Open Primary Not Good for Tea Party

OPEN PRIMARY

• Congressional special election in LA brings big spending (Chase Davis, California Watch) The race, California’s first under the open primary system approved by voters last fall, has been marked by all the controversy of a ballot box nail-biter, even though Hahn holds the edge on paper.
• GOP mulls primary options - State's tea partiers pushing caucus instead (BY KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN-ASSOCIATED PRESS, Detroit Free Press) Dennis Moore, director of the Willow Run Tea Party Caucus in Ypsilanti, said he thinks a party convention or caucus gives tea partiers their best chance. "No open primary, because that's a bad deal for us," Moore said Wednesday.

OBAMA
Obama Will Win Independent Vote in 2012 (Jeremy Los, policymic "Next Generation News and Politics) In the end, independent voters are more than likely going to turn out in favor of Obama because many Americans believe he will have made positive strides fixing the economy. Independents’ tendency to follow what transpires on hot button issues will likely swing their vote in Obama’s favor if he is able to make some headway on the country’s economic turmoil. With no legitimate candidate rising from the GOP, independent voters will have to make the choice to either vote for Obama or not vote at all.

BUDGET

• Harry Reid, Henry Clay (By Brent Budowsky, The Hill) The president has never come to grips with the contradiction of trying to be a part-partisan president facing a hyper-partisan GOP. One solution would be to name America’s leading political independent and post-partisan officeholder, the financially brilliant and vastly respected Michael Bloomberg, as Treasury secretary if Timothy Geithner chooses to leave.
• Even the right is pissed at Republicans (By DOUG THOMPSON, Capitol Hill Blue "Because Nobody's Life, Liberty or Property is Safe While Congress is in Session or the White House is Occupied") Polls by CNN/Opinion Research and ABC/Washington Post say Americans are fed up with both parties and the overall behavior of Congress. 
• Time to compromise on debt ceiling (David Brooks, The Detroit News) If the debt ceiling talks fail, independent voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise, but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don't take control, independents will conclude that fanaticism caused this default.
• The Only Reform That Will Restrain Spending -- All 47 Senate Republicans now support changing the Constitution to balance the federal budget. (By OLYMPIA SNOWE And JIM DEMINT, Wall Street Journal) If Congress increases our national debt ceiling next month without permanent, structural budget reforms, we will signal to taxpayers and bond markets alike that Washington is still in denial. Whatever agreement is reached, everyone will know that future Congresses are not obligated to follow it. As a result, the only way to compel lawmakers to maintain their responsibility forever is a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

UTAH
New BYU poll suggests tea party influence on the decline (By Lisa Riley Roche, Deseret News) The drop in support among voters who call themselves independent, independent Republicans and not-so-strong Republicans comes as tea party are targeting some elected officials for their support of a controversial immigration law… "What gives the tea party so much of its strength is our caucus system is biased toward the very active and the ideologically committed," Patterson said.

THE MIDDLE
CENTRIST ALLIANCE STAKES OUT A PLACE BETWEEN THE PARTISAN EXTREMES (by Damon Eris, CAIVN) On the issues, the Centrist Alliance is currently maintaining a relatively open platform emphasizing a strong national defense, immigration reform, a sensible and pragmatic foreign policy, energy independence and electoral reforms that would encourage civic participation and provide an equal place at the table for alternative parties and Independent voters.