Oregon Sec of State Candidate Knute Buehler Supports Open Primaries

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Bend surgeon kicks off Republican campaign for secretary of state (Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian) Knute Buehler, a Bend orthopedic surgeon who backs tight campaign finance limits and open primaries, kicked off his Republican campaign for secretary of state on Wednesday.
• M. Julian Bradley: Election process needs (By M. Julian Bradley, vice chairman of the La Crosse County Republican Party, La Crosse Tribune) To further protect Wisconsin and our electoral system, we need to eliminate open primaries.
• Mandatory voting: An idealistic inefficiency (Kim Tran, Opinion Editor, Los Angeles Loyolan) For busy citizens, there need to be more convenient voting methods available, such as absentee ballots, early voting or same-day registration, that would ease the process for those who want to vote but do not have the time. Unaffiliated citizens should be allowed to participate in open primaries of their choice.

Two Party System is a Disgrace

TWO PARTY SYSTEM
Building the Perfect Political Party: Oregon's Working Families Party (Kyle Curtis, Blue Oregon) For many people, the two-party system behind our country’s political system is a disgrace and actually is an impediment to the democratic process.

Independent Redistricting: Voters Keep Pressure on Lawmakers

UTAH CITIZEN REDISTRICTING
New software lets Utahns propose redistricting plans (By Lisa Riley Roche, Deseret News) An effort to establish an independent redistricting commission through an initiative petition drive failed last year to generate enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. But a new group, Represent Me Utah, that includes Republicans, Democrats and independent voters is attempting to keep the pressure on lawmakers, according to co-chairwoman Kelli Lundgren. Lundgren said user-friendly mapping software will be welcomed. "I'm excited they are doing that for the public," she said. "But what I would love to see is that they actually use input from it."


TEXAS REDISTRICTING REFORMS
Editorial: Redistricting reforms could move us further from raw politics (Dallas Morning News) For example, are districts compact, so voters in a district aren’t spread out all over kingdom come? Do districts largely keep intact the boundary lines of cities and counties? And do districts keep intact communities of interest, including voters who share common geographic, racial, cultural or economic interests? Those are some of the principles state Sen. José Rodríguez is trying to write into Texas law so future redistricting battles are guided by something other than raw politics. The El Paso Democrat’s bill, SB 1556, would guide future map-drawers to focus on several principles.

OREGON LEGISLATURE SHOULD DELIVER INDEPENDENT PLAN OR QUIT
Oregon's next political map (By The Oregonian Editorial Board) Lawmakers haven't delivered an acceptable redistricting plan in 60 years; either they get it done this year, or they get out of the process

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING

Redistricting Roundup: Citizen activist organizations work to reform redistricting (By Geoff Pallay, Ballot News) Earlier this year, we discussed the push in some states to take redistricting power away from state legislatures and instead hand authority to independent commissions. Across the country, citizen activist organizations have formed to push for redistricting reform. At least 15 different organizations and coalitions have been created by concerned citizens looking to try and play a part in this year’s redistricting.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Iowa Poll Released by Rasmussen Reports: Barack Obama 46%, John McCain 41% (Transworldnews)
• State by State Poll Tracker from CQ Politics
• McCains coming to New Jersey on Tuesday (NY Newsday) McCain hopes to appeal to the 2.2 million unaffiliated registered voters. There are 1.7 million registered Democrats and 1 million Republicans.

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS
2008 Election Forecast: Oregon Independents are the Wild Cards (CQ Politics) The wild card is the state’s large number of independent voters. While Democrats made up 43 percent of the state’s registered voters at the end of April and 33 percent were Republicans, 20 percent were unaffiliated.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Battle for independent voters begins (Christian Science Monitor)
• Obama Leads McCain In Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll Finds (Quinnipiac)
• Obama, Clinton to join forces for fund-raising pitch in D.C. (Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service) Florida's independent voters, who favored McCain by a 45-36 percent margin a month ago, now prefer Obama by a 47-37 percent margin.
• Analysis: Independents split over McCain, Obama (CNN)
• Swing Lobby Politics-Obama's Genuflections (CounterPunch)

IDAHO * Will Rex Rammell’s Run Ruin Risch? (New West Network) However, independents are at odds with Rammell’s strong support for closed primaries, an issue which dominated the recent state GOP convention. With that issue, they line up with LaRocco, who supports open primaries and more government transparency, another issue dear to the hearts of independents.

OREGON * Macpherson back to support open primary (Politicker OR)

CALIFORNIA * California is branded among a 'Dirty Dozen' on gerrymandering (LA Times)

NEW YORK * BLOOMBERG'S BLUES, why our billionaire mayor might not want to become our billionaire governor. (NY Press)

REFORM

• EDITORIAL: Changing the system-Is the Electoral College doomed? (Las Vegas Review Journal)
• Commentary: A national popular vote for president (Salisbury Post)
• Electoral College Myths, One More Time (The New Republic/The Plank)
• A well-advised 'whoa' on IRV (Pioneer Press)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Obamamania Has Become A Full-Blown Obsession (WCBS-TV) Shirley Chisholm blazed a trail in 1972. Jesse Jackson and Dr. Lenora Fulani each ran twice, as did Alan Keyes.
• Lenora Fulani Statement About Obama’s Success (Ballot Access News)
• CBS Poll: Obama Leads McCain (CBS) McCain leads Obama by 8 points among registered independent voters, considered a key voting block in November
• McCain no lock in Arizona (The Hill) The state has always been quirkily independent
• McCain and Obama: a stark matchup-They're both mavericks, but they differ sharply on issues and how to govern. (Christian Science Monitor) Both men hold appeal among independent voters – about a third of the electorate – and whoever wins a majority of them wins in November.
• Democrats' primary shows how far we've come (Newsday) It's not just about him, and it's not just about race. It's about us, too. Democrats - and the independents and Republican open primary voters who joined them - ventured well beyond the usual boundaries in supporting Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
• Don't Miss The Moment (This is Me) The setup by Jesse Jackson, Sr. and Lenora Fulani. The spike by Barack Obama.

OREGON OPEN PRIMARY

• Re-booting democracy in Oregon (The Oregonian)
• Voters Want Choices. And They Want to Be Heard. That's why Ranked Choice Voting makes so much sense. (Seattle Weekly)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Democratic voter turnout is heavy: 43% (Kentucky Herald Leader) the only problems she'd experienced Tuesday morning were voters at the wrong precinct and independent voters who did not have anyone on the ballot in that district. [UPDATED FROM YESTERDAY]
• More Than 1 Million Oregonians Vote In Primary (KPTV - Fox News) [UPDATED]
• Holmes: What Democrats have done right (Daily News Tribune Waltham MA) Schwarzenegger told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Let's let the party come all the way to the center," grabbing independent voters with more moderate positions on issues like global warming and immigration reform.
• VCU poll finds McCain leads among Virginia voters (Richmond.com) McCain also leads Obama among registered independent voters, 44 to 34 percent
• Number soup - Some general election polling shows Democrats commanding most issues (Charlie Cook, MSNBC) In this poll, McCain ran much stronger than Clinton among independents, 48 percent to 36 percent, but trailed Obama among the same group, getting 37 percent to Obama's 44 percent.

REFORM

• Lobbyists: This is our thanks? (Politico) Both campaigns are using the issue to compete for independent voters in November by claiming to be distant from the special interests in Washington.
• Awaiting Word From The Big Easy (Steve Rankin, Free Citizen) it's strange that Barbour is promoting voter ID as a tool for closing primaries
• Siena Poll: NYers Oppose Judicial Pay Raise (North Country Gazette) ”Democrats want to see the Democrats in charge and Republicans want to see Republicans keep control. Independent voters are evenly divided.

Independent voters: Are you down for the fight?

Ok, now that Barack Obama is the decisive candidate of the Democratic Party, let's consider how this scene might develop.

The Field Negro suggests an interesting running mate for the "O" man... And if you think THAT'S interesting, you'll want to attend the Performing The World conference in October. More on this at a later date....

Hillary is still "fighting" -- hmmm..... For the life of me I can't understand why the pundits are insisting that the Dems (now in the person of Barack Obama with the backing of that scalawag Minister Rev. Wright Farrakhan) need to watch out for the conservative white vote... But hey, maybe it sells papers....

Everybody knows that not only are the Idaho Republicans In Disarray, but the whole party is .... well.... kaput? When there’s trouble in Idaho for Republicans, you know they’re hurting everywhere. We’ve already seen the grassroots revolt in the works on the part of Ron Paul supporters. But the fissures in the Idaho party run deeper..... (New West Politics)

The thing to pay attention to in what will be a fashionable tracking of independent voters is, who are the independents? Are they radical? Are they modern-day US Sandinistas? Are they really just grassroots Democratic Party registrants who go to church 3 times a year? Are they fiscally conservative/socially liberal Reagan Democrats who lost their way? Are they middle-aged Peroistas who won't give up the fight for a squeeky-clean glimering white America? (Ooops, not) Keep tuned to The Hankster for a front row seat to the Dirty Fight... And since you're an independent, get smart quick!

Shaun Mullen at Kiko's House says: "Clintonistas are deeply in denial about the overriding reason that Obama will be the first to cross the finish line, probably as early as tonight after Kentucky and Oregon vote: Obama has earned the nomination by getting more voter and more delegates without having to resort to appeals to break mutually agreed upon party rules like Clinton has. He also has run a much better campaign, and everything flows from that......(Kiko's House)

We seem to live in interesting times, and that's good.

Kentuky, Oregon voting today

Kentucky turnout could be 30%
the only problems Tuesday morning were voters at the wrong precinct and independent voters who do not have anyone on the ballot in that district..... (Herald Leader)

Oregon Vote Expected To Top A Million
Independent voters have so far turned in about 95,000 ballots, 20 percent..... (KPTV)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Billings Montana Gazette Opinion: Face-to-face visits excite local voters (Billings Gazette) Montana has an open primary
• Guest column: Put Open Primary on November ballot (By Phil Keisling, The Daily Astorian)

OREGON
Watch the unaffiliated voters!

• Oregon turnout expected to top 1 million (The Oregonian)
• Oregon's Post Office Primary (Washington Post/The Trail)

NORTH CAROLINA
Ten years in North Carolina history (Asheville Citizen Times) Democrats still outnumber Republicans in voter registrations, but the most dramatic increase is in unaffiliated voters who often determine the outcomes of elections.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• FLORIDA: Obama Seeks Decisive Turnout (The Tampa Tribune) Independent voters, who for years have been the fastest-growing cohort in Florida, are heavily concentrated in the corridor, but could go for either McCain or Obama.
• OREGON: A Shift in Voters, but Oregon Still Embraces the Unconventional (New York Times) Oregon voters’ deepest allegiance may be to independence. The number of unaffiliated voters more than doubled in the last two decades, and many Republicans and Democrats insisted in interviews that, as Mr. Rivers, the commission chairman, put it, “I vote for issues and the person.”

THE PARTIES

• GOP struggles to reinvent without losing itself-The party agrees it must change or face catastrophe in November. (Los Angeles Times)
• Primary trouble for both parties (The Digest, Patriot Post) Republicans chose a middle ground, punishing Michigan and Florida for moving their primary dates by cutting delegates from those two states in half. The Democrats, in a completely undemocratic response, left 100 percent of the votes in those two states uncounted.

OPEN PRIMARIES
ARKANSAS: Primaries Lack Big Attractions (THE MORNING NEWS) This year, however, there is no legal bar to voting in the Republican presidential primary in February and the Democratic primary for state and local officials.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• The Republican Panic (Wall Street Journal) There's nothing independent voters hate more than the self-dealing and incumbent protection that earmarks represent.


• RNC: Obama's Underperforming (Marc Ambinder, The Atlantic) Among independent voters, most polling shows Senator McCain running equal to or ahead of Barack Obama – even while independent voters are said to be the strength of Obama's coalition.


• LA County redesigns confusing ballots (San Jose Mercury News)


• Independents split on choice (Dallas Morning News)

OREGON

Obama and Oregon: More in common than 'O' (AP Google) Obama has done better than Clinton among self-described independents in competitive primaries this year, 54 percent to 40 percent

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

WEST VIRGINIA

• Obama defeat amplifies race, rural problems (By BEN SMITH, Politico) “Nationally, Obama is running stronger among Independent voters than any winning Presidential candidate since 1988 and is significantly outperforming Sen. Clinton among these voters as well in general election polling,” the memo said.
• Obama May Have His Work Cut Out for Him to Draw Independents (Wall Street Journal)
• Obama in Missouri as W.V. decided (MSNBC First Read)
• The Obama camp's memo on WV (MSNBC First Read)
• Independents Make Impact (WVNS-TV)

OREGON * Poll shows Obama leads (The Gresham Outlook)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

NORTH CAROLINA

• Democrats, independents surge in WNC (Asheville Citizen Times) independents gained nearly 2.2 percent statewide
• Gubernatorial primaries take back seat to presidential race (AP Google) North Carolina has 5.8 million registered voters, a 13 percent increase over 2004. Those figures include 1.2 million unaffiliated or independent voters, many of whom are expected to vote in the Democratic primary. Black voter registration has also spiked in North Carolina, up 19 percent from 2004 to 1.2 million.
• A little homework, planning will make voting easy (Asheville Citizen Times) Know your rights: If you make a mistake on your ballot, you can ask for another one. If you’re registered as Unaffiliated, you can ask to receive the primary ballot of either party. If you’re an ex-felon, you can register and vote if you’ve served all parts of your sentence, including probation.

WEST VIRGINIA

• Registered voters hit record numbers (Parkersburg News and Sentinel) ‘‘You must request the ballot when they come to the table,’’
• Voter registration hits record level (Huntington Herald Dispatch)
• SurveyUSA Poll in Indiana shows Obama 2 points ahead of Clinton among independents (SurveyUSA)
• West Virginia’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Policy for Voters (Alternet) The West Virginia Secretary of State's office and county election offices in the state are refusing to tell independent voters arriving to early vote at the state's 55 voting locations that they are entitled to vote in its Democratic or Republican primary, stating that they are forbidden to do so by law.
• West Virginia Secretary of State Disenfranchising Thousands of Obama Voters? (by: Matt Stoller, Open Left)

OREGON * As deadline looms, residents registering in droves to vote (The Register-Guard) Independent Party of Oregon also has seen significant growth [in Lane County], nearly doubling in size from 921 to 1,651 members since December 2007. [Updated 12:15pm]

MINNESOTA INDEPENDENCE PARTY * Three-way, anyone? Independence party vet Dean Barkley mulls US Senate run (Minnesota Monitor)

FEATURE * Jeremiah, Obama, and Roman Catholics (Commonweal Magazine) "I would also ask whether the Catholic Church has an “African-American problem.” "

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Arizona Green Party wins separate status on Nov. ballot (The Arizona Republic) You can be independent and left-leaning, or independent and right-leaning. The key is to get people to vote for our (Green Party) issues. NOTE: The Greens are a tough party-oriented nut to crack! Personally, I wish they'd loosen up!.. Let's play! Who's not in favor of a healthy planet? But is a traditional partisan structure apt to enact that? Not hardly.... -NH
  

CAMPAIGN

• McCain visiting poor areas (Reuters) McCain's trip is part of a bid to attract more independent voters


• IN: Clinton pushes Indiana debate (The Journal Gazette)


• WV: Political Images Banned at Polls (The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register)


• For the first time, Independent voters are permitted to vote either a Democratic or Republican ballot in this primary election, but they must request the ballot when they go to vote. Obama, Clinton strike homestretch in bid for nomination (By BETH FOUHY and NEDRA PICKLER, AP Google)


• Hillary Clinton's Recklessness: How Superdelegates Can Save The Day (Eric Wattree, Black Star News) Open Letter to the Superdelegates
  

NORTH CAROLINA

• Make voting easy on yourself (Fayetteville Observer) If you’re registered as unaffiliated, you can ask to receive the primary ballot of either party.


• N.C. looms large in Dems' race (Washington Bureau Blue Ridge Times News) More than 3.8 million Democrats and unaffiliated voters are eligible to vote in the May 6 primary, which, along with Indiana's primary the same day, may well decide the Dem primary


• Is this another remake? (News Observer) Barack Obama versus Hillary Rodham Clinton.


• Isn't that a remake of the old North Carolina classics of Harvey Gantt versus Mike Easley or Gantt versus Charles Sanders?... The Democratic Party has also changed. Many conservative Democrats have become Republicans or are registered as unaffiliated.


• Buncombe voters swap political parties (Ashville Citizen Times)


• Swaping Sides (Hickory Daily Record) Officials at the Catawba County Board of Elections can’t recall so many voters switching party affiliation leading up to an election.


• Nearly 800 turn out for early voting (The Daily Reflector)


• Learn about candidates at forums this week (Star News Wilmington NC)


• One stop voting off to ‘really slow’ start (Roxboro Courier Times)
  

LOCAL

• NH: MARIJUANA BILL DEBATE (Union Leader) Mason-Dixon found the lower fine had support of 63 percent of Democrats surveyed, 62 percent of those under 50, 58 percent of women and 54 percent of independent voters.


• SC: Learn about candidates at forums this week (Star News Wilmington NC) If a party chairman creates the perception that some candidates are favored and that the party will work on behalf of the favorites against others, good candidates will shy away from the system. Volunteers will be disillusioned, and voters will look for alternatives.


• PA: Hornberger, former county controller, wants term limits (Republican Herald-Pottsville PA -- Harrisburg)


• DENTON TX: Nearly 2,000 cross party lines to vote-One-time Republicans cast ballots in county Democratic primary primary (Denton TX Record Chronicle)

OREGON ELECTIONS * (The Oregonian) Open Primary would shift debate to center - As Phil Keisling and Norma Paulus noted in your paper ("Let's make primaries truly open, inclusive and fair," April 13), the partisan primary system we have in place is archaic and obsolete...

THE PEOPLE VS THE PARTIES:
Welcome to the Jungle (Nick Wirth, BlueOregon) On March 5, the 5th Circuit in New Orleans heard Mississippi Democratic Party v. Barbour. Mississippi's only method of nomination is their open primary, and last June a U. S. district judge declared the state-mandated open primary unconstitutional. (However, it did not enjoin the recent Miss primary, which was held under the “old” rules).


NOTE: BILL MOYERS WILL INTERVIEW REV. WRIGHT NEXT SUNDAY ON PBS.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• NORTH CAROLINA: Allen Johnson: Why, 24 years later, I remain a man without a party — and why I like it that way (Greensboro News Record) NOTE: Read this!!
• WEST VIRGINIA: Clinton, Obama campaigns dissecting state voters (Times West Virginian) The trend of more women than men voters holds up among those registered as belonging to “No Party,” or independents. Women make up 77,089 to 67,290 men in that category. But in the 50 and older group, men outnumber women among independents, 16,098 to 14,847.
• OREGON: Valuing 'independent' participation (The Oregonian-Phil Kiesling) Why have the Oregon Democratic and Republican parties chosen not to allow independents to participate? FLORIDA: Can the GOP police itself? (Middletown Journal - FL) Weber said he would be best suited to hold other Republicans accountable because of his background as an independent. Weber ran for the position in 2002 as an independent and lost; he ran in 2006 as a Republican but dropped out after Reynolds won the party endorsement.
• WEST VIRGINIA: Independents Can Vote in W.Va. Primary (The Intelligencer/Wheeling News Register) While the state’s Independents have been able to vote in Republican primaries for six years, 2008 will mark the first time they will be able to mark a Democratic ballot as that party has opened up its primary to Independents for the first time.
• WEST VIRGINIA: Independents likely to have impact on upcoming primaries (The Herald-Dispatch) In 1984, only 2 percent of West Virginia's voters, or 20,559 people, were registered with no party affiliation. Since then, independent voter registration has increased yearly to an all-time high in the 2006 general election of 11.7 percent, or 133,555, of the voting public.
• Barack Obama, Federalism, and a Winning Coalition (Yossef Ben-Meir, American Chronicle) By presenting community organizing as a federalist process, the campaign will attract those Republicans and Independents who are disaffected by the Iraq war, but who would otherwise still support John McCain.
• FLORIDA: Crist makes pitch for new Rays' stadium (tampabay.com/St. Petersburg Times) State Rep. Rick Kriseman, D-St. Petersburg and State Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, have filed bills (HB 1189 and SB 2726) to open Florida's primaries and let unaffiliated voters weigh in on the presidential choices.
• War-Weary Pa. Voters Wonder About Exit (AP-Google)

POLLS Rasmussen presidential tracking poll gives edge to McCain (Marketwatch) McCain now leads both Democrats among unaffiliated voters

FEATURE Evangelicals' new face (Baltimore Sun) If you think that evangelical Christians vote automatically for the Republican Party and are obsessed with abortion and gay marriage to the exclusion of other issues, you haven't been paying attention.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Oregon Independents Limited In Primary Choices (KOBI NBC5)
• Can Obama change America's political map? (By Al From, Politico)
• Independent Electoral Movement Sprouts with Former Democrats and Republicans Challenging Their Former Party on Iraq (by Kevin Zeese, Dissident Voice)
• Kesselring files for seat in Fla. House-GOP member is running unaffiliated (Ocala Star-Banner)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Harkin: Unaligned voters will be key to victory (Des Moines Register)
• West Virginia: 'A Big Turnout' (MetroNews Talkline)

CAMPAIGN

• Heading Into The Home Stretch-“It ain’t over till it’s over!” (Bufflao News)
• Obama's Chances in One Blue-Collar Town Mixed Reception From Struggling Voters (By Michael Sokolove - From The New York Times Magazine)
• McCain: 'The luckiest man alive' (Baltimore Sun)
• OPINION: Now and then, Obama should step across the aisle (Grand Forks Herald)
• Of Oregon, tax freedom and mascots (By JOHN LAIRD, The Columbian)

NORTH CAROLINA

• Where your vote will get the most bang (BlueRidgeNow.com) Repubs ask independents to vote in Repub primary to influence local elections
• Democrats ask who can best win election-Clinton, Obama scrap for N.C. votes (Winston Salem Journal)
• Political Connections: Young voters (News 14 Carolina)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS:

• West Virginia Independent Voters Can Vote In Either Major Party Primary (Ballot Access News)
• Oregon: Clinton-Obama Race Spurs Party Switches (AP Google)

CAMPAIGN:

• Obama readies plan to reshape the electorate (Ben Smith, Politico) Independent voters key
• Clinton Rationale for Electability Doesn't Hold Water: History Proves the Ability to Win a State Primary Is Unrelated to General Election Success (Robert Creamer, Huffington Post)
• Ron Paul / Jesse Ventura Ticket? Don't Count This One Out (Gambling 911)

OPEN PRIMARIES:

• Special Election Offers Lessons For Future (The Tampa Tribune)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

POLLS, POLLS, POLLS, AND MORE POLLS:

• Florida Republicans can't stand the weather in this presidential election year (Southern Political Report) The question isn't as much whether Democrats will switch to the Republican side as it is how independent voters will end up voting.
• State GOP heals rift, gets behind McCain (The Denver Post) "That's why he's the GOP's ace in the hole when it comes to getting independents — he's more to the center," said Whit Ayres, a national Republican pollster who said his surveys show McCain leading 2 to 1 with unaffiliated voters over either Democratic candidate.
• McCain returns to Colo. (Rocky Mountain News) McCain, flanked by a host of former Romney supporters including Sen Wayne Allard and former U.S. Congressman Bob Beauprez, said he also believes that he might fare well in a state such as Colorado because of the rise of independent voters who are dissatisfied with both parties.
• Minor parties, nonaffiliated voters to play larger role in future elections -Nonaffiliated and minor party voters may determine who wins in Oregon (The Register-Guard)
• Poll: Obama on top with state voters (Connecticut Post) "Barack Obama has made the argument that he is more electable than Hillary Clinton because of his appeal to independents," said Douglas Schwartz, director of the Q Poll.
• New InsiderAdvantage Poll - Obama Leads Big In North Carolina (Compiled from InsiderAdvantage and Southern Political Report)
• Clinton's Tactics Backfiring? (The Plank/The New Republic) But Obama is still much more competitive with independent voters when matched up against John McCain than Hillary Clinton is.
• McCain trails Obama, Clinton in California (San Diego Union Tribune) From the Public Policy Institute poll: Who wins the popularity contest among independent voters? More independents have a favorable view of Obama (57%) than of McCain (47%) or Clinton (35%).
• DNC: McCain Myth Buster: John McCain and the West (By Democratic National Committee, Press Release in Sun Herald) It doesn't help that McCain and the GOP have alienated Hispanic and Independent voters, two key constituencies in Western states, over key issues like the war in Iraq and immigration.
• Obama stronger than Clinton in California, top-prize (The Swamp/Baltimore Sun)
• Clinton sees North Carolina as 'uphill battle' (CNN Political Ticker) Independent voters can participate in the Democratic primary, but Republicans cannot.
• PPIC Poll Shows Barack Obama Much Stronger in California Against McCain Than Clinton (California Progress Report)
• Poll: Obama has wide lead over McCain in Conn. (NY Newsday)

OPEN PRIMARIES:

• Bills shelved after Otter rejects transportation package (Magic Valley Times-News) Meanwhile, killing transportation might not translate into adjournment. GOP Lawmakers say a number of issues could force the session into next week, including two proposed constitutional amendments; a bill to reform medical benefits for retired state workers; a plan to create a modified open primary system; and overriding Otter's veto of $16.8 million for substance abuse treatment.
• Texas Double-voters should be asked to explain (The Facts) With a so-called open primary system, Texans don’t have to declare allegiance to a party to vote in that party’s primary.