TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 7/20/10

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Research desk responds: How partisan are 'independent' voters? (By Dylan Matthews, Washington Post/Ezra Klein) Political scientists Donald Green and Alan Gerber found that phonebanking and door-to-door canvassing have a statistically significant effect on voter turnout. They're expensive -- $29 and $38 per vote, respectively -- but they can work. Campaigns, then, can choose whether to spend more resources turning out their base in this way, or to try to gain the support of the few pure independent voters who could be swayed by more centrist policies.
• Election 2010: Board of Elections invalidates Baltimore City independent voters (Baltimore Campaign Finance Examiner, Chet Dembeck) Board of Elections told independent voters that the party had been invalidated and that they would have just two weeks to change their "independent" affiliation to Democrat or Republican -- otherwise the state would automatically designate them as "unaffiliated."
• Maryland invalidates independent voters (By J. Taylor Rushing, The Hill/Ballot Box)

GALLUP POLL

• Democrats Jump Into Six-Point Lead on Generic Ballot (by Lydia Saad, Gallup)
• Democrats retake lead in generic ballot (Chris Cillizza, EXCERPT Washington Post/The Fix) The reason for Democrats' upward movement in the poll appears to be independent voters where Republicans now hold a four point generic edge (43 percent to 39 percent), a major drop from Gallup polling earlier this month that showed the GOP with a 14-point margin.
• Dems Gain Generic Edge After Reform Bill (By Reid Wilson, National Journal/Hotline)
• Democrats take generic ballot lead (By ANDY BARR, Politico)
• Gallup: Dems Take 6-Point Lead In Generic Ballot (By Kyle Trygstad, RealClearPolitics)
• Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 45%, Democrats 36% (Rasmussen Reports)

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Open primaries antithetical to a political party system (Delaware News Journal)
• IL: OUR VIEW: Open primary a good step (EDITORIAL The Journal-Standard)
• IL: Editorial: Open to the idea of primary change (Jacksonville Journal Courier)

GEORGIA

• In Georgia, Dems and Reps use the law to suppress competition (Jay Bookkan, Atlanta Journal Constitution)
• Check out GeorgiaIndependentVoters.org

KENTUCKY

• Independent Jackie Green displeased with lack of Louisville mayoral debate invitations (By Dan Klepal, Louisville Courier-Journal)
• Check out Independent Kentucky here

PENNSYLVANIA

• Independents crucial to Dems' election prospects (By LIZ SIDOTI (AP) Stephen Bouikidis, a founder of the grass-roots organization Independent Pennsylvanians, says it's unfulfilled promises of bipartisanship that influence the state's 1 million independents. "We are very interested in candidates who want to reform. But what we won't respond to is partisanship," he says.
• NOTE: This story was picked up by CBS News, Huffington Post, The Examiner, US News & World Report, and msnbc.comhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38306714/ns/politics-decision_2010  ....
• Check out Independent Pennsylvanians here

NEW YORK

• New anti-Dem group would mean business (Fredric U. Dicker, EXCLUSIVE, NY Post) Democrats took control of the Senate last year with strong backing from the WFP, but hold only a one-vote majority. Whoever controls the Senate next year will play a key role in overseeing legislative redistricting, and Senate President Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) has vowed to redraw the district lines to wipe out the GOP.
• Will party's support be liability? - Republicans look to tie Democrats to Working Families Party's woes (By RICK KARLIN, Capitol bureau, Albany Times Union)

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• Panel Mulls Pros, Cons Of Partisan Primaries (By: Grace Rauh, NY1) "A million five New Yorkers are disenfranchised from voting in the most decisive elections that affect them and their representative government," said Dick Dadey of Citizens Union.
• Call To Charter Commission: Do More (By Jarrett Murphy, City Limits)
• John Avlon to Charter Revision Commission: Yes on Top Two Open Primary for NYC - VIDEO
• Dick Dadey, Citizens Union: Yes on Top Two Open Primary for NYC - VIDEO

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Gallup finds independents ideologically diverse
• Open primaries: what California needs
• Romney would win 2012 Repub primary -- IF they shut down open primaries and keep out independents....
• New York fusion voting gives weight to third parties
• Where does Pedro Espada get all that chutzpa??
• Stop the presses! Political consultant gives up on "change"!
• Albany partisan struggles inside the parties
• How Mayor Bloomberg improved NYC schools
• Personal Democracy Forum -- personal and bi-partisan

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• New Gallup Poll: Obama at 66 percent (Seattle Post Intelligencer/Strange Bedfellows blog)
  

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY

• Bloomberg flunked: Bill in Albany would take away mayor's control of city education policy panel (BY KENNETH LOVETT, DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF)
  
• Bloomberg and the Teachers' Union (By Wayne Barrett, Village Voice)
  
• Recommended reading: THE STRIKE THAT CHANGED NEW YORK This book revisits the Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis - a watershed in modern New York City race relations. Jerald E. Podair connects the conflict with the sociocultural history of the city and explores its influence on city politics, economics, and culture. Podair shows how the crisis became a symbol of the vast perceptual chasm separating black and white New Yorkers. And the legacy of this critical moment, when blacks and whites spoke past each other like strangers, has ever since played a role in city issues ranging from mayoral elections to budget negotiations, disputes over police violence, and debates on welfare policy. The book is a powerful, sobering tale of racial misunderstanding and fear, a New York story with national implications. http://books.google.com/books?id=gEEA0RxSR3EC

ON THE BLOGS

• Could You Possibly Be An “Independent”? (Orange Juice Blog)
  
• Rant Power of the Independents – GOP Beware (Rant Rave blog)
  
• Analyzing How the Independent Went Left by Going Right (Ordinary Person blog)
  

Is the dialogue about economic stimulus developing?

As an independent voter, what do you think about the economic stimulus plan and partisan politics?? Here's what Gallup said independents said:

Independent voters favor the progressive priorities set forth by Obama: 50 percent independents favor "increased government funding of projects" in the recovery package, compared to only 36 percent who favor "tax cuts for individuals/businesses" promulgated by conservatives. Congressional Republicans, who see political gain from their "party of no" status, have a "staggeringly high" disapproval of 58 percent. Their approval rating is at 44 percent compared to 60 percent for Democrats.

From The Establishment Vs. The Public on Huffington Post...

Newman and Salit had this to say on today's Talk Talk The Rules of the Game:

 

Salit: In attempting to give what you might call a more strategic framing to the shaping of the stimulus package, Mark Shields says that one of the things that's operative, at a meta-level if you will, is that it's the end of the conservative era. The conservative era is over. Deregulation, tax cuts, all of that has been wholly discredited by the facts on the ground, by the onset of the economic crisis. So, says Shields, the conservative era is over, but we don't know where to go. We're in "uncharted territory," his term. I guess what he's saying is that things haven't "swung back to" traditional liberalism, but conservatism is over. So the question is where are we? Where are we going?

Newman: All that might be true. I don't know. It sounds somewhat metaphorical to me. But the process has remained exactly the same.

Salit: The process for hammering out what Congress does, yes.

Newman: It's like people who come in to reform education and one side has a liberal view and the other side has a conservative view. But, when you get to the schools, the chairs are screwed into the floor in exactly the same way, no matter what....

Independent voters have turned against Bush

Core group of Bush loyalists stand by their man
By Ron Hutcheson ...Independent voters also have turned against Bush, although roughly 29 percent say they still approve of his job performance, averaging five Gallup polls this year.... (McClatchy Newspapers)