Arizona Independents Told to Pick a Party to Vote; California Politicians Conflict of Interest in Drawing Their Own Districts

OPEN PRIMARIES
No-party adherents are told to pick one (Rhonda Bodfield, Arizona Daily Star) There is no independent primary. But since 1998, independents have been able to vote in the various party primaries. They just have to pick which one they want to vote in. For an all-mail election, the notice telling them to pick a party is the equivalent of walking into a polling place and telling the poll worker which party's primary you want to vote in.

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING
Letter: Supervisors shouldn't draw districts (Chico Enterprise-Record) When will politicians like Wahl get the message that it is a conflict of interest to be drawing their own lines?

2012

• Obama needs to court Latino vote (By: C. Nicole Mason, executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, in Winnipeg Free Press) In 2008, Obama relied heavily on the votes of blacks and independent voters to carry him to victory. However, in the mid-term elections, uneasy about the economy and high unemployment, both groups preferred the couch to the voting booth. This, however, was not the case for Latinos, who set a mid-term election record with a turnout of more than six million. 
• Obama’s drawdown plan ‘about right,’ poll finds (By Scott Wilson and Jon Cohen, Washington Post/Checkpoint) Obama has been courting independent voters for months, and 40 percent of respondents who identified themselves as independents said his withdrawal plan is “about right."

NEW JERSEY
From Confusion to Fusion: Union Survival in the Age of Christie (By John D. Atlas/NJ Voices, Star Ledger) If the union movement wants to break out its dilemma it better build some kind of independent political party capable of winning power or it will face a future between a rock and a hard place.

NEW YORK
Before Passing Marriage Bill, Senate Extended Rent Regulations and More (by David King, Gotham Gazette) According to a study by Common Cause/NY, New York City, real estate interests donated almost $10 million to local and statewide races in 2009-2010 -- a sum nearly double what was spent by the real estate industry from 2007-2008. Fifty-two percent ($5,114,665) of that cash went to Democrats, while 24 percent ($2,351,924) went to Republicans. The remaining 24 percent was spread throughout third parties and ther groups, with the largest amount -- more than 9 percent -- going to the Independence Party… One major issue that the Senate chose to ignore was independent redistricting. During the 2010 election season, former Mayor Ed Koch and his NY Uprising group won pledges from a majority of legislators on both sides of the aisle to support independent redistricting.


MEDIA
Poll: Fewer Californians follow political news (The Associated Press, Sac Bee) The 25 percent who say they follow news of government and politics "only now and then (or) hardly at all" is up from 20 percent in 1999 and 16 percent in 1979. Voters who consider themselves independents were the least likely to say they follow political news closely: Only 30 percent of nonpartisan voters said they paid close attention to political news, compared with 41 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans.