TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Black and Purple: How a new generation of black independent voters is changing American politics. (Marcia Ford, Urban Faith)

CAMPAIGN

• Obama Losing Support Among Independents - Unaffiliated Voters Are Leaving Obama, But Into The Undecided Column Rather Than To McCain (National Journal)
• Obama: Rockin' the suburbs (Chicago Tribune/The Swamp)

BLOOMBERG/TERM LIMITS
Angry Enough to Run (Rock Hackshaw, Room 8) Last Thursday evening, the New York City Council shat on democracy’s face. I am mad. I am real angry. I am angry enough to run for public office again.

BlogTalkRadio: The Future of America: Where are We Going and What Critical Coalitions Will Lead the Way? #2

Please join The Hankster and guests for the Second show

Monday (tonight) October 20

6pm Eastern Standard Time

our SECOND EVER BlogTalkRadio show!

The Future of America:
Where are We Going
and
What Critical Coalitions Will Lead the Way?

Monday's guests include:

• Dr. Omar Ali (In the Balance of Power)
• Marcia Ford (We the Purple)
• Joseph McCormick (Transpartisan Alliance)
• Rob Redding (Redding News Review)
• Wayne Sutton (http://wayne-sutton.com/)

Log on, call in (Call-in Number: (347) 884-8634) -- don't miss it!!!

Speak to you soon!
Thanks, Nancy

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Important independent voters share common goals for U.S. (The Tennessean) Who are the independents? One of them is writer Marcia Ford, and she'll tell you: "Ideologically, we run the gamut from right-wing fundies to radical lefties, from pro-abortion conservatives to anti-gay-marriage liberals, from embarrassed ex-Republicans to disillusioned ex-Democrats, from Catholic, mainline Protestant and evangelical Christians to religious and secular Jews to Buddhists and the ever popular 'highly spiritual' types.''
• NC: Voter registration ending Friday (St. Paul's Review The Robesonian) There are 52,809 registered Democrats in Robeson County, 7,511 Republicans, and 8,707 Unaffiliated (Independent) voters registered in Robeson.
• NC: Unaffiliated voters flood election rolls (Watauga Democrat) In September, 3,484 people registered in Watauga County and nearly half, or 1,588, were unaffiliated — compared to 891 Democrats, 992 Republicans and 13 Libertarians.

OREGON OPEN PRIMARY Measure 65

• Measure 65, ending partisan primaries in Oregon, raises lots of questions (The Oregonian) The open primary system "lets everybody vote for the best candidate."
• Gronke, Kiesling square off in Measure 65 debate (Politicker OR)
• Dancer would make office nonpartisan- Secretary of state candidate spoke at Linn Republican Women luncheon (Albany Democrat-Herald)

CAMPAIGN

• FOX NEWS POLL: OBAMA 46, McCAIN 39 (FOXNews) Independents split their vote 34 percent Obama and 32 percent McCain, with 24 percent unsure.
• 10/10/08 FOX News Poll: The Candidates and Character (FOXNews) among the critical bloc of independent voters, more think Obama puts his campaign first (44 percent) rather than his country (41 percent). Independents have no such qualms about McCain — 55 percent think he puts country over campaign.

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY

• Democrats Are Gaining in State, Registration Data Shows (NY Times) Republican officials said that they were used to running — and winning — in an overwhelmingly Democratic state, and played down the significance of the enrollment trends. Voters, they said, would choose the candidate, not the party, and were attuned to the Republican message of lower taxes and balanced government. Moreover, all of the Republican candidates in close Senate races have been cross-endorsed by New York’s Independence Party, which has seen significant growth in recent years.
• Mayor Plans an $80 Million Campaign (NY Times)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Calling All Colorado Independents! (We the Purple/Marcia Ford.blogspot) August caucus planned for Colorado independent voters

CAMPAIGN

• Will evangelicals respond to Obama's overtures? (The Christian Century)
• Young people register, but will they vote? (News Record - Greensboro)

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS

• Aug. 26 primary forces columnist to see red just for the election (Treasure Coast Palm FL)
• Primary voter registration ends today (FLORIDA TODAY)

Websites For Independent Voters

From Everyday Woman
By Marcia Ford (Reprinted from We the Purple: Faith, Politics, and the Independent Voter )

It would be impossible to list all the worthwhile independent-voter blogs and Web sites I've discovered, so I've pared the list down to sites that reflect general interests. Some of the links below refer to sites mentioned in the previous chapters, but some referred to earlier are not on the list below. That is no reflection on their value to independent voters but rather an effort to avoid too much duplication. Be sure to visit the sites mentioned in the chapters as well.
Most of the sites below provide a list of links to sites that narrow the field to, say, independent conservatives, evangelical progressives, or liberal populists.

Ballot Access News (http://www.ballot-access.org/): This one's a real eye-opener, even if you're not interested in ballot-access issues. Just read a few random posts, and you'll get an inkling of the challenges faced by independent candidates - and independent voters trying to simply register as independents. Of course, if you're a ballot-access junkie, this is where you'll get your fix.

Central Sanity (http://www.centralsanity.blogspot.com/): "Supporting the Rebellion of Reasonable People in an Unreasonable World." This site is for moderate Republican and independent voters but provides news and smart commentary that transcends political ideology.

Committee for a Unified Independent Party (CUIP) (http://www.independentvoting.org/index.html): Pretty much a national clearinghouse for all things politically independent. This group has done more to rally and unite independents than any organization or individual out there. Great source of information and news, plus a link to the CUIP publication The Neo-Independent, where you'll find indie-related articles and commentary. This is where you start if you want to find out more or connect with other independents nationwide.

The Hankster (http://grassrootsindependent.blogspot.com/): Hands down, the best source for daily political news that independents would be interested in. Nancy Hanks has been politically active for decades and really knows her stuff. It would be a good idea to bookmark her site and visit it often.

Independent Texans (http://www.indytexans.org/): Lots of information of interest to Texans, but also some great information on political reform; just follow the link by that name in the left column.

Independent Voice (http://www.independentvoice.org/): The voice of California's 3.6 million independents, or at least those who have found the site and appreciate its perspective on independent politics. There's lots of overlap here with CUIP, but it's still a site worth visiting.

The Moderate Voice (http://www.themoderatevoice.com/): "Domestic and international news analysis, irreverent comments, original reporting, and popular culture features from across the political spectrum." Sometimes just fun stuff, but often the kind of news you won't get from the mainstream media. Well worth checking out.

Project Vote Smart (http://votesmart.org/index.htm): An all-around excellent site for information on candidates and the issues. Besides, you have to love a group that boasts a purple bus and the slogan, "We provide more information about the candidates than they remember about themselves."

The Purple State (http://thepurplestate.com/): "Political Commentary from the Youth Vote"; specifically, a group of students, mostly from Vassar, who founded the site because they "could not take it anymore" - "it" being the partisanship that is obscuring the nation's real concerns. Now they're blogging, and what they have to say is significant.

WatchBlog (http://watchblog.com/): I especially like the format of this site, which provides three columns of news and commentary of interest to Democrats and liberals, third-party voters and independents, and Republicans and conservatives. After reading the items in the center column, dedicated to us, you can spy on the partisans to the left and right.

Excerpted from We the Purple (Tyndale House Publishers) by Marcia Ford. Reprinted with permission.
RELATED LINK:
We the 'Purple'

Quality Reading: Ordinary Person on David Sirota's The Uprising

The Uprising says Liberal Arts Dude, "takes the reader on an utterly fascinating whirlwind tour of the various populist uprisings that are happening nationwide mostly obscured from the radar of mainstream public consciousness...." And 'Dude points out some rather notable missing elements in The Uprising -- this commentary is well worth reading!

And while you're there, be sure to read 'Dude's review of Marcia Ford's We The Purple. "The Liberal Arts Dude gives We the Purple five stars out of five!"

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS * Voter Suppression and the Major Parties (By Marcia Ford, Donklephant)

CAMPAIGN * Is McCain a Different Kind of Republican? (Dan Balz, Washington Post/The Trail) Independent voters tilt far more in the direction of Democrats than they did four years ago.

PENNSYLVANIA

• Independents upset about being shut out of today's election (The Morning Call)
• Voters encounter few glitches at polls (The Express-Times) Unaffiliated or registered independent voters came to the polls expecting to vote, said Julia Starke, a judge of elections in the Western District 2 at Forks Township Community Center.
• Obama Campaign Shrugs off Clinton Win (Christian Broadcasting Network) Obama: Independent voters – the group that will decide the general election and a group Obama is particularly strong with – were not able to vote
• Smooth sailing so far at polls, officials say (The Patriot-News) There were some snags -- many involving independent voters who did not realize they were barred from voting in the primary.
• Party switchers lean toward Obama, exit polls show (Fox News) About half the party-switchers had been registered Republicans, while the rest had been unaffiliated with either party, and even more were voting for the first time in Pennsylvania.
• For most, it was a quiet day at the polls (The Patriot-News) Meanwhile, the group Voter Action sought a court order to keep polls open until 10 p.m. in Philadelphia amid complaints about long lines at eight polling places and a lack of emergency ballots to replace malfunctioning machines.
• Election Protection Coalition Fields Over 1,000 Calls Reporting Scattered Problems Throughout Pennsylvania (By Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Sun Herald - MS)

WEST VIRGINIA

• The morning after: Is West Virginia the new presidential battleground? (Bluefield Daily Telegraph) The Associated Press reported last week there are roughly 151,000 voters in West Virginia with “no party affiliation.”
• W.Va. Early Voting Begins Today (The Intelligencer/Wheeling News Register) Independent voters who wish to cast ballots in the Republican or Democratic primary must request a Republican or Democratic ballot at their courthouse during early voting or at their polling place on Election Day.

NORTH CAROLINA

• Brunswick rolls grow ahead of Democrats' rally (MyrtleBeachOnline) The biggest jump has been among Republicans, which went from 20,684 registered in 2004 to 26,155 on Tuesday, and unaffiliated, which was 10,935 in '04 and 16,286 Tuesday. Democrats also saw a gain of about 3,000 registered voters, from 24,523 in '04 to 27,340 Tuesday. There were five registered Libertarians in 2004 and none this year.
• Fresh blood (YES! Weekly-Greensboro NC) everybody's getting a piece of the action: Of the 150,000 or so new voters - a 2.6 percent increase in just three months - the Democrats garnered more than half, and 37 percent registered as unaffiliated.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• What Independent Voters Want (By Marcia Ford, Donklephant)
• Editorial: It’s time to approve an open primary (Corvallis Gazette Times) As state Sen. Frank Morse recently told the Gazette-Times, “I realize it’s an uphill battle with the parties, but I feel that a process that disenfranchises 25 percent of the electorate is wrong.”

CAMPAIGN

• Indiana Analysis: Obama's image helps draw support (NorthWest Times) Obama reaches outside the traditional confines of the Democratic primary electorate
• Has McCain Flip-Flopped on Torture? (Time) Dean's statement, distributed in a press release, was a political attack meant to raise questions among independent voters.
• Race is Still the X Factor for Obama (Earl Ofari Hutchinson, BlackNews.com) if he can’t convince Clinton’s white vote supporters, and they are Democrats, to back him, the chances are nil that he’ll have any more success with Republican and independent white voters in these states.
• The Challenge of Disrupting the Emotions Obama Generates (The Campaign Spot/National Review Online) Fully 82% of black Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters say Obama has made them feel proud, but just over half of white Democrats (53%) express this view.
• LINK TO PEW RESEARCH POLL 3/27/08 on Obama, Rev. Wright, Clinton Credibility
• Upcoming contests: Still single digits (MSNBC FIRST READ) "North Carolina has netted at least 110,000 new voters so far this year, with a particularly sharp rise among unaffiliated voters, Democrats and black people, according to the State Board of Elections."

NORTH CAROLINA

• Primary party-swap deadline is today (Charlotte Observer)
• A complicated ballot full of critical choices-Voters tune into new registration rules, new county commissioner districts and contested races from the top of the ticket to a local tax referendum (Carrboro Citizen)
• North Carolinians registering to vote in record numbers (Miami Herald)

POLLS

• The popular vote's margin of error (MSNBC/Mystery Pollster, By Mark Blumenthal) Measurement criteria may cloudy the Democratic candidates' vote tally
• CUIP is putting together a report that will be widely distributed this summer about independents and the presidential primaries, so let your voice be heard -- take the poll at independentvoting.org
  

NEW YORK POLITICS

• Bloomberg Hopes As Goes California On Redistricting, So Goes NY (Elizabeth Benjamin, Daily Politics/Daily News)
• McCain: Why He Came to New York (Trailwatch/Forbes)
• MARIST POLL APRIL 9 with "non-enrolled" -- that's independent -- voter break-out on presidential preferences

We the Purple: Faith, Politics and the Independent Voter

We the Purple: Faith, Politics and the Independent Voter, by Marcia Ford.

A look at how rabid partisanship is prompting voters to go independent. Buy here.

A Hankster Must Read!

Marcia Ford has really hit the nail on the head in this smart and important call to action for independent voters -- and all Americans -- as we make our way through the murky partisan waters of today's politics. In addition to being chock-full of the ordinary folks around the country who are carrying out the fight for non-partisan and independent politics, Marcia brings her own personal story of transformation to the pages of this book. A delightful read! --NH

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CALIFORNIA REPORT ON INDEPENDENTS

• Here's the PPIC report in pdf:
• Dan Walters: Two-party structure under fire (Sac Bee)
• California Democrats Woo Independents (NBC News KNTV San Francisco)
• Group sees 'post-partisan future'-Ineffectual system driving state's rise in independent voters, institute finds (By Lisa Vorderbrueggen, Inside Bay Area)
• California independents can vote in Dem primary (San Francisco Chronicle)

Courting South Carolina's Black Vote (Time Magazine)

Senator Bill Perkins at The Committee for A Harlem Debate Between Clinton and Obama meeting. "We successfully helped to create a serious dialogue in the Black community and the primary race in New York State between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is becoming more competitive....." says Lenora Fulani (Barack Obama website)

Sex, Sleep, and Political Reform (We the Purple, Marcia Ford)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Primary may depend on independent voters (By: EDWARD SIFUENTES, North County Times) "Clearly, as we've seen in Iowa and New Hampshire, independents are having a profound impact in the primary process," said Jim Mangia, co-chairman of IndependentPrimary.com, an organization that supports open primaries.
• Hillary's Win in New Hampshire (We The Purple, Marcia Ford)
• Now Replaying: Michigan Independents For McCain? (Washington Post)
• Independent and determined New coalition lambastes 'criminal' lawmakers (Times Argus)
• Democrats likely to win presidency, for what it's worth (Ryan Cooper, Springfield MO News Leader) Results in Iowa show that moderate and independent voters are leaving the GOP and voting for Obama.
• Clinton Drifts Away From Center (Forbes)
• Obama Picking Up Support in Harlem (By KAREN MATTHEWS (AP Google)
• Hillary losing support of blacks (Washington Times)

Maybe I'm Not a Misfit After All (Marcia Ford)

Maybe I'm Not a Misfit After All
So there's this group that threatens to strip me of my misfit identity. Sheesh! I've spent a lifetime feeling like a misfit, and I even came out of the closet with my 2003 book, Memoir of a Misfit. Two weeks ago, though, I attended a national conference for independent voters. And I experienced something I've seldom felt before: the sense that I actually belonged. Me! The misfit! Among 500 political activists! I'm still reeling from this heady happening.


MUST READ FOR INDEPENDENTS!
Postmodern Misfit is now on the Hankster Blog Roll (on the sidebar)