News of the Day & Notes for Independent Voters - September 13

NOTE: Thanks to all who noticed that I put "August 5" on my September 5 post! Apparently, time's a-wastin'!

ANOTHER NOTE: Big shout-out to Jackie Salit on her national book tour with Independents Rising (Palgrave)! Check out the delightfully energetic review by The View Point below: "Independents Rising is all at once a history book, a mystery/thriller, a soap opera and a textbook on grass-roots political movements. Salit’s writing, crisp and descriptive, takes us through her first-hand journey of becoming involved in politics as a kid, working “both sides of the fence”, working for democrats and republicans in the mid to late 1960’s and early 70’s. She worked in the news business for part of the mid 1970’s for a while and then became involved in the birth of a political party: The New Alliance Party. Fred Newman, the patriarch of this party established in 1979 and Salit remain life-long friends and traveling companions as they both made the somewhat surreal journey through the ups and down of the independent political movements over the next 3 decades."

AND ANOTHER NOTE: Morton Kondracke says Prez Obama ignored independents in his acceptance speech at the Democratic Party convention (see below). Personally, I don't think he ignored independent voters -- worse, he has no idea who independents are and therefore addresses independents mistakenly. This is especially disturbing given that independents were his margin of victory, in open primary states, in a hotly contested Democratic primary against Hillary "My Turn" Clinton in 2008, and went on to become his margin of victory in a ruthlessly honest and proud battle against the powers that be in the general election. Fortunately, independents are not depending on the President to fight for us. But he would be smart to call for Congressional Hearings on the state of independent voters, now 40 percent of the electorate, who suffer all manner of indignities and infringement of voting rights.

INDEPENDENTS RISING

• Political books to get readers ready for the campaign (By Jean Marie Brown, Forth Worth Star Telegram) Mickey Edwards also looks at Washington's gridlock and how it is harming the country in The Parties Versus the People: How To Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans. Yale University Press, $25. Meanwhile, Jacqueline Salit's Independents Rising: Outsider Movements, Third Parties and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America puts a face to the independents who, she says, were the key to Barack Obama's win in 2008. Palgrave Macmillan, $25
• Book Review - Independents Rising (The View Point) If you do not know who Jacqueline Salit is and you care about politics, then you need to get yourself introduced to her and her writings. Ms. Salit, along with many others who are discussed in her book has been saving our “political backsides” for the last 30+ years. Without Ms. Salit’s work, we would likely all be political serfs giving favor to our noble lords and masters in the two major political parties and receiving only paltry scraps of progress in return.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Majority of Central Mass Voters are Independent - Why It Matters (Adam Joseph Drici, GoLocalWorcester Contributor)  According to new data released by the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office, 289,202 primary voters registered as unenrolled in Worcester County. This group of unenrolled voters represents 57.59 percent of the roughly 500,000 total voters registered in the county. 145,252 voters, or 28.92 percent, registered as Democrats, and only 64,505, or 12.85 percent registered as Republicans. 705 voters registered as Green-Rainbow.

OBAMA

• Obama's Speech Ignores Independent Voters (By Morton M. Kondracke, Roll Call Senior Editor) Heading into the Charlotte, N.C., convention, President Barack Obama was in trouble with independent voters. But instead of winning them back with appeals to national unity and promises of  compromise, he told them: You've got a stark choice - so choose. He tossed them (us) a few rhetorical bones - a reference to the Simpson-Bowles debt commission he previously ignored, a bow to free enterprise as a jobs engine, acknowledgement that government can't do everything and needs reform.
• September 13, 2012 - Obama Tops Romney Almost 2-1 In New York, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Gillibrand Does Even Better In Senate Race  -- In today's survey, President Obama leads 94 - 4 percent among Democrats and 58 - 37 percent among independent voters, while Republicans turn to Romney 89 - 10 percent. Obama has big leads among all income and age groups.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Primaries Decide Statehouses as Arizona Weighs Top-2 Plan (By Amanda J. Crawford, BloombergBusinessweek) Many states, including Arizona, have sought to change the electoral process through measures ranging from public financing for campaigns and term limits for lawmakers, to overhauls of redistricting. The move to scrap partisan primaries, a more pronounced shift in how elections are conducted, comes as hundreds of statehouse races nationwide are uncontested and there is little or no competitiveness in many districts, including for the U.S. House of Representatives.
• Judge: Open-primaries initiative qualifies for November ballot (Howard Fischer, Arizona Star)
• Arizona Supreme Court Upholds ‘Top 2’ Initiative (By Shawn M. Griffiths, IVN) “The problem is people are expressing some kind of dissatisfaction with government,” Dr. Downing replied. “Specifically, they feel that government doesn’t express the consent of the governed.”

Hankster News of the Day for Independents - May 29

Today's picks on the independent political scene:

• The Buzz: Independent Voter Project urging 'nones' to vote on June 5 (By Bee staff) The Independent Voter Project, which wrote the measure leading to the new top-two primary, is mailing fliers and using social media to urge people with no party preference to vote on June 5. One flier pictures two men smoking cigars and says, "Political bosses made their choices" and "you were not involved." It adds, "This time you're invited … the new open primary puts you in charge." The flier was sent to about 250,000 Californians who listed no party preference when they registered to vote, said Steve Peace, a former state legislator and chairman of the Independent Voter Project.
• Top-two primary affects Assembly race - Two Republicans are certain to face-off in November (Written by Christopher Cadelago, UT San Diego News) Under the old partisan primary system, these candidates likely would be motivated to appeal to the Republican core to win their party’s nomination for the November election. But all voters can now vote for any candidate.
• Linda Parks Tops IVN Survey of Independent Voters in CD-26 (By Kymberly Bays, IVN) The results are in for the IVN Independent Voter Survey in California’s 26th Congressional District. Over a thousand voters participated in the first of its kind demonstration project. The election was by secret ballot, conducted by Everyone Counts, the international leader in online election technology.
• Massachusetts Senate Race to Be Decided by Independent Voters (By Michael Abrams, IVN) Most significant, however, is Massachusetts’s voter demographics: more than half the state’s voters are registered independents. With Warren a dream-candidate for the States’ liberals, and Brown conservative enough for most establishment Republicans, the race has become a brawl for the independent vote.
• Donald Trump and Mitt Romney's Kiss of Death to Black and Independent Voters (Black Star News Editorial) Gingrich and Trump are the last people Romney wants to embrace if he's serious about reaching level-headed Black voters and many Independents as well who repudiate race-baiting. Gingrich famously referred to President Obama as the "welfare president." It was his desperate appeal to racists, including some in the Tea Party, who have never forgiven voters for electing Barack Obama as the country's first Black president. 
• 2012 Election: King gift to Obama draws fire from rivals - The independent donated to Democrats before he became a candidate for the U.S. Senate. (By Colin Woodard, Morning Sentinel)
• Gay marriage? Bullying? Voters don’t care. (Posted by Chris Cillizza, Washington Post/The Fix) In a brand spanking new Washington Post-ABC News national poll, 56 percent of registered voters said that Obama’s stance on gay marriage would not be a major factor in their vote. Fifty seven percent of independents said the same.
• Romney Handily Winning Independent Voters (by Bryan Schott, UTAH POLICY) The Hill notes that in 12 of the last 14 major polls taken about the 2012 race, Romney has an average lead among independent voters over Barack Obama of 6.5%. That's despite a national lead for Obama in 8 of those 14 polls.
• Brazile: Not the year of the third party (By Donna Brazile/Syndicated columnist, MetroWest Daily News) Then, from the center, came Americans Elect, an ambitious organization that spent $35 million dollars and accomplished the impressive feat of registering in 29 states. It received a lot of favorable publicity, as well as respectful recognition from credible political writers.
• Kelly's Tenure Divides the Mayoral Contenders (By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL, Wall Street Journal) Two Democrats—Bill Thompson, a former city comptroller, and John Liu, the current comptroller—said they wouldn't keep Mr. Kelly at 1 Police Plaza. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who leads in mayoral polls, and Tom Allon, a long-shot, have signaled they would. And two others—Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer—won't say, though both have expressed deep concerns about some of Mr. Kelly's policies, most notably the street tactic known as "stop and frisk."
• NY-8: "An Evolution Of Charles Barron"? (BY Celeste Katz, NY Daily News/ Daily Politics) I spoke at some length with Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron and DC 37 Political Director Wanda Williams about the union's decision to go with him over Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries in the battle for the NY-8 Congressional endorsement. 
• Romney’s plan seems certain to hasten privatization of public schools systems (BY Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, In Salt Lake Tribune) If you don’t like Obama’s agenda, you might like Romney’s even less. A Chance For Every Child is the education program that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee spelled out in a speech and a white paper released Wednesday. Romney is advancing a pro-choice, pro-voucher, pro-states-rights education program that seems certain to hasten the privatization of the public education system. In a Romney-run education world, the parents of poor and special-education students would choose a school - public or private, based on standardized test scores and other data - and then a specific amount of public money would follow the child to the school.
• Red Mind, Blue Mind: Are There Really Any Independents? (Wray Herbert, Author "On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits", Huffington Post) As Hawkins reported this week at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, in Chicago, self-proclaimed Independents are not as independent-minded as they claim they are. In fact, Independents vary greatly in their unconscious partisanship, and they make partisan political judgments in line with their implicit political identities.

Independent Voters' Influence Growing

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• UPDATED: First of Its Kind Independent Online Preference OPEN NOW (by Matt Metzner, IVN) The online Independent Preference Survey is a follow up to Proposition 14 that passed in 2010. Proposition 14 created an Open Primary where all voters, regardless of party, elect the top-two candidates who face off in the November general election… IVP was the author of Proposition 14 and focuses their efforts on educating non-partisan voters on their rights in elections.
• Warren Beating Brown Would Send First Woman to Senate (By Esme E. Deprez, Bloomberg) According to the Secretary of State’s office, 51 percent of the electorate isn’t registered with either party. An analysis by Tim Vercellotti, who directs the Western New England University Polling Institute in Springfield, found that self- identified independents are split almost evenly between men and women, 49 percent to 51 percent. While more recent surveys by other pollsters show a tighter race, Vercellotti’s last poll, conducted Feb. 23 to March 1, found Brown leading Warren among all voters 49 percent to 41 percent. Independent voters overall and independent women favored Brown 2 to 1.
• Independent voters will be key in Walker recall (Eric Lindquist, Eau Claire Leader-Telegram) A recent Marquette University Law School poll found that the Walker-Barrett race is a virtual tie. Peterson said the outcome may come down to which candidate can persuade the shrinking pool of independent and undecided voters — the latest polls show Walker and Barrett both have support from just under half of eligible voters — that their approach is best.

Massachusetts Favors No-Party System

MASSACHUSETTS FAVORS NO-PARTY SYSTEM

Parties may be over in Bridgewater (By Rebecca Hyman, The Enterprise/Wicked Local Bridgewater) Over the past three decades, there has been a steady defection away from the two-party system among Bridgewater voters in favor of the no-party system. In 1982, 51 percent of Bridgewater’s registered voters were unenrolled. By 2010, that number was up to 60 percent.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 9/14/10

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Independent Voters In N.C. Hold The Power (Written by Bruce Ferrell, North Carolina News Network)
• Crist appeals to Democrats, independents in new ads (From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby) For Crist to win in November, he must win something close to a majority of independent voters while also peeling off substantial portions of Democratic votes from Rep. Kendrick Meek and GOP votes from former House Speaker Marco Rubio.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Delaware politics: State's elections can get quirky - From late primaries to arcane laws, Del.'s process is unique (By J.L. MILLER, The News Journal) Delaware's closed primary system gives a boost to motivated voters. Democrats vote in Democratic primaries, Republicans vote in Republican primaries, and the 146,212 voters who aren't Democrats or Republicans -- 23.5 percent of the electorate -- are shut out of the primary process. That might seem odd to people from Texas, South Carolina and the 22 other states with open primaries, where all voters have a say in who winds up on the ballot in November. Delaware State University political science professor Sam Hoff said the closed primary "may seem strange to some," but that it shows Delaware has "a pretty strong, durable party system."

TUESDAY PRIMARIES

• Delaware not the only Tea Party vs. GOP battle Tuesday (By Paul Steinhauser, CNN Deputy Political Director) Palin's endorsement earlier this summer and Ayotte's support by many national Republicans may have backfired in fiercely independent New Hampshire. The moves have drawn repeated criticism by the Union Leader.
• Bill Clinton in Minneapolis For Dayton Fundraiser (by Tom Halden / FOX 9 News) While it’s possible another Independent could win the race outright, at least one analyst doesn’t see this as a repeat of 1992, when Independent Ross Perot took votes from President George H.W. Bush, launching then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton into the White House. "More of the Democrats, the moderate Democrats, they're going to tilt more toward Horner,” University of Minnesota Prof. Larry Jacobs said. “And if Horner was not in the race, they'd be voting for Dayton.”
•  http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/politics/bill-clinton-dayton-fundraiser-minneapolis-sept-14-2010
• * Granite Status: Polls show Republican U.S. Senate primary race dead heat (By JOHN DISTASO, Senior Political Reporter, Union Leader) Lamontagne's show of strength among independents counters conventional wisdom that in New Hampshire, such voters are generally more moderate than traditional Republican voters.It appears that in this election, independents are in fact conservatives who appear to have been disenfranchised from a GOP they apparently see as part of the problem in Washington.
• Time to vote - Anger aside, voters should seek character (EDITORIAL Worcester News Telegram) Independent voters hold the balance of power in their hands, both today and on Nov. 2. However angry they may be at incumbents, or however dismissive of a political newcomer, we think democracy is best served when voters cast their ballots on the basis of qualifications, not party affiliation.
• Candidates Eschewing Party Labels in New Hampshire's U.S. Senate Campaign (By Tom Moroney, Bloomberg News) In New Hampshire, the preponderance of undeclared or independent voters offers another reason for candidates to play down their party affiliation, Hodes said. Undeclared voters number 388,220, compared with 267,725 Democrats and 266,077 Republicans, according to Secretary of State Bill Gardner’s website. The unaffiliated voters can vote in the primary of their choice.
• Tea Party primary wins in Delaware and New Hampshire could ruin GOP chances of Senate takeover (BY ALIYAH SHAHID, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER)
• Primary Day in Rhode Island: How to vote, get results (Providence Journal/Newsblog) The largest slice of Rhode Island voters is made up of independents -- or "unaffiliated" voters -- and they can vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries Tuesday.
• A ‘Shoo-In’ Struggles in Massachusetts Race (By ABBY GOODNOUGH, NY Times) One theory is that Mr. Baker, a Harvard graduate who seems most comfortable talking policy, lacks the populist touch that came naturally to the truck-driving Mr. Brown and that independent voters, who make up 51 percent of the electorate here, seem to crave.
• A primer on today's primary (By LaCross Tribune - WI) This is an open primary, meaning voters are not required to declare a party before voting. What is the most common error voters make when voting in the primary? Cross voting. For instance, you choose to vote Republican and then down on the ballot you vote for an individual Democrat. Voters may only vote for candidates of one party.
• Primary Election Day: Please Vote! (Bostonist (blog) Barney Frank has a primary opponent, who he chose to debate, you might have heard of in the 4th District Race. Rachel Brown once clashed with Frank after she compared health care reform to Naziism.

COLORADO

• Incumbents in local contests lead early money race (John Stroud, Post Independent) Curry, who left the Democratic Party last December to become an independent, lost a legal challenge to have her name included on the Nov. 2 ballot. Curry reported $16,715 in new campaign funds during the most recent reporting period from July 29 through Sept. 1, including a $10,000 loan, and $6,715 in contributions.
• Independent Voters for Colorado A statewide strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower those in the state of Colorado who identify themselves as independent or unaffiliated voters. 

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• Term Limits in New York (LETTER NY Times by Matthew Goldstein)

I'm an Independent Voter - Can I Vote in the Primary in Massachusetts?

Yes you can! From FairVote:  Registered Democrats and Republicans can only vote for their own party in the primary but independent voters may decide which party they would like to vote for. (Also see IndependentVoting.org)

• Bump, Glodis produce some bruises (By Shaun Sutner Worcester TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF) Democrats lost ground, dropping from 31 percent in 2006 to 30 percent this year, while Republicans saw their ranks reduced even more markedly, shrinking from 13.9 percent four years ago to 12.8 percent today. As it stands, independents continue by far outnumbering Democrats and Republicans combined in Worcester County. 
• Dogfight in 10th - District features tough primary races as GOP aims for control of House (By Brian C. Mooney, Boston Globe Staff)
• Clerks predict 20 percent voter turnout in Massachusetts primary (Dan Ring, The Republican) Top election leaders in Western Massachusetts are predicting a low voter turnout for Tuesday’s statewide primary, citing the lack of a governor’s contest, long-standing apathy about preliminary elections and a growing number of independent voters. 

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 8/13/10

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Why People Hate Politics (Gautam Dutta, Huffington Post) If SB 6 kicks in, California will switch to a radical version of "Top Two" elections.
• Limiting voters' choices (LETTER Marin Independent Journal by Eugene E. Ruyle, Oakland, Peace and Freedom PARTY candidate for Congress) We need a publicly funded electoral system with proportional representation. Only then will we be able to elect officials who represent working people instead of corporations and the rich.

IDAHO

• Gubernatorial candidate charges City Club of Boise of debate cover-up (By Dustin Hurst, Idaho Reporter)

MASSACHUSETTS

• Independent candidate for governor Tim Cahill proposes redistricting commission changes (The Associated Press, MassLive) Three members would be Democrats, three would be Republicans and three would be independents.

NEW YORK

• The Cuomo Conundrum: Can the King and the Court Find a Way to Get Along? (By Reid Pillifant, NY Observer) Mr. Wright, who doubles as Manhattan's Democratic chair, had just peeled away from an array of Democratic officials gathered on the steps of City Hall, who were baking in the mid-afternoon sun. While the partisans wiped their brows and fiercely defended the prerogative of the Democratic Party, the top of the ticket was upstate, pledging to clean up a government that's already controlled by Democrats.

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• It's Official — Term Limits Will Appear on Ballot, Charter Commission Says (By Jill Colvin, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer) After months of passionate protest and debate, the commission, which was convened by the mayor to examine flaws in the city's Charter, chose not to include a referendum on nonpartisan elections as a means of increasing dwindling voter turnout.
• The Charter Revision Commission has its final say, at length (BY COLBY HAMILTON, Capital New York) As the meeting began and Goldstein laid out what the commission would tackle that evening, what wasn't mentioned was as significant as what was. Term limits was on the agenda. The issue of nonpartisan elections, once an important goal for Michael Bloomberg and his allies in the Independence Party, but which voters rejected in 2003, was not.
• Bloomberg: Term Limits Issue Up To The Voters (By: Grace Rauh, NY1)
• Mayor Faults Term Exception (By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL, Wall Street Journal) The current Charter Revision Commission considered placing nonpartisan elections on the ballot again this year, but opted against it. The mayor said he was "disappointed" that the panel "didn't seem to have a lot of stomach for it."
• Suddenly, Bloomberg Has Nothing To Say About Term Limits (BY ADAM LISBERG, NY Daily News)  Nonpartisan elections will not be on the ballot, after a quiet effort by Bloomberg operatives to win support for it failed. The mayor made clear, though, that he thinks the commission missed a golden opportunity:

  “I’m disappointed that the commission, which is independent, didn’t seem to have a lot of stomach for it. I have always believed, as you know I financed a campaign when I first came into office to try to change it and I do believe that is the way the system should be. And without that, most people don’t t realize that they don’t have, in a practical sense, a vote.”

  
  

Demand for Open Primaries Picks Up Steam

KENTUCKY

• Senate passes bill to allow independents to vote in primaries (By RONNIE ELLIS, McCreary County Record)
• Kentucky Senate Passes Bill to Require Parties to Let Independents Vote in their Primaries (Ballot Access News)
• Bill to open primaries to Independents passes KY Senate (By Elizabeth Donatelli, WAVE 3 Frankfurt)
•  NOTE: VIDEO includes interview of Michael Lewis
• Senate OKs Independent Voters In Primaries (Jessica Noll, KY Post) SB 53
• Ky. Senate Approves Open Primaries-Measure Expected To Die In Democratic House (WLWT Cincinnati)
• Senate Votes to Open KY Primaries to Independents (WBKO)
• Pushing for the Independent Vote (WTVQ ABC News 36 Lexington) Michael Lewis wants to overturn the state’s closed primary system...

ILLINOIS

• Tribal wins blunt democracy in Illinois feudal election (By Burt Constable | Daily Herald Columnist) "I understand the premise of primary elections - to determine a candidate for a party - but for independent voters such as myself, who frequently cross party lines during elections, we are effectively being discriminated against and not able to vote freely and fairly."
• Low voter turnout likely played role in election turmoil-Close races for Illinois governor nominees have yet to be decided (By JOHN SHARP AND KAREN McDONALD, Peoria Journal Star) "In my opinion, it will depend . . . on whether they are taking stances that will appeal to independents and some Democratic leaners," Hall said. "If (the Republican candidates) insist on a hard line, really conservative position, I think they make that prophecy harder to come to a realization."
• Our Opinion: Open primary would boost participation (THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER)
• Quinn declares victory but Hynes won't concede in Democratic governor's race (Chicago Tribune/Clout Street)

COLORADO

• Bill seeks easier path to ballot for independent candidates-Lawmaker who broke with Democratic Party says measure allows parties to set own deadlines (by Katie Burford, Durango Herald Staff Writer)
• Curry's re-election hopes tied to lawsuit in La Plata County (John Colson, Aspen Times)
• Colorado Bill to Legalize Fusion (Ballot Access News)

FLORIDA

• Maurice Ferre pushing poll results-2010 U.S. Senate race, Kendrick Meek, Maurice Ferre (jim stratton, Orlando Sentinel/Central Florida Political Pulse)

MASSACHUSETTS

• Mass. Republicans Eager To Follow In Brown’s Footsteps (By FRED THYS, WBUR NPR )

RHODE ISLAND

• Raptakis Proposes Ban on Closed Primaries (Chris Boardman, ABC 6) Raptakis said that no political party in the state should expect taxpayers to pay the bill for a party primary which shuts out 335,288 unaffiliated voters.

PENNSYLVANIA

• We, not party bosses, deserve the right to choose candidates (LETTER Allentown Morning Call)

NEWS ALERT: Media Gets Some Stuff Right About Independent Voters!

Massachusetts special election to fill Ted Kennedy's seat continues to reverberate (or is that ricochet?) in the media and independent voters remain center stage (the newly elected Senator is that guy who posed nude for Cosmo, right?...)     >>>     Howard Fineman gets it right with one of the most grounded descriptions of independents in print.     >>>     Also of note, Elizabeth Benjamin, who took Ben's place at the Daily News when Mr. Smith went to Washington with Politico, gets it right by making the first ever in print distinction between the grassroots NYC Independence Party Organizations and the Upstate-"We're proud to be the party of business"-MacKay crowd.     >>>     And then there's Thomas Friedman's critique of Obama's first year where Friedman laments the disappearance of the President's "amazing, young, Internet-enabled, grass-roots movement he mobilized to get elected". Mr. Friedman apparently misses the distinction between running for office and governing the country, but hey, 2 outa 3 ain't bad!     >>>     Oh, and be sure to follow the dialog about what exactly the Tea Party movement is and where it came from.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Independent Minded--Barack Obama knows that he has to reconnect with independent voters when he gives his State of the Union address. (By Howard Fineman | Newsweek Web Exclusive) They are not "centrists" in the sense that they exist in some mathematical middle ground between "left" and "right." Nor are they necessarily angry "populists," eternally resenting and distrusting anyone with any power. They are outsiders who wish Washington were a better place.
• An Ear-Splitting Alarm (By Charlie Cook, National Journal)
• What the 'I'm Mad as Hell' Party Could Do (Robert Reich, Huffington Post)
• New poll finds voter anger drove results of Mass. election (By Dan balz and Jon Cohen, Washington Post)
• Blog poll results: Third party wanted (Wicked Local Georgetown MA )
• Political button collection highlights obscure candidates (By Jimmy Smothers, Gadsden AL Times)  While third-party candidates have not fared well at the polls, the number of independent voters is increasing. It is unlikely any third- (fourth- or fifth-) party candidate could win a major election, but the major party that can pick up the most support from the independent voters has the best bet at winning. With that in mind, the number of candidates from obscure parties is declining. 
• Sabrin: Are independents America’s third party? (NORTHJERSEY.COM, Murray Sabrin is professor of finance at Ramapo College and was the Libertarian Party nominee for governor in 1997 and a GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2000 and 2008.)
• Angry voters could affect both parties (By Kristi Keck, CNN)

ELECTION REFORM

• Critics say redistricting panel needs diversity (Marisa Lagos, SF Chronicle Sacramento Bureau) When voters were asked to approve a plan in 2008 to let private citizens instead of politicians draw legislative boundaries, supporters touted the initiative as a way to depoliticize the process and eliminate conflicts of interest, while opponents said it would create a secretive and unaccountable commission that wouldn't reflect the diversity of the state.

OBAMA STATE OF THE UNION

• More (Steve) Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, Jobs (By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NY Times) The most striking feature of Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency was the amazing, young, Internet-enabled, grass-roots movement he mobilized to get elected. The most striking feature of Obama’s presidency a year later is how thoroughly that movement has disappeared.

NEW HAMPSHIRE

• Borne seeks to establish third party in New Hampshire (By Alexis Macarchuk, Seacoast online) Member of New American Independent Party doing outreach in NH

NORTH CAROLINA

• Number of N.C.'s voters up 1.2M (Winston Salem Journal) Numbers released yesterday by elections watchdog Democracy North Carolina show that the number of independent voters in the state has increased by 83 percent since 2000.

SOUTH CAROLINA

• Extremely Restrictive South Carolina Ballot Access Bill Has Upcoming Hearing (Ballot Access News)

UTAH

• Are you an independent who voted for Obama? We want to hear from you (Idaho Statesman)

NEW YORK

• Bloomberg's Independence (Pay)Day (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, NY Daily News/Daily Poltics) Last year, the mayor gave $400,000 to the city Indys, who don't get along with MacKay and his crowd, after running on their line for a third time. That's $150,000 more than the $250,000 Bloomberg gave the party in 2005.
• REBNY’s Independence Party Funds (By Eliot Brown, NY Observer)
• AP source: Clinton planner joins NYC mayor's staff (By SARA KUGLER, The Associated Press, Washington Post)

LAST WORD

• THE MOVEMENT: The rise of Tea Party activism. (by Ben McGrath, The New Yorker)

Independents, Massachusetts and the Good Ol' Tea Party

Independent voters have the upper hand. But who are they and what do they want? The independent movement is a broad movement defined increasingly by its own activity at the grassroots to reform election laws to include the 40% of the electorate that doesn't consider itself aligned with either major party. These reforms include open primaries, fair ballot access for independent candidates and appointments of independents to entities such as the Federal Election Commission and local redistricting commissions. Below are the headlines from the past week since the election of Scott Brown as Senator from Massachusetts.


Also, I highly recommend the article by Patrick Coolican in the Las Vegas Sun about the subjective state of the new old time right wing Tea Party movement. 


INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Third party: Both parties have lost credibility (LETTER Florida Times Union - Jacksonville) Perhaps the emergence of such a party would break the seemingly intractable political gridlock that has served the nation poorly for far too long and give all Americans a reason to once again feel optimistic about the country's future
• Independents are calling the electoral shots (Doyle McManus, LA Times) In any case, most independents -- contrary to claims from the "tea party" camp -- are looking for bipartisanship and centrism, not bloody-shirt populism.
• Main Street's Message (by Salena Zito, Townhall) No party that tells Americans what to do, socially or financially, is safe from independents.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• South Dajita: Lawmakers ponder changes as Democrats open primaries (By: Bob Mercer, Mitchell Republic Capitol Bureau)
• Standing Up for Change (by SASHA ABRAMSKY, The Nation) Electoral Reform. The Monterey-based group Reform for Change is leading the charge to build public support for changes in how elections are conducted--particularly for open primaries and new methods of redistricting that would make elections more competitive.
• Do Two California Ballot Measures, Both on the June 2010 Ballot, Conflict with Each Other? (Ballot Access News)
• Here’s the point: Unenrolled voters shouldn’t have party say (By Richard Greeley, Wicked Plympton MA News)

INDEPENDENTS AND MASSACHUSETTS

• Salit: Obama Is Losing Independents (By Azi Paybarah, NY Observer)
• Exit Survey Of Massachusetts Voters Confirms Lack Of Enthusiasm Among Progressives Hurt Coakley (Think Progress blog)
• Mazzaglia: Victory for the independents (By Frank Mazzaglia, Waltham MA Daily News Tribune)
• Florida Senate race comes down to independents (BY MYRIAM MARQUEZ, Miami Herald)
• G.O.P. Used Energy and Stealth to Win Seat (By ADAM NAGOURNEY, JEFF ZELENY, KATE ZERNIKE and MICHAEL COOPER, NY Times) “For us, this is not so much about Scott Brown as it is about the idea that if we really collaborate as a mass movement, we can take any seat in the country,” said Eric Odom, executive director of the American Liberty Alliance, who helped organize last spring’s Tax Day Tea Party rallies to protest government spending from his home in Chicago.
• Casulaties of Corporatism, Obama-Style (Carl Horowitz, Townhall)
• Coakley's mistakes enabled Brown (By JIM COOGAN, Cape Cod Times) Neither John Kerry in 2004 nor Martha Coakley in 2010 connected with independent voters.
• The militant middle gets its revenge (Metro US, Tom Foreman)
• The New Political Rumbling-Massachusetts may signal an end to old ways of fighting. (By PEGGY NOONAN, Wall Street Journal)
• Massachussetts Shift Wasn't Vote For Republican "Ideals" (By Raynard Jackson, BlackStarNews)
• What Exactly is Voter Anger? (by Robert L. Hanafin, Veterans Today)
• Democrats in denial (By A.B. Stoddard, The Hill/Pundits' Blog) Indeed President Obama and healthcare reform are both more popular than Martha Coakley in the Bay State, as I mentioned in my column this week, but national Democrats should have seen the power of more than 49 percent of unaffiliated voters in Massachusetts. They did not.
• Obama Embarks on Listening Tour-Ohio Trip to Focus on Jobs, not Health Care (By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON, Wall Street Journal)
• The Declaration of Independents (Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post)
• The Great Unalignment (By MATT BAI, NY Times)
• Scott Brown’s Massachusetts win fueled by independent voters (By Tracey D. Samuelson, Christian Science Monitor)
• Hit the reset button-- Dems must get independents back (NY Post, Kirsten Powers)
• Ex-RI Sen. Chafee: independents swung Mass race (Boston Herald)
• Mass. Senate race is a sure sign Democrats should hold on to something heavy (Andrea Tantaros, NY Daily News) New York has not only the Independence Party - which has its own line on the ballot - but also a large group of unaffiliated voters...
• Coakley’s failure to communicate (By Dan Payne, Boston Globe) Coakley’s campaign also didn’t understand the anger and fear in the electorate. Unemployment, Wall Street bonuses, stimulus money that didn’t stimulate, small businesses that can’t get loans and US Senators practically bribed to back health care reform. That was the wave that Brown caught and rode to victory.In November, incumbent New York mayor Michael Bloomberg almost got drowned by that wave; he spent $90 million of his own money and nearly lost to an unfunded nobody.
• Independents' anger in Massachusetts a sign of things to come? (By Ed Hornick, CNN)

RHODE ISLAND

• Chafee runs in R.I. as budget hawk (By RAY HENRY Associated Press Writer, The Day)

BARACK OBAMA

• White House Advisers Promise Sharper Focus on Jobs (By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, NY Times)
• One year of Obama--Our view: The campaign promise the new president has made the least progress in fulfilling is the one voters want most ? a change in the way Washington works (Baltimore Sun)
• Reacting to Mass. Rebellion, White House Beefs Up Outside Political Arm (ABC News/Political Punch, Jake Tapper)
• Obama's Big Sellout (MATT TAIBBI, Rolling Stone) The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway

TEA PARTY

• The Tea Party’s (old) paranoia--Today’s fervent ideological movement has roots in post-World War II right (By J. Patrick Coolican, Las Vegas Sun)
• TEA Party factions in Tennessee bear differing agendas (By Bartholomew Sullivan, Memphis Commercial Appeal)
• The Big Question: What is the Tea Party movement, and could it change US politics? (By Rupert Cornwell, The Independent - UK)

National Organizer of Independents Speaks to the Lessons of Massachusetts

 Statement received via email today:

"The Obama team needs to learn a lesson from Massachusetts,” said Jackie Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org , a national association of independent voters.  “If you don't attend to the political dynamics in the independent movement, you'll pay the price. That movement is in the early stages of its development and is subject to many pushes and pulls. While the progressive leadership of the movement played the key role in swinging independents to Obama in 2008, the Obama team has turned a blind eye since then, choosing instead to focus only on the Democratic Party base.  But if you do that, instead of finding ways to cultivate the progressive voices in independent politics, you're going to lose elections like the one yesterday. And, you might even lose the White House if you don't wake up to the fact that there is an emerging political universe - the independent movement - that you know nothing about.”

Apparently at least ONE Dem agrees. From today's CNN Analysis by Marc Preston: Brown's win changes political narrative for 2010: One of the biggest challenges for Democrats is wooing back independent voters, who broke Brown's way Tuesday to help him beat Coakley. "If we don't figure out a way to talk to independent voters, we are done," lamented another high-level Democratic staffer, speaking freely on the condition of anonymity. (Marc Preston, CNN Political Editor)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OPEN PRIMARIES
Voters will have to see through the mud that will be slung by the parties against open primaries in California

• Less than a year from now: Freedom from ideological gridlock? (By Thomas Elias, San Diego Source/Daily Transcript)

LOCAL INDEPENDENT POLITICS
Governor races start up -- and here are some interesting independent campaigns to watch:

• VA: Poll: McDonnell at 49% and Deeds at 43% (By Jim Nolan, Richmond Times Dispatch) According to Public Policy, McDonnell has picked up more support among independent voters and holds a 54-33 advantage over Deeds in that category.... Deeds has a 4-1 edge over McDonnell among blacks, who came out in unprecedented numbers last fall and helped Barack Obama carry the state.
• MA: Campaign 2010: Cahill to split party, switch to unenrolled (By Jim O’Sullivan/State House News Service, Bedford MA Minuteman)
• NE: Sen. White moves toward race with Terry (By Robynn Tysver, OMAHA WORLD-HERALD)
• FL: Lining up to be next governor of Florida (Historic City News) Peter Allen: The Riverview resident, 60, founded the Independence Party of Florida in 2001. The electrical contractor wants third parties to demand an open primary.

MJ

• "Would There Be A President Obama Without Michael Jackson?" (by Jim Buck, Jim Buck Blog)
• "I want his children to know there was nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with." - Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday at the Michael Jackson Memorial, Staples Center, L.A. (Politico)
  
  
  NEW YORK POLITICS
  2 independent State Senators speak out for reform: Sen. Pedro Espada has been joined by Sen. Frank Padavan in calling for fair rules for everyone in the NY State Senate...
  
• 30 DAYS – NO RESULTS-Senate mess enters second month (BY PETE DAVIS, Queens Courier)
• GOP has a plan; Espada said he knows Dems who are ready for vote for it (By DAVID LOMBARDO, Legislative Gazette)
• Golisano Defends Coup (Politics on the Hudson)
• Ending state Senate mess would be easy - Albany lawmakers just need to come together, right now (Bill Hammond, Daily News)
• Gov. urged to appoint No. 2, break Senate impasse-A Queens assemblyman, reform groups call on governor to appoint a lieutenant governor who could break tie in Senate, but some question the legality of such a move. (By Erik Engquist , Crains New York)

ELSEWHERE
No one expects much opposition to Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, endorsements are rolling in, but the jury is still out...

• Sotomayor's Critics and Fans (Posted by Prerana Swami , CBS News/Political Hotsheet)
• Bloomberg Steps Up (Again) For Sotomayor (Elizabeth Benjamin, Daily News/Daily Politics)

What happened to independent voters in California and Massachusetts?

In California, there were "Few election glitches, except for independents". The Brad Blog points out that's a pretty big exception -- 3 million voters worth..... And watch the video of a voter trying to vote for Ron Paul....


MASSACHUSETTS: Major exit polls on Super Tuesday said that Obama continued to be overwhelmingly supported by young voters, African-Americans and independent/Republican voters. The trends apparently did not apply to Massachusetts, where, according to NBC, the Democratic presidential hopeful gained an equal share of ballots among voters between 18 to 44 years, and did very poorly among independents, another group of voters he is popular with, gaining less than his rival, 42 to 54 percent. He also received 31 percent support among conservative voters, while Clinton got 64 percent. ... (AHN)