund (By DAVID ESPO, The Associated Press, Washington Post) Major parties receive funds to stage the elaborate four-day conventions at which they formally nominate candidates for president and vice president.
• The list of campaign filings (updated) (by Jimmy Vielkind, Capitol Confidential)

OBAMA

• The State of the Obama Presidency, Winning Back Independents, and Hu On Human Rights (ABC News/Political Punch) Tapper: What will Obama do to win back independents? Gibbs: Americans want bi-partisanship...

DEMOCRATS

• DNC announces new executive director associated with ACORN (By Steven Nelson - The Daily Caller) Gaspard is currently working as the Obama administration’s director of the Office of Political Affairs.

NEW YORK

• Pedro memoir an 'El'-raiser - Raged at Spitzer: scribe (By MITCHEL MADDUX, NY Post) When former state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. hired a ghostwriter to pen his memoirs back in 2006, he intended to use the tome to launch a political attack against Eliot Spitzer, the writer told The Post.
• State Conservative Party's Michael Long praises Gov. Cuomo's fiscal agenda (BY KENNETH LOVETT, DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF) The grass-roots effort will be financed with money from the party's campaign coffers, which in July received a $1 million donation that funded ads opposing the controversial Ground Zero mosque the Conservative Party ran.
• Bloomberg Targets Unions in State of the City (by Courtney Gross, Gotham Gazette) With the exception of the mayor's pension and labor proposals, his address was light on major public policy overhauls. New initiatives the mayor did announce were on the smaller scale -- such as forgiving health code fines if a restaurant received a grade A on its inspections.