TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Kurita vows to fight for seat (Tennessean) Tennessee's open primary system allows any voter to cast a ballot in either party's primary.
• 2008 initiatives: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly are all there (Lake Oswego Review) Measure 65 creates an open primary election in Oregon. The May primary would become a contest among all candidates. The November election would be a run off between the top two primary finishers.

CAMPAIGN

• Playing the party card against Obama (Boston Globe/Political Intelligence)
• Poll: GOP brand making comeback (Politico) A new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reports that independent voters have an equally favorable opinion of both parties, 50 to 49 percent, a one-point edge for the GOP. That compares to an 18-point Democratic advantage as recently as August, a wide gap that had generally held for more than a year.
• McCain Seen as Less Likely to Bring Change, Poll Finds (NY Times)
• Va. polls paint different pictures (UPI)

Where are the independents in The Big Sort???

I had an email this morning from The Back Forty [the blog of Rural Votes] asking me to take a look at their site. I'm recommending you do too -- and The Back Forty is now on The Hankster blogroll.


I found an interesting book review post by Al Cross called Who's Reading The Big Sort and Why?. "The book counters the conventional wisdom that Americans have become less partisan."


While the book, The Big Sort, is no doubt an interesting sociological study in human sociality and politicalness, from what I've read (I haven't read the book but have read several reviews), it ignores a big factor in today's political landscape: the rise of the independent voter. Sort this: while 99% of our elected officials are either Democrats or Republicans, 40% of the electorate they (supposedly) represent are independents.

We have a divide in the country all right -- between the corrupt partisan system and the voters. That's what this sea change election is about. That's the momentum behind Barack Obama's (and John McCain's for that matter) candidacy. We're in the midst of a pardigm change, but you won't see that unless you step out of the bifurcated world of major party spin. --NH

Politicans on the edge need independents' support

...Dozens of Republicans are expected to vote for the Democrats' resolution opposing the 21,500-troop increase. Some of them hail from conservative districts and won reelection last year by wide margins. Others won with 55 percent of the vote or less, including Reps. Ric Keller of Florida, Phil English of Pennsylvania and Tom Davis of Virginia. By crossing party lines, they could build support from independents and Democrats but they also could court primary challenges.... (Miami Herald)