TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 10/30/09

Hi everyone!

I'm on the stump for electing the first independent mayor of NYC on Column C the Independence Party line (no surprise there!) and will keep you up to date as best as I can. Lots happening! Note the majority of voters in New Jersey are independent. New Jersey is one of my (many) home states (and my first home state out of the South) so I'm especially proud of us Garden Staters, whoever you decide to elect for Gov!...

Here in my current home state (and more accurately, my home town of the Big Apple) Mike Bloomberg, in coalition with the NYC Independence Party, carries out an independent nonpartisan race for the future of New York City. See the photo from last night's phone shift in Jamaica Queens -- a coming together of a long-time coalition between Imam Charles Bilal (that's organizer Martha Oliver (r) in the picture) the Queens County Committee of the New York Independence Party, and Bloomberg's local operation (that's Etoy Tharpe, second from left here)

And in LAST WORD(S) -- I hope you'll take a peek at the left/right Dem/Repub dialogue that permeates the print media and the blogosphere. As a long-time leftist and still true Marxist (I got my bonafides in the 1970s in the labor and new left party-building movement and never gave up...), I'm always happy to see progressives take on the right wingers as in Radical? Not! (By Eugene Debs, New Majority) below.
-NH


NJ GOV RACE

• Bergen County a key factor in governor's race (By Cynthia Burton, Philadelphia Inquirer) Democrats outnumber Republicans there, 169,000 to 111,200. But the biggest voting group, as it is everywhere else in the state, consists of unaffiliated voters, who number 250,300. Unaffiliated voters have recently been voting with the Democrats.
• Election not a big draw to Gloucester County voters (By Jessica Landolfi, NJ News-Star Ledger, Trenton Times) Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1 with 70,744 registered Democrats, 35,637 Republicans and 82,607 unaffiliated.

BLOOMBERG 09

• Thompson Endorsed by Cuomo (By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, NY Times)

NY SPECIAL ELECTION UPSTATE

• Hoffman and Owens in a Tie for New York Special Election (CQ Politics/PollTracker)
• A GOP Civil War in Upstate New York (By KATE PICKERT, Time) But then, the race in the 23rd is no longer about local issues. It's about a Republican Party with little current power inside the Beltway searching for a way out of the wilderness. And it's about conservative Republicans sending a message — the future of the party is the conservative base. (It's also, incidentally, about money; according to the Federal Election Commission, more than $650,000 has flowed to the candidates from independent groups just since Oct. 24.) "The 23rd has as little significance as Gettysburg. It's just where the Armies met," says Bob Gorman, managing editor of the Times and my old boss. "Everybody was looking for a fight and that's where they found each other."

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY

• ACORN: Vann, go (By DAVID SEIFMAN, NY Post)
• Court of Appeals won’t hear Bethlehem WFP case (by Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, Albany Times Union/Local Politics)

LAST WORD(S)

• Radical? Not! (By Eugene Debs, New Majority)
• Our Heritage  Newt Gingrich weighs in on events current and Founding-era. (interview by Robert Costa, National Review Online)
• Are the Tea Partiers good or bad for the GOP? A round table discussion of whether the revolt of the conservative base is a blessing or curse for the Republicans (BY THOMAS SCHALLER, Salon)  EXCERPT: Agne: What we found was that even as these independents have started to pull back from Obama and the Democrats in Congress a bit -- some concern about healthcare, some concern about spending, a few other things -- they still fundamentally want them to succeed. They want to see the edges come off some of these policies, but they want to see it go through. They want the change that Obama promised them in the election, they're just not quite sure what that change should look like. The Republican base voters fundamentally want Obama to fail. They believe that he is intentionally trying to lead the country into a ditch, essentially, that he is trying to lead the country to failure, and thus to socialism. And so they see it as a moral responsibility to oppose every single step of his agenda. There's no sense of compromise. There is a clear moral obligation to stand firm and oppose him, no matter what. And that's really the fundamental dilemma that we were just discussing.
• Self-Image and Party Politics (By DAVID BROOKS AND BOB HERBERT, NY Times/The Conversation) Is it possible for both parties to lose at the same time?
• More Signs of Trouble for 2010 (William Galston, The New Republic)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 10/29/09

As we head to Election Day 2009, everyone is talking about the Yankees and the Phillies. And a few people are talking about the Mayoral race in NYC, where independent candidate Mike Bloomberg is poised to become the first independent mayor of New York, running on the Independence Party (Column C) and Republican lines. But not Karl Rove. Kind of a big omission, don't you think? Check out Jon Noltie's Examiner article. However, other independent and Independence-backed candidates in New Jersey, New York and Virginia are soaking up the ink. See today's news for independent voters below:

POLITICAL REFORM

• New York Improved One Ballot Access Law In July, 2009 (Ballot Access News)

STATE RACES

• Tuesday's Elections and the Democratic Agenda (By KARL ROVE, Wall Street Journal) A year ago, Democrats crowed that Mr. Obama had reshaped the political landscape to their advantage. Voters have lived under Democratic rule for nine months, and many of them, especially independents, don't like what they're seeing.
• Strength of independent candidates indicates GOP missing opportunity (Columbus Republican Examiner, by Jon Noltie) In 2 of the 3 most watched electoral races this year, the GOP stands a good chance of losing due to the strength of independent candidates, in addition to not even fielding a candidate in the New York City mayoral race.
• Dividing And Conquering In State Races (John Zogby, Forbes)
• Quinnipiac Sees a Different New Jersey Race Than Rasmussen, PPP (National Review)
• Corzine Up 5 Points In New Jersey Gov Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Governor Tops Christie On 'Honesty' Score (Quinnipiac) Corzine leads 79 - 8 percent among Democratic likely voters, with 10 percent for Daggett. Christie leads 79 - 7 percent among Republicans, with 9 percent for Daggett, and 45 - 30 percent among independent voters, with 20 percent for Daggett.
• NJ Gov Poll: Corzine Takes 5-Point Lead (RealClearPolitics)
• Daggett: Republican urged him to quit gov's race (The Associated Press, Philadelphia Inquirer)

BLOOMBERG 09

• Queens Gazette Endorses Bloomberg, Other Candidates (Queens Gazette)

LOCAL RACES

• Bloomberg, Liu Favored In Tuesday Voting; Some Close Council Races Expected (BY JOHN TOSCANO, Queens Gazette)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 10/18/09

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Forces lining up against Democrats in '10 (By Dan Balz, reprint in Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Tea Party insurgency marches into key states--But will Tea Party protest energy help or hobble the Republican Party? They're challenging some GOP candidates and could split the vote in those races. (By Patrik Jonsson, Christian Science Monitor)
• Party Moderate Purge (By Kellyn Brown, Flathead Beacon)
• WARNING: INDEPENDENTS MAY GO REPUBLICAN IN 2010! (Jack Jodell, The Saturday Afternoon Post)
• Serious as a heart attack: The independents' story (By Jackie Salit, Rapid City Journal)

GOVERNORS RACES

• Fight Night in Jersey: Christie Can Get the KO Without Throwing a Punch (By Bill Pascoe, Politico) He's risen from 13 percent support from Independent voters in August to 20 percent today, while Christie has slipped among those same Independent voters, from 55 percent in August to 40 percent today. Coincidence? I think not.

BLOOMBERG 09

• Stumping With Mayor, Giuliani Stirs Old Fears (By DAVID W. CHEN, NY Times)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 10/6/09

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• On healthcare and other hot issues: Follow the independents--The number of voters not tied to Democrats or Republicans is expanding fast. Both parties need to adjust. (By the Christian Science Monitor's Editorial Board) Were the 2010 elections to occur today, 43 percent of independents say they would vote Republican (in a generic congressional ballot), while 38 percent would vote Democratic, the Pew Research Center finds. That's quite a shift from 2006, when independents favored Democrats over Republicans, 44 to 33 percent.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• South Dakota Democrats Will Allow Independent Voters to Vote in their Primaries (Ballot Access News)
• Re-enfranchising New Yorkers (by Richard Flanagan, Gotham Gazette) Voters overwhelmingly rejected Macchiarola's plan for nonpartisan elections, 70 percent to 30 percent. But only 13 percent of registered voters bothered to show up for the off-year election of 2003, and many had ties to the unions, interest groups and political clubs that benefit from the status quo and know how to pull the levers of the current system to their advantage. They were loathe to expand the electorate and risk the surrender of power.

BALLOT ACCESS

• Alabama Ballot Access Plaintiff Files Brief in 11th Circuit (Ballot Access News)

GOVERNORS RACES

In an unsettled political environment where voters are exercising independent options, independent candidates like NJ gubernatorial candidate Chris Daggett pick up support....

• Poll: New Jersey gubernatorial race a virtual tie (From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart)
• Daggett gets little help from ballot position (Press of Atlantic City) New Jersey laws reserving the top two spots on any ballot for the two major-party candidates. Last month, Daggett - along with Libertarian Party candidate Kenneth Kaplan - took the step of filing suit against the practice.
• Daggett for guv? Why not? (By ALEX GECAN, For The Trentonian)

BLOOMBERG 09

NYC Dem machine targets independent run by Mike Bloomberg with 2 darts: money (the Mayor is very wealthy...) and term limits (which the Dem-controlled City Council extended....) Good luck with that! Meanwhile, it's the NYC Independence and the Working Families Parties that are supplying the spark in this year's city-wide elections. In a city of 5-1 Dem registration, that's gotta hurt the clubhouse...

• Bloomberg's Line Dance (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Voters Like Mayor, but Not His Path to 3rd Run (By MICHAEL BARBARO, NY Times)
• New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg received the endorsement of the Hotel and Motel Trades Council (From msnbc's First Read with Chuck Todd)
• After term limit tiff, Bloomberg still gets hotel endorsement (ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, NY Daily News/Brawl for the Hall) The only union with a major field operation that remains unpledged is 1199, which voted for Thompson during the WFP endorsement process. Neutrality is not out of the question for 1199, a union source said.
• There's just one real contest in the races for borough president this fall [Jim Molinaro's Repub-Independence-Conservative Party run on Staten Island], but next year could see a debate over whether the city still needs the post. (By Jarrett Murphy, City Limits)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 9/28/09

GOVERNORS RACES

• A Declaration of independents in 2010 (By ALEX ISENSTADT, Politico)
• Mild-mannered independent aims to channel voters' anger (By MICHAEL SYMONS, Asbury Park Press) Chris Daggett said he became an independent as he grew "badly disillusioned and disappointed" with both major parties' inability to address the state's problems.
• Environment groups turn from Corzine (By Adrienne Lu, Philadelphia Inquirer Trenton Bureau)

BLOOMBERG 09

• Obama may sit out New York City mayor's race between Bloomberg and Thompson (ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Daily News/Brawl for the Hall)
• Stuck in the middle: In mayor’s race, working families have two lousy options (By Harry Siegel & Fred Siegel, Daily News)
• Remember Lindsay? (Sam Roberts, NYT)
• Comparing Effectiveness in the City’s Schools (Michael Barbaro, NYT)

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY

• A Lingering Question: Are Runoffs Superfluous? (By SAM ROBERTS, NYT)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 9/9/09

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

Read this article for a good straight-forward anti-socialist perspective on the health care debate. The conversation centers around whether we want a country with a spirit of collective work and collective good, or an "every man for himself" culture. What do you think?

• The Limits of Self-Hate (By Lisa Fabrizio, American Spectator) Because, at its heart, the true goal of "progressives" is the repudiation of all that this country was founded on; particularly the right of its people to govern themselves in a way that counts the protections of private property and personal freedom as sacrosanct, and is codified under the tenets of natural law as defined by the Judeo-Christian ethic.

OPEN PRIMARIES

California Repubs don't want "decline to state" voters...

• State GOP about to shoot itself in the foot — again (By thomas d. elias, Mercury News) State Sen. Abel Maldonado, possibly the party's leading moderate, calls the exclusionary plan "just crazy "... I've never, ever seen a business "... run by eliminating 25 percent of the market share. Anyone would walk away from that deal."

GOVERNORS RACES

Timothy Cahill will announce today for independent run for Gov in MA; Independent Chris Daggett on a roll in NJ...

• Cahill Candidacy Likely to Roil Mass. Governor Race (By Emily Cadei, CQ Politics) The Boston Globe is reporting that Massachusetts state Treasurer Timothy Cahill will announce an independent run for governor on Wednesday, shaking up an already charged 2010 governor's race.
• Cahill to announce candidacy for governor (By Andrea Estes, Boston Globe)
• Cahill set to launch run for governor- But state treasurer who left Democratic Party faces hurdles as an independent (By Andrea Estes, Boston Globe)
• N.J. candidate Daggett goes for humor in TV ad (By Cynthia Burton, Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Indie Candidate Daggett Lampoons Rivals In TV Ad (RealClearPolitics) with VIDEO

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY

WFP has somewhat of a base in Queens and the Dem party insiders are going after them...

• Public advocate candidates get nasty in TV debate (BY ERIN EINHORN AND CELESTE KATZ, DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU) Queens City Councilman Eric Gioia started the digs early, using his opening statement to go after former public advocate Mark Green and Brooklyn Councilman Bill de Blasio as "insiders" who "sure know how to play the same old political games." He slammed de Blasio for his ties to the pro-labor Working Families Party and its for-profit political consulting arm, which Gioia called an "election funding scam."
• Minor parties push into primaries (Crains New York)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 9/7/09

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

According to the polls, independents are abandoning unions, Obama and the progressive agenda. Or did the unions, Pres. Obama and progressives abandon independents to the right?

• Labor Day, support for unions plunges to all-time low (By: BYRON YORK, Chief Political Correspondent, Washington Examiner) Broken down by political party, Gallup found support for unions has fallen the most among critically-important independent voters. Last year, 63 percent of independents said they approved of unions. Now, just 44 percent say the same thing.
• Labor Unions See Sharp Slide in U.S. Public Support-For first time, fewer than half of Americans approve of labor unions (by Lydia Saad, Gallup)
• Obama is fast losing white voters' support (By Peter Wallsten, LA Times) New surveys show steep declines in Obama's approval ratings among whites -- including Democrats and independents -- who were crucial elements of the diverse coalition that helped elect the country's first black president. Pew Research crosstabs
• Bleeding Independents (by Charlie Cook, National Journal) Indies support Obama's foreign policy, not so much domestic...

OPEN PRIMARIES

Good news for Idaho independents (and all voters)! California referendum in June 2010.

• Federal judge wants trial in election suit (By REBECCA BOONE - Associated Press, KBCI-CBS News) Harry Kresky, the New York-based attorney representing the Independent groups who intervened in the case, said he was pleased with Winmill's ruling, because it means that the Idaho Republican Party will be held to a higher standard of proof if they want to win the case.
• Judge sets trial on Idaho primaries (Betsy Z. Russell, Spokesman Review)
• Judge Says Trial Needed in Idaho Republican Party Case Against Open Primary (Ballot Access News)
• California Election Law Bill News (Ballot Access News)
• Open primary could help ease Sacramento gridlock (Martin Wisckol, Columnist: The Buzz, The Orange County Register)

GOVERNORS RACES

Chris Daggett is giving them a run for their money in New Jersey. Redux on toll road in Texas?

• A positive campaign in the race for governor? (Press of Atlantic City/ Carla Linz Callaway's Blog)
• NJ governor's race gets down and dirty (by Politico.com in Star Ledger)
• Texas gov's opponent uses toll road plan as ammo (By KELLEY SHANNON, Dallas Morning News)

BLOOMBERG 09

Colin Powell and Mike Bloomberg marched at the front of the Caribbean West Indian Day Parade today in Brooklyn; Lenora Fulani and the Independence Party are supporting Bloomberg for re-election on the Independence Party line Column C. The Independence Party is the third largest party in New York.

• Colin Powell Endorses Bloomberg at West Indian Day Parade (By KAREN ZRAICK AND JENNIFER 8. LEE, NY Times/City Room)
• Hankster VIDEO from Caribbean West Indian Day Parade with a statement by Lenora Fulani
• The Leonard Lopate Show - Underreported: The Fight for the Independence Party (WNYC radio broadcast)

HEALTH CARE DEBATE

Socialism or capitalism? What about having a developmental conversation?

• Obama’s in the ER but he’ll get his reforms: The right’s healthcare scare tactics are hitting home – but to little purpose (Andrew Sullivan, Times Online - UK)
• David Axelrod on "Meet the Press" (TRANSCRIPT on RealClearPolitics)
• TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads (Jason Linkins, Huffington Post EXCERPT) Obama's approval rating among independent voters is slipping. Gregory's assumption is that independent voters=centrist democrats. I have to imagine that independent voters are souring on Obama's health care maneuvers because he DOES NOT SEEM TO WANT TO FIGHT FOR THE REFORM FOR WHICH THEY VOTED.
• The Obama Slide (By DAVID BROOKS, NY Times)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

If by fickle you mean stepping away from the 2-party system, call me fickle any day!

• 2010: Fight for fickle kids (By: Eamon Javers, Politico) Stanford University political science professor Morris Fiorina is convinced that both political parties haven’t yet grasped the scale of the change that’s happening in society. Republicans, he said, made the mistake of assuming that the divisions they exploited in the 2000-2004 elections were much deeper and more durable than they actually were — and were shocked by vote swings in 2006 and 2008 that would have seemed inconceivable in 2004. Not to mention, he said, “the emergence of Obama out of nowhere.”

PENNSYLVANIA

Independent-turned-Dem Joe Sestak takes on Repub-turned-Dem

• Senate candidates from opposite sides use same strategy against Specter (By Reid Wilson, The Hill) Whether it is the outlier result of a single poll or the harbinger of inroads to come, Toomey actually leads Specter by a 46-42 percent margin among independent voters in a Quinnipiac University survey. The poll was conducted July 14-19.
• Sestak ready to announce he'll take on Specter (By Thomas Fitzgerald, Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Sestak Fires Back: Dem. Specter Makes Republican Swift Boat Attacks On Dem. Military Veterans (By Brian Beutler, TPM, July 9, 2009)

NEW JERSEY

Dem Corzine vs. Repub Christie vs. Independent Daggett

• NJ Gov: Internal (D) Poll Shows Corzine Down 7 (RealClearPolitics)
• Christie maintains lead over Corzine in poll (By Cynthia Burton, Philadelphia Inquirer)

NEW YORK

Special elections in NY are nonpartisan and allow independents to vote. They are the best type of election for insurgents and independent candidates...

• Goo-Goos To Paterson: Don't Call 38th AD Special Election (Liz Benjamin, Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Barrett: Bill Thompson Questions Graduation Rates; City Responds With Its Shady Numbers Man (By Wayne Barrett, Village Voice/Runnin Scared)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Apparently this percentage is up since January, including among independents. But the poll was taken before Obama's latest push for health care reform...

• 53% Say Obama ‘Partisan Democrat’ (Michael van der Galien, Poli-Gazette)
• Partisan Politics-53% Say Obama is ‘Partisan Democrat’ (Rasmussen Reports)
• In drive for health reform, Obama must win over independents (By Linda Feldmann, Christian Science Monitor)

LOCAL INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Step right up, see how the gov candidates scramble for the independent vote!

• Dodd Remains Weak Among Independents- Poll Indicates He Has Base Back; Gaining Among Unaffiliated Voters Is Tougher Task (By DANIELA ALTIMARI, The Hartford Courant)
• Poll: Independents give Simmons edge over Dodd in Conn. (USA Today)
• Daggett: Only an independent can fix the mess in Trenton (New Jersey News Room)
• N.Y. GOP nominates new kind of Republican (By Aaron Blake, The Hill)
• Independents gaining a significant voice in Arizona's political arena (Mesa Independent Examiner, Christina Wijfjes-Smit)
• Poll: Sen. Specter's lead has vanished (UPI) "Independent voters have shifted narrowly to Toomey 46 - 42 percent and say 53 - 35 percent that Specter does not deserve reelection."

THIRD PARTIES
Personally I think the American public has pretty much "moved on" to nonpartisan politics for the moment, but I still think Mark West makes some mighty good points here about the value of third parties.

• Response to John Hawkins' "3 reasons why a successful third party wouldn't solve anything" (By Mark West, Renew America blog)

LAST WORD
This is a short article by the guy who blogs about American politics for The Economist, no doubt named after the Lexington of the American Revolution where the first "shot heard round the world" rang out... After reading the piece I'd say we made the right decision. Both times!
The Obama cult (Lexington blog, from The Economist print edition)