Jackie Salit: Something's Rotten In...

...New York State politics?

No! That couldn't be! "...Don’t miss the latest drama about the Independence Party in which Governor Cuomo is cast as Hamlet, deciding whether “to IP or not IP.”  Independents must consider our alternatives.  Here’s the backstory..."

Independence Party founder, Jacqueline Salit weighs in on

the Governor's race and

the fate of the Independence Party in

"Something's Rotten In..."

 

Jackie Salit just posted an opinion piece on the NYC Independence Party website calling for Lenora Fulani to challenge Gov Cuomo in 2014.  In it, you'll get her take on the Governor's race and the political gamesmanship and controversy currently surrounding of the New York State Independence Party.

Jackie Salit helped establish the Independence Party in 1994 and managed all three of Mayor Bloomberg's campaigns on the Independence Party line.  She is the author of Independents Rising.

 

This is all sad commentary on the Independence Party’s fate.  All the players in this drama, either directly or indirectly, propped up MacKay as he did their bidding, stripping away the party’s independence and vision.  Now, it’s time to kill it off, they say.  Just as the child who murders his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan, these anti-independent schemers beg for justice.
The climax will star the embattled Cuomo, who, in Hamlet-like fashion, must resolve whether “to IP or not to IP.”  Either he does business with MacKay or becomes a full-fledged Working Families Party-allied Democrat, even as the WFP is going through its own public handwringing.  He is caught between the Devil and deep blue sea.
- See more at: http://www.ipnyc.org/home/opinion-somethings-rotten-in/#sthash.6tGQcfte.dpuf

This is all sad commentary on the Independence Party’s fate.  All the players in this drama, either directly or indirectly, propped up MacKay as he did their bidding, stripping away the party’s independence and vision.  Now, it’s time to kill it off, they say.  Just as the child who murders his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan, these anti-independent schemers beg for justice.
The climax will star the embattled Cuomo, who, in Hamlet-like fashion, must resolve whether “to IP or not to IP.”  Either he does business with MacKay or becomes a full-fledged Working Families Party-allied Democrat, even as the WFP is going through its own public handwringing.  He is caught between the Devil and deep blue sea.
- See more at: http://www.ipnyc.org/home/opinion-somethings-rotten-in/#sthash.6tGQcfte.dpuf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Must read for independents everywhere!

 

 

- NH

 

Don’t miss the latest drama about the Independence Party in which Governor Cuomo is cast as Hamlet, deciding whether “to IP or not IP.”  Independents must consider our alternatives.  Here’s the backstory. - See more at: http://www.ipnyc.org/home/opinion-somethings-rotten-in/#sthash.6tGQcfte.dpuf

This is all sad commentary on the Independence Party’s fate.  All the players in this drama, either directly or indirectly, propped up MacKay as he did their bidding, stripping away the party’s independence and vision.  Now, it’s time to kill it off, they say.  Just as the child who murders his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan, these anti-independent schemers beg for justice.
The climax will star the embattled Cuomo, who, in Hamlet-like fashion, must resolve whether “to IP or not to IP.”  Either he does business with MacKay or becomes a full-fledged Working Families Party-allied Democrat, even as the WFP is going through its own public handwringing.  He is caught between the Devil and deep blue sea.
- See more at: http://www.ipnyc.org/home/opinion-somethings-rotten-in/#sthash.6tGQcfte.dpuf

Jackie Salit: Arizona a Bellwether of National Independent Political Trend

Please visit http://bcove.me/khcb5tbo

Year of the Donkey: Mayoral Race 2013, Adolfo Carrion, the NYC Independence Party, and Political Snobbery and Dysfunction

Statement by the Independence Party of New York City on the results of the 2013 Mayoral race

Congratulations to Bill de Blasio and the Working Families Party on their win.

The political coalition taking over City Hall says it will take on the problem of economic inequality and poverty in our city.  We support that 100 percent!

We hope that the new Mayor's agenda will also include taking on political dysfunction.  With voter turnout at a 96-year low and a million independents locked out of primary voting, New York's electoral process clearly needs some drastic reform.  Fairness happens when a process is fair.  We urge Mayor-elect de Blasio to make political inclusion and participation key goals of his administration.


Below are notes by IPNYC Press Secretary Sarah Lyons from interviews after the election between Jackie Salit and the press:

Where is the NYC Independence Party headed post-election? 

The NYC Independence Party is part of a national movement concerned about the state of our political process and about political dysfunction -- a movement seeking nonpartisan reform.  We'll continue to pursue those reforms as we always have.

How we approach that with Bill de Blasio as Mayor is an open question.  After all, unlike Bloomberg, neither de Blasio nor the Working Families Party supports nonpartisan reform.  Quite the contrary.  But when you have a system that produces the lowest voter turnout in 96 years and a million independents locked out of the primaries, there is something very wrong with that system.

Adolfo Carrion received some 8,200 votes. How do you account for the low number of votes? 

First of all, this was the Year of the Donkey, meaning that after 20 years' exile from City Hall, the Democratic Party was going to win the mayoralty under virtually any circumstances.  Consequently, the mayoral election really took place in the Democratic primary, which the city's one million independents were banned from voting in.  To break through for an independent in the Year of the Donkey was nearly Mission Impossible.

That said, the Independence Party took a shot.  We chose not to run a fusion campaign.  We supported Adolfo Carrion, a political leader who is a man of color who had held public office, and served in the Obama administration, but who left the Democratic Party to become an independent.  He is a reformer who came up against huge resistance from all corners of the political marketplace.  The systemic change of nonpartisan elections that we sought during the Bloomberg years would have leveled the playing field in this election.  But, that hasn't been achieved yet.  So the election was tilted from the outset in favor of the major party candidates.

Independence Party members protest exclusion of Carrion from ABC debate

Carrion was excluded from the debates, marginalized by much of the media, and didn't have the financial wealth that Bloomberg had to overcome the differential of being an independent in a town in which the Democratic Party runs the show.  Many of his donors were afraid to support him as an independent, afraid of retribution from the Democrats. 





The fact that de Blasio refused to debate Carrion meant that the Democrats wanted to give the public no opportunity to consider another progressive option.  All of that meant the odds were severely stacked against Adolfo.  We knew that going in.  But we felt it was important to support a Latino independent looking to shake up the system and to carve out a new option.  Don't make the mistake of underestimating the 8,200 people who voted for Carrion this year.  Those who did made a very forward-looking statement about resisting the Democratic Party monopoly on progressive politics.  They are the nucleus or the core of a bottom-up independent movement.  All the independent votes we got for Mike Bloomberg were hugely important, they gave him a mandate for nonpartisan leadership, but they were votes for a winner. Everyone who voted for Carrion knew he couldn't win, but they voted for him to build something.

Won't the low vote total make people look askance at the Independence Party?

People have always looked askance at the IP, whether we got 150,000 votes, as we did for Bloomberg in 2009, or under 10,000 votes, so that isn't an issue for me.  I'm used to the political class looking askance at us.  Actually, I like it when they do.  

Does this vote total mean that the Independence Party's message is invalid? 

No. First of all, most New Yorkers didn't know Adolfo Carrion was running, they never got the message. But more than that, the main way that voters displayed their dislike with the system and their major party options this year was by staying home.  This year's voter turnout was the lowest it's been in 97 years.  That's shocking!  Everybody should look askance at that!  

IP is part of a very young movement that is in its infancy.  The Working Families Party, now being touted as having eclipsed the IP as the major minor party in New York City, is not an independent party.  It's an arm of the Democratic Party.  The Democratic Party has had a 200-year head start over the independents.  We are playing a long game, and this campaign was one moment in that long game.

We shouldn't forget that New York isn't even a bipartisan town, it's a one-party town.  The Republican Party did poorly because it has no message and no soul.  The Independence Party has both, but it's young, it's under-funded, it's considered illegitimate and it's operating in a city that is run by one party.

###

 

A note from The Hankster:

In a one-party town, what do you do? You organize, and build build build. It was a pleasure working with all of you on the campaign. Onward!

NH

NYC Mayor Race Count Down: Day 6 - Jackie Salit Independence Party Rally for Adolfo Carrion - What's Lou Reed Got to Do With It?

[UPDATED due to uploading 'glitches'....] In this video, from the October Adolfo Carrion Independence Party Rally, Jackie Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org, the national center for independent nonpartisan political reform, notes that rock n roll legend, American music innovator, Lou Reed's seminal Velvet Underground album sold 30,000 copies (puny by today's standards, no doubt), but that everyone who bought a copy formed a band.

We're forming bands. It's 1776 in New York City. Take a walk on the wild side!
Get your band together!

NH

[Video by Coco Cheung]

Significant Victory for Open Primaries and Voting Rights in South Carolina for Independents and African American Voters

Independents Are Growing in Number and Stature

By John Opdycke on 08/27/2013 in INV

On steps of the Donald S. Russell Federal courthouse in Spartanburg, SC (left to right): Jackie Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org; South Carolina Independence Party chair Wayne Griffin; local counsel Fletcher Smith, and IndependentVoting.org general counsel Harry Kresky.

...Last Wednesday, IndependentVoting.org president Jackie Salit and general counsel Harry Kresky traveled to South Carolina to defend open primaries from the Greenville County Republican Party, which has been attempting to force the state to enact closed primaries since 2010. After hearing arguments from both sides, Federal Judge Mary Lewis sided with the defendants and dismissed the case – a significant victory for open primaries advocates.

IndependentVoting.org issued a press release in the wake of the ruling, stating: “Political crossfire inside the Republican Party gave rise to this lawsuit but African American and independent voters would have been the big losers if the primaries had been closed as a result.”...

Read Opdycke's full article here

Read more about IndependentVoting.org's campaign for open primaries here

Independents Are 40% and Rising

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• The Rise of the Independent Voice (By Michael Drucker, IVN/ Independent View) Recently the number of independent voters have risen to 40% in some polls. The media has tried to give them a voice. They are called swing voters or democrats and republicans in hiding. They are disappointed with congress and the administration due to their inability to govern. Some of these voters are independent activists. So lets find out where they are from and what they have to say.*
• Percentage of independent California voters inches upward (Sac Bee/ Capitol Alert) with nearly 21 percent of the electorate now registered to vote with no party preference, according to a report today by the California secretary of state… Meanwhile, the proportion of voters registered to vote Democratic declined to 43.93 percent from 44.04 percent in February 2011, while Republican registration dropped to 28.94 percent from 30.88 percent two years ago..
• 5 Lessons Learned from the 2013 State of the News Media Report (By Jane Susskind, IVN) 1. Independent voters are key: Major networks need to appeal to independent voters, both on and offline. According to the 2013 State of the News Media report, independents are the most likely to have left a news outlet, making up 34% of those who no longer follow certain news outlets.

* Also see Independents Rising: Third Party Politics In America -- Michael Lewis, Independent Kentucky...

NYC Independence Party Anti-Corruption Awards Honors Jacqueline Salit, Stephanie Orasco and New Possibilities

Independentvoting.org President Jackie Salit accepting an 2012 Anti-Corruption Award from the NYC Independence Party Organizations, with congratulations to Univeristy of North Carolina at Greensboro independent organizer sister-awardee Stehpanie Orasco. Presented by the NYC Independence Party and Cathy L. Stewart, John Opdycke. Special guests NY State Senator Malcolm Smith, former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión, Jr.



Video by Sandy Friedman

Independent Voter Watch: Jackie Salit on "Reimagining America" at TEDx New England Wednesday

On Wednesday, Oct. 24th at 12:30 pm, independentvoting.org president Jackie Salit will deliver a presentation on the independent political movement at the TEDx New England conference entitled "Reimagining America".

You can watch the program via livestream.

Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are fully planned and coordinated independently, on a community-by-community basis. 

Jackie will share her thoughts about changing the political culture before a live audience at the WGBH studios in Boston, MA on Oct. 24th at 12:30 pm. You will need to register for the live streaming.

    

Also, in case you missed it, Jackie's appearance on the PBS show Arizona Horizon is now available online.  Host Ted Simons explores the terrain of independent politics in this 12 minute interview about the independent voter movement and its potential impact on future elections.

  

Next stops on Jackie's Independents Rising book tour.

  

October 30th 
 Greensboro, NC. Independents Rising and the 2012 Election: A Public Conversation with Author Jacqueline Salit and Dr. Omar Ali, 6:00 pm, School of Education Auditorium (Room 120), UNC-Greensboro. Sponsored by College Independents, Black Student Union, Dept. of Political Science and North Carolina Independents. Book signing to follow.

October 31st

High Point University, High Point, NC.  Independents Rising and the 2012 Election, 5:30 pm, Phillips 101. Sponsored by the High Point University Politics Club.  Book signing to follow.

Jackie Salit -- Growing Up Politically: Something We Could All Choose To Do!

Hi Hanksteristas! I hope you will read one of the most honest and direct pieces of campaign hoopla to come across my desk recently -- by Chad Peace over at IVN.

He concludes (I generally like to start at the ending in these cases....) "While independents can be found across the political spectrum, Salit commented on a common trope that brings them together; the unequal access to the political process: “What this independent movement is about is creating a voice so people can participate.”

Amen.

It's a common trope. I like that!

To Jackie from the home base: Your 'Independents Rising' Tour Rocks!

NH
Get Busy!


NEWS FOR INDEPENDENTS
Tuesday, September 25, 2012

JACQUELINE SALIT'S 'INDEPENDENTS RISING' TOUR

• Living Room Conversations and Changing the Political Culture (By Chad Peace, IVN) Joan Blades, founder of MomsRising.org, and guest speaker Jackie Salit, author of Independents Rising, hosted an event in San Francisco on Saturday to discuss a new political culture in America; one focused on understanding different perspectives. Salit opened the discussion with a light-hearted memory of the barriers she faced at a young age. ”I don’t remember ever becoming an activist, but grew up in a very political family.”  Here's another interview...
• Three Things Independents Can Do To Make a Difference in 2012 (by Nancy Hanks, The Moderate Voice) Jackie Salit speaks about the independent movement and her new book Independents Rising (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) at Lenora Fulani’s ‘Interviews With a Black Independent’, a monthly series coming to you from the Harlem State Office Building.
• Political Independents: The Future of Politics (by John Avlon,the Daily Beast) Two timely new books—Mickey Edwards's The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans and Jacqueline Salit’s Independents Rising offer valuable insights into the impulses that have inspired a record number of Americans to reject the two parties and demand something different… Independents Rising is a street-level look at the grassroots activism of independent politics, propelling the creation of the New York Independence Party (described as an “anti-party party”) and electing New York City’s independent Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Salit’s book is more of a memoir, a look at the rise of independent politics largely through the prism of her own life...

ATTACKS ON INDEPENDENTS

• Number Of Independent Voters On The Rise (by Steven Covelman, Staff Reporter, USC University of Southern California Annenberg) The Los Angeles Times reports that more Californians than ever before are registered as no preference voters. "In California the influence of independents is growing," Jeffe said. "Republicans and Democrats must reach out to independents to get out of the primaries." At this point in the presidential race, the amount of independents who remain undecided is small. According to Jeffe’s estimates, only around 5 to 10 percent of independent voters have not picked a candidate yet. [YES, GET OUT OF THE PRIMARIES! VOTE FOR THE PERSON!]

• What Do We Know About Independent Voters? (By Gina McGalliard, Truthout) Quotes Linda Killian and reads: In keeping with the idea that political views often defy easy categorization, Independent Voters of America now has an online quiz for voters. "[We're trying] to map independent voters' thinking, issues, [and] preferences in more of a three-dimensional way than just a left-right continuum or a conservative-liberal continuum," says Hillsman, who also noted that independent voters tend to be more prevalent among those under 40, entrepreneurs and those who work in the tech sector. "And the example I use very often is libertarians. Democrats think libertarians are very conservative because, by and large, fiscally they are very conservative. Republicans think they're total liberal whack jobs because they don't believe in drug laws," says Hillsman. "They don't believe in a lot of restrictions on personal freedoms, etcetera. So, where do you put those people?"   [NOT QUITE SURE THIS IS AN ATTACK EXACTLY, BUT WHERE do YOU PUT THOSE PEOPLE?????]

Jackie Salit on 'Independents Rising' with Lenora Fulani in Harlem

What are the three things that independents can do to make a critical difference that the future is calling for?



Jackie Salit speaks about the independent movement and her new book Independents Rising (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) at Lenora Fulani's 'Interviews With a Black Independent', a monthly series coming to you from the Harlem State Office Building.

Independents Rising and The Parties Versus The People: Bring It On!

JACKIE SALIT'S INDEPENDENTS RISING
Author Sees Improved Discourse As Key To 2012 Presidential Election Outcome (By John Ostapkovich, CBS PHILLY) “I think independents are looking to see whether the president or his opponent are going to give voice to this central issue in American politics today, which is overcoming political partisanship,” she says.



If you have not already picked up a copy of Jackie Salit's new book Independents Rising, time's a-wastin'! And you can read Hankster chapter by chapter reviews here, here, and here -- and stay tuned for more! Utah League of Independent Voters [on Facebook as Utah League of Independent Voters] founder Randy Miller and I are the relay team, and watch for Independent Kentucky's [on Facebook as Independent Kentucky] Chairman Michael Lewis's review of Chapter 8...


And by the way, The Hankster has a Facebook page too -- hope you'll like it!


MICKEY EDWARDS' THE PARTIES VERSUS THE PEOPLE
Can we fix a hyper-partisan Congress? (By Mickey Edwards, Special to CNN) It surprises me still to hear people express amazement at the hyper-partisan nature of Congress and its resulting inability to deal collectively with the nation's problems. In a constitutional system that places most of the federal government's real power with the peoples' representatives, that is a serious problem.

Former Congressman Mickey Edwards is a lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also a vice president of the Aspen Institute and director of the Institute’s Aspen-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership program. His new book The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans is in stores and online now.


Edwards and Salit were featured guests at Cathy L. Stewart's Politics for the People monthly forum both last April talking about their books. Video snipits below. 

Independents Rising Chapter 2 review

In 1992 I was not a seasoned independent grassroots organizer, but I knew a thing or two about knocking doors and building a movement. I was 20 years old and serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Yes, coincidentally that is the 'Mormon' church to which Mitt Romney belongs, and no, I won't be voting for him, but that is another story*.

My parents and their friends and community were basically conservative Republicans. I was young and naive. I believed what I had heard---I had little or no exposure to any contrasting political views and I was focused on theology. I would not say I was skeptical. I wouldn't say I believed all the rhetoric I was exposed to, but I did feel like there was a home team under constant anti-American attack. Perhaps I was a well-trained partisan. Even in my bitter-about-the-war years, I defended the Utah Legislature in conversation over their 2000 gerrymandered redistricting plan. Corruption in my mind was unique to liberals in far off places like Chicago and New York. I don't know entirely how my eyes were opened, but I'm glad they were and I'm certain Jackie Salit and Nancy Ross had something to do with it.

I recall just a few thoughts of my political thinking in 1992:

1. I remember thinking (perhaps due to Perot raising it to the fore) that debt was an omnipresent issue that the two parties were powerless to overcome.
2. Something, anything new (seeds of independence?), even Jesse Jackson might represent a "new face" approach that was needed. I wasn't an ardent supporter of that, just open to the idea. I was doing a lot of listening in the months and years running up to November 1992.
3. I remember thinking how unconscionable it was that my missionary companion from Oregon was a supporter of that 'pot smoker' Bill Clinton. Boy have I done a lot of growing up since then!

Nancy's introduction to this chapter by chapter project says "This is your story, our story--the story of the rise of independents". I have read a number of fiction and non-fiction thrillers with great anticipation of 'how it ends'. But it is surreal as I read through this narrative of independent history. I remember that past, our past...our present. It wasn't that long ago and it is how I arrived here. I know how this book ends before I've read it! The compelling draw is what will fill the pages of the subsequent sequels.

Chapter 2--Populism versus Centrism

Centrism is a meaningless abstraction. Those are my words not Jackie's. My local political conditions will partially illustrate this.

Candidates in Utah are screened through a caucus / convention system and if they score high enough, a primary election is avoided. This arrangement has become a practice that can be manipulated and misused. There are voices within the parties and even more voices without calling for an end to the caucus / convention / closed primary system. Party leaders of at least the Democratic and Republican parties predictably support the current arrangement. If centrism is vaguely defined as somewhere between left and right, is it squeezed out when the parties are in unison as in this example? Is left / center / right even relevant to an electoral equity issue?

Chapter 2 chronicles not ideological positions as problematic, but ideology generally as problematic and this often includes 'centrism' as the obstructive ideology of 'centrists'. This is the stark contrast and the chapter's namesake of populism versus centrism.

Populism is power to the people through pro-democratic institutions without a bias or preference as to what the voice of the people might say. Centrism is an advocacy of ideological noise not (a) pro-left or (b) pro-right, but (c) for bipartisan centrist middle. It is ideologically oriented. Populism is institution oriented.

*A story that I'd be happy to tell those who are interested. Drop me a line--http://www.facebook.com/RandyNMiller

Hankster News of the Day for Independent Voters - August 10

INDEPENDENTS RISING

• Independents Rising, by Jacqueline Salit (By Kymberly Bays, IVN) Where Salit’s book is most interesting is the anecdotes of independent successes and failures. A deeply entrenched member of two decades of independent movements, she gives insider accounts of campaign activities, deals and negotiations.
• Book Review: Jackie Salit’s “Independents Rising” (Posted by Nancy Hanks, The Moderate Voice) Are you among the 40 something percent of Americans who consider themselves political independents? You will appreciate this new book by Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, long-time activist and strategist for the independent movement. I urge you to rush to your local bookstore and read this smart, witty and engaging look at American politics in 2012 from an outsider’s inside take.

Q&A with Jackie Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org

June 1, 2012 

Morrison Institute 

Jackie Salit

Jackie Salit, a leader in the independent movement and author of INDEPENDENTS RISING, Outsider Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America, was recently interviewed by Joseph Garcia, communications director at Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Salit is president of IndependentVoting.org and managed all three of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns on the Independence Party line. She also was a leader in the fight for nonpartisan elections in New York City and consulted with leaders of the coalition that passed Proposition 14, the Top Two Initiative in California that will be in effect this year. 
Salit recently was in Arizona, which could decide in the fall whether to also adopt the top-two vote-getter system for elections.

Audio: Q&A with Jackie Salit (32:33 running time)
MI Briefing: Top-Two Proposition: What Nonpartisan Elections Could Mean for Arizona


INDEPENDENT REFORM
What Are Your Favored Electoral Reforms? (By Damon Eris, IVN) Primary System Reform: In the vast majority of states, primary elections are the means by which the Democratic and Republican parties nominate their candidates for a given office, and in states with closed primaries (roughly half), only party members may cast ballots in those elections, thus disenfranchising millions of Independent voters across the country. Why should tax payers be forced to subsidize an internal party process that they are prohibited from participating in? The solution here is rather simple: primary elections should be open to all registered voters or they should not be publicly funded. If the parties desire to maintain closed primary elections, they can privately fund these elections themselves. Surely, their corporate sponsors would be willing to supply the necessary funding, as, in many cases, they already own the major parties’ candidates.

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

• Letter: Inequality exists for independents (Albany Times Union) I am pleased to see the Times Union has adopted my long-held opinion of "one ballot line per candidate" ("Third-party shenanigans," Aug. 3). The editorial makes reference to the petition process but fails to emphasize the inequality that exists between candidates who are truly independent and those who belong to parties recognized by the state.
• The third-party candidate who could derail Mitt Romney (By Scott Bomboy, CONSTITUTION DAILY in Philadelphia Inquirer) With Mitt Romney needing Virginia - especially if President Barack Obama can take Ohio or Florida - Goode could become the little-known spoiler in the national election.

All Things Independents Rising (Jackie Salit's new book)

In case you missed it, The Hankster is very excited about Jackie Salit's book Independents Rising, published by Palgrave Macmillan and on bookshelves as of yesterday. Below are some of the reviews streaming in! Congrats, Jackie!

INDEPENDENTS RISING

• Speaking on behalf of the independents (By Jacqueline Salit, Constitution Daily) The recent Supreme Court health care decision was striking in many ways, but perhaps most of all, for its dramatic separation of constitutional and policy questions. If the decision was in any way a bellwether, it might be that in these times, the best outcomes are produced when process and policy are distinguished from one another.  As was evident in the outcry over Justice John Roberts’ unexpected turn, making this distinction can disrupt partisan convention–and that’s a good thing!
• Kirkus' Review: INDEPENDENTS RISING (Kirkus Reviews) Independentvoting.org president Salit (co-author: Talk/Talk: Making (Non) Sense of an Irrational World, 2010) discusses independent voters in this “honest and unvarnished account of events, personalities, and contexts in the formative decades of what I feel certain will turn out to be a century-defining dynamic.”
• Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America, Jacqueline S. Salit. Palgrave Macmillan, (Publishers Weekly) Given the upcoming presidential election, Salit’s earnest and informative book is sure to be consulted by those trying to understand the enigmatic and influential independent voter. Independents first spilled into the mainstream with the 1992 presidential campaign of Ross Perot (who garnered 19% of the popular vote) and have been a driving source of politics ever since.
• Jackie Salit's Independents Rising: A Review from the Trenches (Nancy Hanks, The Hankster) By January of 1992, I was a seasoned national field organizer for a budding independent movement. I had been slogging away with colleagues in small teams, knocking on doors and setting up tables on street corners and on college campuses from Philadelphia to Cleveland to Chicago since 1986, to raise money and build a base of independent-minded Americans in support of legislation that would have made it easier for independent candidates to get on the ballot.
• Independents Rising: Third Party Politics In America (EXCERPT) (Huffington Post) Michael Lewis is an imposing man. Six-foot-six, 340 pounds, barrel-chested, he looks like someone who could crush an opponent without even a sideways glance. Lewis played semipro football in his younger days. Today he is married, with two young daughters, and has worked as a prelitigation specialist in the financial credit industry. It’s a business that Lewis feels uncomfortable about.
• Book Review: Independents Rising by Jacqueline Salit (Nancy Hanks, The Hankster) From the first words of Jackie Salit's upcoming book Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America (out in stores on August 7, pre-order from Amazon) "For Sema/ Fiercely Independent" to the last "...George Washington warned that political parties can 'become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government.' The American people want that power back. That's why independents are rising," this intimate, open and powerful portrait of the past two decades of the American independent political movement struck a deep chord with me.
• Catana Barnes on Independents Rising (Politics for the People) “Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America by Jackie Salit is an intimate account of the independent movement that only an insider can provide. This book enlightens readers about the history, trials and tribulations and successes of independents as well as the continuing struggle for making lasting and meaningful reforms that empowers all voters. The stories about the grassroots organizers and organizations are very motivating and makes me proud to be a part of the independent movement.”
• Book review: Independents Rising, by Jacqueline Salit (By: Ken Bingenheimer, Examiner) Partisan gridlock has pushed public approval of Congress's performance into single-digit territory, and the single largest--and growing--political group in the country is the non-affiliated voters. Yet in much of the country, this massive group is disenfranchised, denied the ability to exert any influence in primary elections and forced to choose between increasingly partisan party nominees in the general election.
• Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America, Jacqueline S. Salit (MacMillan) A revealing look at how independent voters have been upending the political establishment for thirty years – and how they’ll decide the future of American politics.
• Jackie Salit: Independents Rising (Philadelphia Weekly) Political Pundit Jacqueline Salit recounts the little-known history of the independent political movement, exploring and attempting to define exactly who independents are and what their impact on the current political system is. WHEN Saturday, October 13, 2012

JACKIE SALIT'S WEBSITE: http://www.jackiesalit.com/

JACKIE SALIT ON TWITTER: https://twitter.com/jackiesalit @jackiesalit

JACKIE SALIT ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jacqueline-Salit/206759922784036 (search Jacqueline-Salit)

independents shelved!

PHOTO: Bryan Puertas

Jackie Salit's Independents Rising hit the book store shelves today! Congrats JS!!

HuffPo Excerpt from Independents Rising by Jacqueline Salit: Michael Lewis, Kentucky Independent

Just came across this wonderful excerpt From "Independents Rising" by Jacqueline S. Salit. Copyright © 2012 by the author and reprinted by permission of Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd. posted today on HuffPo:

Michael Lewis is an imposing man. Six-foot-six, 340 pounds, barrel-chested, he looks like someone who could crush an opponent without even a sideways glance. Lewis played semipro football in his younger days. Today he is married, with two young daughters, and has worked as a pre-litigation specialist in the financial credit industry. It’s a business that Lewis feels uncomfortable about. “It’s hard to make a living off of other people’s misfortune,” he says in a gentle voice that seems at odds with his physical stature. He’d like to change careers. But the economy being what it is, it’s hard to make that change especially in a place like Kentucky, where jobs are scarce and wages are low.
Michael Lewis is an independent. When you talk with him, you realize that it’s as much an attitude, a posture, a sensibility, as it is a political position. He doesn’t like political parties; he feels they have too much control. He wants independent voters to have more political power. Kentucky is a “closed primary” state— meaning candidates are nominated through primary elections in which only party members can vote, not independents.

Michael Lewis is one of many players in the independent movement. He is the founder of Independent Kentucky, a fighter for grassroots democracy. Get to know him!

NH

Jackie Salit's Independents Rising: A Review from the Trenches

By January of 1992, I was a seasoned national field organizer for a budding independent movement. I had been slogging away with colleagues in small teams, knocking on doors and setting up tables on street corners and on college campuses from Philadelphia to Cleveland to Chicago since 1986, to raise money and build a base of independent-minded Americans in support of legislation that would have made it easier for independent candidates to get on the ballot. I was part of a team of 50 or so organizers -- many of whom were using vacation time from their jobs -- who flew into Texas in the summer of 1988 to put Dr. Lenora B. Fulani on the ballot in one of the toughest ballot access drives in US history. We were doing the impossible in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, California, Alaska, South Dakota, Michigan... making history. Fulani was the first woman and first African American to ever get on the ballot in all 50 states running for President. She ran as an independent.

So it is especially intriguing to me to take a step back and read Jackie Salit’s account in Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America. Indeed, it’s personal. And you don’t have to have been in the trenches to appreciate this story. This is your story, our story -- the story of the rise of independents. Where were you in 1992? What were you doing? What conversations did you have with friends and family? What small or big decisions did you make, and had been making for a long time, that helped create a nonpartisan pro-democracy voice in 2012 America?

REVIEW BY Ken Bingenheimer here

Jackie begins her story in 1992, a year of "awkward contradictions" as she calls it, borrowing the phrase from William Greider’s One World, Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism. In the context of an increasingly irrelevant left, and an increasingly centrist Democratic Party, a grassroots voter revolt was gathering force on the fringes.

“These rumblings did not register on most political radars. The big story in 1990 was that the Democrats had controlled the House of Representatives since 1948 (and always would) and that the Republicans controlled the White House (and likely would for at least another six years). It seemed to many observers that the century would wrap up without any major surprises in American politics. In 1989 political science professor Francis Fukuyama wrote an influential essay for the National Interest magazine called “The End of History?” Fukuyama projected that the collapse of communism heralded a new international order of liberal democracy and stability. America would be the world’s beacon and breadwinner. The world would now follow suit. Few saw beyond that ostensibly happy horizon.”

Independents Rising is a beautifully choreographed dance between what was being described by most pundits, journalists, writers, thought-leaders, et al, and what was actually happening on the ground.

“In 1992 Fulani entered the early Democratic primaries to promote her antipartisan pro-reform cause. She had been awarded nearly $650,000 in federal primary matching funds in December 1991...”

In October of 1991, I transferred from a two-month stint in Atlanta, Georgia to San Francisco, California. Arriving at 8:00AM, I was on the street with our team in Oakland by 10:00AM raising money to qualify Fulani’s ’92 campaign for federal primary matching funds. The streets of California were paved with gold for the independent movement in 1992. And in spite of that, or perhaps because of it, by late December I requested to come back to New York. I was tired. I missed being close to my kids in Philadelphia. I couldn’t grock the fact that the water was on the left -- that made no sense to my East Coast orientation, not to mention I was disoriented by the lack of grease, grit and grime of NYC. I wanted to see Fred Newman. My field director Cathy Salit called me to let me know that my request was granted and she had a favor to ask. Would I go up to New Hampshire for a month before coming home? I said yes and arrived in New York on New Years Eve in time for a party in Harlem before "shipping out" again -- briefly -- for points north. I was home, almost.

“The WMUR studios were locked behind a phalanx of Manchester police on January 19, the night of the debate. Former California governor Jerry Brown, the progressive challenger to the Clintonian Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) brand of “new politics," issued a statement calling for Fulani’s inclusion and criticized the party for excluding her... Fulani set up a mass picket ringing the studio, involving 400 protesters--some had traveled to New Hampshire from Harlem and many were Manchester locals. The temperature that night was a lip-splitting 12° F, but the protesters gathered at both entrances to the WMUR parking lot... Not long afterward, a shiny black SUV pulled up at one of the entrances.... Suddenly Clinton dropped to the floor of the back seat, shielding his face from view....  The Clinton camp told me it wanted to avoid any future run-ins of this sort, which were an embarrassment to Clinton. Clinton campaign coordinator Mitchell Schwarz set up a meeting with Newman and me a few days later in the coffee shop at the Manchester Holiday Inn...”

It was very very cold in New Hampshire in January 1992. And very very hot!

I hope you will read this book. Jackie’s statement on behalf of our movement is sharp and witty, and important. Enjoy!

NH

Hankster News of the Day for Independent Voters - July 3

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• What do independent voters want? More say in our government and an end to partisanship, gridlock (By Cynthia Carpathios, Special to The Canton Repository)
• Jacqueline Salit: What went wrong with third party movement in 2012 (By Jacqueline Salit, Sun Sentinel) In this, Ackerman and company misread independent voters, the self-declared engine for a new direction in American politics.  Independents want to root out systemic partisanship.  They don’t want to ameliorate it with appeals to centrism, bipartisanship or a better brand of candidate.
• Independent and swing voters: What’s the difference? (msnbc VIDEO aired on June 27, 2012) MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts speaks with Linda Killian, author of “The Swing Vote” about the differences between swing and independent voters, and what independent voters are looking for in 2012.
• Poll: Most Hispanics independent voters (CNN's Kevin Liptak, CNN Political Ticker) The USA Today/Gallup poll indicated 51% of Hispanics identifying as independents, compared to 32% who called themselves Democrats and 11% who said they were Republicans.
• Your voting habits have included changing, or dropping, parties (By Gayle Beck, CantonRep.com opinion page editor) Female Canton voter: “I am a lifelong independent. My main allegiance has been to supporting what’s best for our country and our communities, not to a political party.”
• This 4th of July: The dawn of a new 'independents' day - A record-high 38 percent of Americans now describe themselves as independents. Republican and Democratic party leaders ignore this growing lack of party allegiance at their peril. Whichever party shifts to accommodate more moderate voters first will survive and even thrive. (By Amy E. Black, Christian Science Monitor)

OHIO CITIZEN REDISTRICTING

• ‘Voters First’ Initiative on Redistricting Sends Mixed Signals (By Timothy Troutner, IVN) If the campaign receives 385,000 signatures by July 3, a constitutional amendment can come before Ohio voters. This campaign has correctly diagnosed the problem. When the ones being elected are allowed to draw up districts, they will do so in a way that favors their interests. Our current system allows the fox to guard the henhouse.
• Politicians don't like redistricting-commission proposal (Thomas Suddes, OPINION Columbus Dispatch) Some Ohioans see politics as just a wimpy version of the Browns-Steelers or Ohio State-Michigan rivalries. But lopsided districts have real-world consequences for real-world voters. In a Statehouse or Capitol crammed with self-righteous partisans from safe districts, debates become manhood contests. That signals who claims the most testosterone, but solves no problems.

CALIFORNIA TOP TWO

• Voter Says 'Top Two' Law Disenfranchised Her (By MATT REYNOLDS, Courthouse News Service) A black woman claims in Federal Court that California's "Top Two" primary law has left her, unconstitutionally, with no Democratic congressional candidate to vote for in November.
• Abel Maldonado dividing point among Republicans (OPINION By STEVE BARTOWSKI, Cal Coast News.com) Until his run for Congress and even up through the primary, Maldonado was cool to even receiving his own party’s support, declaring “I’m not looking for the endorsement of any small political groups that are out there, I’m looking for the endorsement of the people of the 24th Congressional District.” Maldonado even went as to rally behind New York’s mayor Michael Bloomberg in his campaign for a “No Labels Party”, and drafted Proposition 14 intentionally in hopes of muting partisan politics and ushering in a new era of moderate politicians. It was a move that drew the ire of the California Republican Party, which unsuccessfully fought Prop 14 during the 2010 election.

OKLAHOMA CLOSED PRIMARIES
Oklahoma voters can go to polls Tuesday for state and county primary elections -- Democrats and Republicans have the same number of primary races across Oklahoma; Republicans dominate the state-level races with the most primaries, while Democrats dominate the county-level races with the most primaries. Independent voters cannot participate in Tuesday's election. (By Megan Rolland, The Oklahoman)

NEW YORK POLITICS

• Incumbents Charles Rangel*, Orrin Hatch Beat Back Primary Challenges (John Avlon, The Daily Beast) Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch easily defeated a Tea Party challenge. Left-wingnut and Mugabe-aficionado Charles Barron was decimated by New York Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries, despite the support of big labor in his Brooklyn congressional district. And in Harlem, Charles Rangel survived the most serious primary challenge of his 42-year congressional career. So much for the anti-incumbent narrative of 2012. Somewhere in exile, Nicolas Sarkozy must be feeling a bit jealous. But in the essentially one-party states of Utah and New York, the Republican and Democratic primaries produced results that reflected the strength of the establishment and the power of financial advantage.
• Familiar Face to Run Espada's Clinic (By JACOB GERSHMAN, Wall Street Journal) For Dr. Calman, the takeover of Soundview is something of a reunion. He was Soundview's first medical director when Mr. Espada opened it in 1981 and worked there until 1984, when he co-founded the Institute for Family Health.

* Breaking News: Too close to call

C-Span Coverage of Cathy Stewart's Politics for the People Now Online

C-Span has a video up in their library that you need to check out! From Sarah Lyons:

• The CSPAN broadcast was pushed an hour back last night because of an emergency Congressional hearing.Here's the link to coverage of Politics for the People in case you missed it.  http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/305705-1

Chief organizer of New York City Organizations of the New York Independence Party, Cathy L. Stewart, conducts her Politics for the People session with guests Jackie Salit, long-time grassroots independent organizer and consummate outsider, President of independentvoting.org and Mickey Edwards, a 16 year veteran of the US Congress from Oklahoma City, and a chairman of the House Republican leadership's policy committee.

This Independence Party of New York New York City Organizations event took place at the Baruch College Newman Center on Apr 27, 2012

Participants spoke about independent political movements, the challenges of being an unaffiliated candidate, and the two-party system of American politics. Among the topics they addressed were independent voter demographics, the history of independent movements, and recent levels of partisanship in Washington. They responded to questions from the audience.

To promote the series, C-Span issued this particular on April 30.

Panel Looks at Role of Independents in U.S. Politics

Washington, DC
Monday, April 30, 2012

The U.S. political system was the focus of the “Politics for the People” series in New York Friday.  Former U.S. Congressman Mickey Edwards and Jackie Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org, were the featured panelists.

He says in elections, like in any normal decision making process, people want choices but in this case voters are only offered choice A or B.

Edwards advocates changing this given the growing population of independents.
Jackie Salit agreed with Edwards. She added on election day it’s the American people who are speaking.

The “Politics for the People” series was created in 2002 by the New York County Independence Party. The Series aims to give the public an inside look at public policy from an independent’s point of view.

For the Hankster Series up close and personal, please see HanksterTube.

Notes from Sarah Lyons: IndependentVoting.org Spokesperson Training Conference Call + Link to Politics for the People Event

     Spokesperson Training Call Tomorrow! 

Sarah Lyons, Independentvoting's Communications  Director, will continue a spokesperson training course, via conference call, for everyone who's interested in publicizing our campaign for Congressional hearings on the second class status of independent voters. The next training call will take place tomorrow (Sunday)

May 6
at 7pm EDT 

 

                                        Register here for the call

Participation in the first 2 calls is not required.

CSPAN aired the Politics for People event at Baruch College featuring Jackie Salit and Mickey Edwards twice yesterday.  If you missed the coverage, here's the link to view the program.