Hankster News of the Day for Independents - July 10

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Gallop Poll- 50% Of US Hispanics Identify as Independent Voters (Hispanically Speaking News) Sixty percent of Hispanic immigrants identify as political independents, compared with 44% of first-generation Hispanic Americans and 43% of second-generation or higher Hispanics.
• Poll: Most Hispanics Independent Voters (WIBW) Both candidates have released television spots in Spanish, and both spoke in June at a major conference of Latino elected officials in Orlando. The dueling speeches came one week after Obama revealed a new immigration directive that would allow some illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States by their parents to avoid deportation.
• Century Village, long a Democratic stronghold, is changing (By Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Herald) Century Village — the largest condo development in Broward County — is now 60 percent Democratic, down from 77 percent in 2002. Meanwhile, registered Republicans have jumped from about 18 percent to 23.6 percent. But it’s the independent and no-party-affiliation voters who can claim the prize: They grew from 5 percent in 2002 to a hefty 16.3 percent today, according to voter registration records from the county’s Supervisor of Elections. Put another way, that’s a 17 percent shift away from the Democrats.
• Independents: Do they still believe in Obama's change? (By Matt Towery, Florida Times Union - Jacksonville) But of independent voters, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, only 38 percent have a favorable view of President Barack Obama's economic plans.
• Anna in the Swing States: Colorado's Swinging Suburbs and Untapped Latino Voters (By Anna Sale, WNYC/It's a Free Country) The Colorado electorate is largely broken up in thirds among Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Since 2008, the ranks of the unaffiliated, independent voters have grown in Colorado, and Democrats and Republicans now make up a slightly smaller percentage of registered voters in Colorado than they did four years ago. Much of the registration gains for Democrats and independents has happened in congressional districts with urban areas, contributing to the Democrats' recent success there… Further north along the Wyoming border, the suburban voters in Larimer County backed Obama in 2008 but narrowly split in the 2010 midterms… Independent, unaffiliated voters have the registration edge over both Republicans and Democrats here.

THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES

• Playing field uneven for third-party hopefuls (by Paul Singer, Source: USA TODAY in Tucson Citizen) According to Richard Winger— editor of Ballot Access News and an expert in the field — there are probably fewer than a half-dozen minor parties that will qualify for the presidential ballot in more than five states: “It will be Democrats; Republicans; Libertarian; Green; Constitution; Party for Socialism and Liberation; Justice; and Socialist Workers Party and no others, probably,” he said in an e-mail. “The Socialist Party has a remote chance.”
• Goode’s third-party run: Bad news for Romney in Virginia? Ex-lawmaker: I’ll take votes from both (By David Sherfinski, The Washington Times) The latest Real Clear Politics average of polls has Mr. Obama with a two-point lead in the state over Mr. Romney — 47 percent to 45 percent. But figures released in May by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling raised the eyebrows of many poll-watchers and pundits. Mr. Obama topped Mr. Romney by eight points in Virginia, 51 percent to 43 percent, in the PPP poll. If Mr. Goode was on the ballot, however, Mr. Obama’s lead over Mr. Romney increased to 12 points, at 50 percent to 38 percent, with Mr. Goode taking 5 percent of the vote.