TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Milkovich challenge rejected (KTBS) Milkovich claims independent voters were stopped at some polling places from casting their ballots for democratic candidates.
• Unions pour big bucks into Oregon ballot measure campaigns (The Oregonian) The Oregon Education Assn has contributed $100,000 to the campaign against Measure 65, a proposal for open primary elections.

CAMPAIGN

• Obama has 4-point lead on McCain (Reuters) Obama still enjoyed a 16-point advantage among independent voters, which many analysts expect to be a deciding factor in the November 4 election.
• More than 100,000 cast ballots early in N.C. on first day (Hampton Roads Pilot Online)
• Obama leads among white independents (Politico)
• Obama up 4 points in Florida, new poll shows (Sarasota Herald Tribune) Obama is holding a 53-26 percent edge among independent voters

BLOOMBERG/TERM LIMITS
Bloomberg foes: Turmoil no excuse for 3rd term (Forbes)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
COLUMNIST DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: Do American Indians need their own party? (Grand Forks Herald) I smiled to myself when Giago wrote that we should be independent voters, because I always thought I was.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Milkovich bound for court Friday (Shreveport Times) At issue will be the lawsuit he filed Monday alleging independent voters were barred from voting in the Democratic primary held Oct. 4.
• Kurita's suit to restore win fails-Ruling rejects her as Dems' nominee (The Tennessean) The fight has brought new attention to the state's open primary system, which permits voters to cast a ballot in either party's primaries, and brought criticism on the Democratic Party for removing her nomination.
• Open Primaries: No Better the Second Time Around (Marc Abrams, Blue Oregon) Open primaries serve to increase the power of the moderate, muddled middle. They allow the GOP in Portland to swarm to the Democratic primary and nominate a bland moderate so that liberals lose clout in the legislature, and allow Democrats in some GOP seats to do the reverse. Now Phil, a card carrying DLC member, may like that. I don’t.
• Oregon Democratic, Republican parties oppose Measure 65 (The Oregonian) It's no surprise why party leaders are lined up against Measure 65. By definition, parties are partisan organizations, and Measure 65 is an assault on the partisan nature of elections.
• Third parties oppose state open primary measure (Coos Bay World Link) Nearly every political party in Oregon — the Independent and Working Families parties have taken no official stance — has panned Measure 65, which they worry could threaten their existence.

CAMPAIGN

• Poll: Obama now leads McCain 50% to 41% (Los Angeles Times) Obama improved sharply over the last month among independent voters, a much-desired bloc. McCain carried them by a 15-point margin in September; in this poll, Obama led by 5 points.
• LA Times/Bloomberg Poll (pdf) LA Times release with cross tabs
• Poll: Obama gaining among independents (Rocky Mountain News) "The key to winning elections in Colorado is independent voters and Senator Obama has blown open the race there with his 11-point lead among them," Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said Tuesday.
• More polls show Obama building lead (Boston Globe/Political Intelligence) Obama now leads 51 percent to 33 percent, when McCain had led 49 percent to 39 percent a week ago.
• Gallup Rasmussen Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Polls: Obama Maintains Steady Lead Over McCain (Joe Gandelman, The Moderate Voice)
• Obama's Leads in 4 Key States Show Tough Road for McCain (Wall Street Journal)
• Independent voters breaking to Obama (Sun Sentinel/Juice) ``Do we want more of George Bush or a change? That’s what I’m voting for: change.’’

BLOOMBERG/TERM LIMITS

• WWTGD? (Or: What will Tom Golisano do?) (NY Daily News/Daily Politics) Former Independence Party Gov candidate may oppose eliminating term limits by council declaration...
• Term-limit foes seek aid - Wanted: law firm to back possible suit to force a voter referendum (metro new york)
• Testy Bloomberg denies twisting arms on term limits (DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Voter registration soars (Lawerence Journal World News) Democrats now make up the largest voting bloc at 27,357 people, compared with 27,283 independent voters and 23,951 Republicans. The rest are either Libertarian or Reform party voters.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Milkovich alleges voter irregularities (Shreveport Times) Conservative Democrat John Milkovich, who Saturday finished a close third in a four-way bid for that party's entry in the coming general election for the 4th Congressional District seat, claims independent voters who wanted to cast ballots for him were refused.
• Brown is best candidate for secretary of state-The veteran senator can offer bipartisan leadership (Statesman Journal) The Secretary of State's Office has suffered a severe case of partisanship under Democrat Bill Bradbury. Any of the three candidates would be an improvement from that perspective. Rick Dancer goes so far as to call for making the position nonpartisan. He also is a supporter of the proposal for open primaries, Measure 65.
• Open primary? Yes. The rest? Forget it (The Forest Grove News-Times)
• Have you heard? 3 are vying for Oregon's top elections job (The Oregonian) Rick Dancer on Measure 65: "It rubs me the wrong way as a journalist that 25 percent of our people are registered to vote, but they can't vote in the primary," he says.

CAMPAIGN

• Obama’s Victory Road? - Debate Over, Now on to Florida's I-4 Corridor. (The Washington Independent) That’s because the I-4 corridor may be the most important political real estate in the nation. Running through Tampa, Lakeland, Daytona Beach and Orlando, the corridor holds the key to the biggest chunk of independent voters in the biggest of all battleground states.
• Obama picks up second debate win, poll says (CNN) Fifty-four percent of those identifying themselves as independents said the Illinois senator performed best, with 28 percent saying that McCain did the better job.
• Why McCain Blinked (by Joe Conason, NY Observer) Senator McCain knew he was addressing independent voters, so he restrained himself from plunging straight into the gutter
• War bad idea, even when it’s Obama’s (Cumberland Sentinel) Unfortunately, the idea of fighting wars to serve various undescribed “strategic interests” looms large in the political discourse, both among elected officials and the foreign policy think tanks they rely upon for advice.

NEW YORK POLITICS--The Mayor and Term Limits

• Friends of Mayor Bloomberg make contributions to a third party (NY Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Mayor Bloomberg's term bill unleashes unlimited City Council debate (BY FRANK LOMBARDI, DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU)
• Council Speaker undecided on plan to extend term limits (Newsday)
• Quinn’s Silence on Term Limits May Reflect Conflict of Ambition and Past Stand (NY Times)