Occupy Wall Street Gathering, Losing Support

OCCUPY WALL STREET

• Fascination and Fear (Rick McGahey, an economic policy adviser to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, is a professor of professional practice in the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at the New School, NY Times/ Room for Debate) Democrats want to tap Occupy’s energy, but there's a risk of losing independent voters.
• Poll: Occupy Wall Street movement losing America’s support (Matthew Borghese, Gant Daily) Where the movement begins to lose support most dramatically, is among independent voters. A month ago, independent voters supported the movement (39 percent) but now a majority (42 percent) oppose the protests.
• Poll: Tea party trumps OWS (by Kyle Wingfield, Atlanta Journal Constitution) If a recent opinion survey by Public Policy Polling is any indication, the end of the full Occupation of Wall Street might have been the best thing that could have happened to the movement. Not because it will earn them public sympathy, but because the occupation itself had become the least sympathetic thing about the group.
• Buddy Roemer Slams Mike Bloomberg for Cops Clearing Occupy Wall Street (Kevin Derby's blog, Sunshine State News) "The mayor of New York City is standing on the wrong side of history. His actions in the midnight hours against the Occupy Wall Street protestors are unjust, uncalled for, and unconstitutional," said Roemer in a statement on Tuesday. “The First Amendment right of assembly and speech exists to protect America from this kind of government power abuse.

John Avlon: Closed Primaries Too Easily Hijacked by Ideologes and Partisan Hacks

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Christine O'Donnell: Exhibit A for getting rid of closed primaries (By John Avlon, CNN Contributor) The lesson: Closed partisan primaries are fundamentally unrepresentative. They're too easily hijacked by ideological activists and party hacks beholden to special interests. And because these local primaries are the gauntlet that candidates have to run, they lead directly to the culture of hyperpartisanship that now threatens to paralyze our capacity for effective self-government.
• Primaries now 'the elections' (LETTER Clarion Ledger) Whether it's called "open primaries," or just equal right to vote by everyone, we need a system that gives everyone an equal voice, rather than independents being shut out of the "primaries" where most officials are chosen, and then have to pick between two party hacks in the general election.

Obama, Tea Party, Jobs and Speeches

OBAMA

• CNN analysts: Reaction to Obama jobs speech (From CNNPolitics.com) President Barack Obama on Thursday laid out his $447 billion economic plan before a joint session of Congress, saying that lawmakers should put the interests of the American people before politics.
• Can Obama overcome D.C.'s partisan poison? (By John Avlon, CNN Contributor) John Avlon says a fired up President Obama was appealing to the middle class and small businesses. "He'll need to put forward an equally bold and bipartisan deficit reduction proposal, because the American Job Creation Act's estimated $450 billion price tag will provoke some rote "Stimulus II" criticism, and independent voters in particular have wised up to the fact that throwing federal money at a problem doesn't solve it."
• Obama raps tea-party philosophy in jobs speech (Kathie Obradovich, Des Moines Register/Iowa Caucuses) Obama said most Americans don’t care about politics. But he was speaking to the ones who do, including independent voters who might be lured by the tea-party approach to government. Where would our country be today, he asked, if leaders of both parties had decided not to build our highways and railroads, or decided the federal government didn’t have the authority to create Social Security and Medicare?
• Obama Challenges Congress on Job Plan (By MARK LANDLER, NY Times) “You should pass this jobs plan right away,” the president declared over and over in his 32-minute speech, in which he eschewed his trademark soaring oratory in favor of a plainspoken appeal for action, stiffened by a few sarcastic political jabs.

12 Percent of Voters Are Tea Partiers: Tail Wagging the Dog?

As a quick reminder, the handful of Tea Party freshman who won in 2010 did so in closed primary states. As another quick reminder, the Tea Party couldn't be dictating policy if ordinary Americans were able to fully participate in the political dialogue. Which they're not able to because of the control that the parties and the partisan corporate Big Media (whether "liberal" or "conservative".)

OBAMA

• Obama Hits New Low in Quinnipiac Poll (By Steven Shepard, NATIONAL JOURNAL/Hotline On Call) "Men, whites and independent voters were the president's weak spots when his job approval was positive, and those groups have progressed from being weak spots to being serious problems," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
• September 1, 2011 - Obama Approval Hits All-Time Low, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Economy Is Getting Worse, More Voters Say (Quinnipiac) Only 12 percent of voters consider themselves members of the Tea Party movement, and voters have a 42 - 29 percent unfavorable view of it, which is better than the 51 - 35 percent unfavorable view of the Democrats and 53 - 32 percent unfavorable view of the Republicans.
• To Get on Winning Path, Obama Should Act Like Democrat (By J.J. Goldberg, Jewish Daily Forward) The usual answer is that independent voters switched from Democratic to Republican, giving the GOP the edge. In fact, there was a shift, but not enough to turn the election. Self-described independents made up about 38% of the electorate in 2010, slightly up from 35% in 2008 (the rise was at Democrats’ expense). Independents favored Obama in 2008 by 54% to 46%; two years later they reversed and went 58%-42% Republican. If you do all the math, you’ll end up with about 4.5 million possible independent votes that switched columns from blue to red. Sobering, but not a game-changer. Put differently, if Obama won back all the independents next year that he lost in 2010, he still wouldn’t win. He needs to win back the Democrats who stayed home while Republicans were out voting.

Tea Party: Republican and Unpopular

Lots of ink lately about the unpopularity of the tea party among American voters, particularly independents, and discussion of the tea party's location as the right wing of the Repub Party:

TEA PARTY

• Study: Tea Party Is Least Popular Group (Pensito Review) Early on tea partiers were often described as non-partisan politic neophytes. Actually, the tea party’s supporters today were highly partisan Republicans long before the tea party was born. In fact, past Republican affiliation is the single strongest predictor of tea party support today. Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being tea party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics … They were disproportionately social conservatives in 2006…
• VIDEO Rachel Maddow with David E. Campbell

Open Primary Not Good for Tea Party

OPEN PRIMARY

• Congressional special election in LA brings big spending (Chase Davis, California Watch) The race, California’s first under the open primary system approved by voters last fall, has been marked by all the controversy of a ballot box nail-biter, even though Hahn holds the edge on paper.
• GOP mulls primary options - State's tea partiers pushing caucus instead (BY KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN-ASSOCIATED PRESS, Detroit Free Press) Dennis Moore, director of the Willow Run Tea Party Caucus in Ypsilanti, said he thinks a party convention or caucus gives tea partiers their best chance. "No open primary, because that's a bad deal for us," Moore said Wednesday.

OBAMA
Obama Will Win Independent Vote in 2012 (Jeremy Los, policymic "Next Generation News and Politics) In the end, independent voters are more than likely going to turn out in favor of Obama because many Americans believe he will have made positive strides fixing the economy. Independents’ tendency to follow what transpires on hot button issues will likely swing their vote in Obama’s favor if he is able to make some headway on the country’s economic turmoil. With no legitimate candidate rising from the GOP, independent voters will have to make the choice to either vote for Obama or not vote at all.

BUDGET

• Harry Reid, Henry Clay (By Brent Budowsky, The Hill) The president has never come to grips with the contradiction of trying to be a part-partisan president facing a hyper-partisan GOP. One solution would be to name America’s leading political independent and post-partisan officeholder, the financially brilliant and vastly respected Michael Bloomberg, as Treasury secretary if Timothy Geithner chooses to leave.
• Even the right is pissed at Republicans (By DOUG THOMPSON, Capitol Hill Blue "Because Nobody's Life, Liberty or Property is Safe While Congress is in Session or the White House is Occupied") Polls by CNN/Opinion Research and ABC/Washington Post say Americans are fed up with both parties and the overall behavior of Congress. 
• Time to compromise on debt ceiling (David Brooks, The Detroit News) If the debt ceiling talks fail, independent voters will see that Democrats were willing to compromise, but Republicans were not. If responsible Republicans don't take control, independents will conclude that fanaticism caused this default.
• The Only Reform That Will Restrain Spending -- All 47 Senate Republicans now support changing the Constitution to balance the federal budget. (By OLYMPIA SNOWE And JIM DEMINT, Wall Street Journal) If Congress increases our national debt ceiling next month without permanent, structural budget reforms, we will signal to taxpayers and bond markets alike that Washington is still in denial. Whatever agreement is reached, everyone will know that future Congresses are not obligated to follow it. As a result, the only way to compel lawmakers to maintain their responsibility forever is a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

UTAH
New BYU poll suggests tea party influence on the decline (By Lisa Riley Roche, Deseret News) The drop in support among voters who call themselves independent, independent Republicans and not-so-strong Republicans comes as tea party are targeting some elected officials for their support of a controversial immigration law… "What gives the tea party so much of its strength is our caucus system is biased toward the very active and the ideologically committed," Patterson said.

THE MIDDLE
CENTRIST ALLIANCE STAKES OUT A PLACE BETWEEN THE PARTISAN EXTREMES (by Damon Eris, CAIVN) On the issues, the Centrist Alliance is currently maintaining a relatively open platform emphasizing a strong national defense, immigration reform, a sensible and pragmatic foreign policy, energy independence and electoral reforms that would encourage civic participation and provide an equal place at the table for alternative parties and Independent voters.

Oscar the Grouch 2.0

In a Two-Party Bicycle Race, Independents Are Key

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Cartoons by ULIV founder Randy Miller "On a Bicycle Built for Two -- Parties" on The Hankster and Kevin Kreneck,Tribune Media Services, on Tim Rutten's "Snapshot of a split America" in LA Times

Tim Rutten: Snapshot of a split America (By Tim Rutten, LA Times)  A Pew survey shows that the most politically engaged Americans are now fundamentally opposed to compromise and split on virtually every issue. It's a landscape California has traversed for years.

More Massachusetts voters enroll as Independent (By David Riley, Patriot Ledger) Party leaders note that it’s easy for voters to stay unaligned in this state, which still allows them to vote in primary elections. But they acknowledge some voters today also seem to feel less bound by party loyalty. There’s disenfranchisement with the entire system, and political parties represent that system,” said Tim Buckley, communications manager for the Massachusetts Republican Party.


IT BEARS REPEATING

• The misunderstood independent (By Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza, Washington Post/The Fix) Just six years ago, only 30 percent of Americans identified as independents. Today, that number is 37 percent. And while growing so fast (and 7 percent in six years is fast), they are also diversifying very quickly.
• Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology (Pew Research Center) Yet at the same time, a growing number of Americans are choosing not to identify with either political party, and the center of the political spectrum is increasingly diverse. Rather than being moderate, many of these independents hold extremely strong ideological positions on issues such as the role of government, immigration, the environment and social issues. But they combine these views in ways that defy liberal or conservative orthodoxy.
•  FOR DETAILS OF THE SURVEY AND HISTORICAL VIEW, SEE ONLINE (This is a 13 page report) OR PDF VERSION
• Why the tea party won’t determine the 2012 GOP nominee (By Aaron Blake, Washington Post/The Fix) Particularly in states like New Hampshire and South Carolina – which have primaries that are open to independents and, in South Carolina’s case, all voters – there should be plenty of independents and even Democrats casting ballots in the GOP contest. Even in Iowa, voters can change their party registration on caucus day. Remember Operation Chaos? The Associated Press noted in a story this weekend that 42 percent of voters in New Hampshire are independents. In 2008, they voted much more in the Democratic presidential primary than the Republican one; this year, that is likely to change significantly, shifting the entire electorate in the GOP primary to the left significantly.

The Parties, The President and the Budget

THE PARTIES, THE PRESIDENT AND THE BUDGET

• GOP presidential field sees budget wars from afar (AP) In the absence of a Republican president or clear-cut party leader, a little-known congressman from Wisconsin seized the initiative. Backed by most House Republicans, Rep. Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, wrote a far-reaching spending plan that right away framed the debate on Capitol Hill.
• Budget deal foreshadows larger fight ahead - The last-minute resolution on 2011 was a victory for Republicans, and helped President Obama preserve his standing. But the wrangling offers little hope for an easy resolution to the next fight: lifting the U.S. debt ceiling. (By Paul West, Washington Bureau, LA Times)

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING
Gerrymandering Lawsuit Brings New Scrutiny To Governor’s Use Of Budget Extenders (City Hall News - New York) This most recent case pits the Department of Corrections and the Legislative Task Force on Redistricting, also known as LATFOR, against a number of prominent Senate Republicans. The defendants have until April 24 to answer the complaint. If the case goes to court and the ability to append non-budget related bills is taken away, the Legislature could regain some power from the governor, Lane said.

2010: The Year of the Open Primary

As 2010 draws to a close, open primaries remains front and center among political reform.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• ‘Candidate’ has a vision for Pennsylvania (John R. Ingram II, president and CEO of Ingram Real Estate Group, Allentown, Centre Daily Times/Focus o Harrisburg) CALLS FOR: The elimination of closed primaries in Pennsylvania, to be replaced with open primaries, where any registered voter would be allowed to vote for any candidate, whether Republican, Democrat or independent.
• Moving to the center (EDITORIAL Press Democrat - Sonoma County CA) These two changes — redistricting and the open primary system — offer the best hope in a long while that Californians will see Sacramento move more toward the center and toward progress. From that perspective, 2011 looks to be a promising year already.
• Party leaders out of step with voters (THE OLYMPIAN) The unanimous decision out of California is good news for Washington state voters, too, because it’s yet another legal decision on the right of voters to select the candidate of their choice regardless of party affiliation. 
• POLITICAL CHANGE IS COMING TO CALIFORNIA (by Greg Lucas, CAIVN) Both changes -- Proposition 14 in June and Proposition 20 in November -- were opposed by most incumbent politicians. Proposition 20 expanded the powers of an independent 14-person redistricting commission approved by voters in 2008 to include California's congressional delegation. Voters defeated a rival measure, Proposition 27, backed by the congressional delegation and incumbent state legislators which would have abolished the commission.
• Political reform/Looking back (By John Howard, EXCERPT Capitol Weekly) Big year for California political reform
• Open primaries could stymie tea party success (James Rufus Koren, San Bernardino Sun) Because of a change in how California's primary elections are conducted, candidates likely won't be able to win primary elections with so few votes, and tea party groups might not see any such victories in the future, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College.
• Top 2 primary system still standing (EDITORIAL Daily News - Lower Columbia WA) There's no mystery as to why party officials here and in California are so determined to scuttle or, failing that, change the Top 2 primary system. It's a system in which voters have the freedom to choose who they deem to be the best candidate, regardless of party affiliation.

REDISTRICTING

• CITIZENS REDISTRICTING COMMISSION REFLECTS GROWING INFLUENCE OF INDEPENDENTS IN CALIFORNIA (by Damon Eris, CAIVN) In his application for the Commission, M. Andre Parvenu of Culver City apparently first identified himself as a member of the Peace and Freedom Party but then sent a follow-up email stating that he is in fact a decline-to-state voter, not registered with a political party.

NO LABELS

• Brown: A time when "no labels" was a reality (By Fred Brown, The Denver Post) I can remember a time in the Colorado legislature when party labels really seemed not to matter so much. Legislators got elected and became more loyal to the legislature than they were to their parties. Party leaders were not often seen at the Capitol. Members of the Joint Budget Committee, in particular, became JBC members more than Republicans or Democrats.

2012

• Obama Can Win by Securing the Middle (Ronnie Shows-Former Congressman, Mississippi's 4th District, Huffington Post) The only way he can get back these independent voters that he won in 2008 is to adopt more centrist positions and reduce unemployment. If he cannot, the President will be vulnerable to a Republican challenger who will appeal to these independent voters by campaigning on conservative policies to end the current employment slump. To keep the White House, we need a President who appeals to moderate voters -- not just hope that Republicans nominate Sarah Palin.
• And the Tea Party's next target is ... Scott Brown?! (BY STEVE KORNACKI, Salon/The War Room) That said, if Brown is challenged, he should be boosted by the ability of independent voters to participate in Massachusetts primaries.

NEW YORK

• Regime change to put insiders out in the cold - State jobs to end for Pigeon, pals (By Robert J. McCarthy, Buffalo News) Pigeon was instrumental in the June 2009 coup that produced Senate gridlock for a month and eventually resulted in Espada becoming majority leader.

Weirdness, Independents and the Midterm Elections

MIDTERMS

• Weird Findings From 2010's Exit Poll Data (By Kevin Drum, Mother Jones) And then there are the "independents." The scare quotes are deliberate, because it's hard to know what to make of them. It's a big group and it shifted strongly Republican, which makes them an important factor in the election. But there's more to this.
• Youth Turnout About 20%, Comparable to Recent Midterm Years (Circle - Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Tufts University)
• Time for the Tin Man to Show Some Heart (John Zogby, Forbes/DATA PLACE) As this election showed again, this is not an ideological nation, and there is no such thing as a mandate election for left or right policies. The truly independent voters who decide elections care very little about whether policies or candidates are liberal or conservative.
• Tea Party Election Results Diluted in Highly Populated States (By Tom Moroney and Terrence Dopp, Bloomberg Businessweek)
• Avlon: Tea Party Lost the Senate (FRUMFORUM NEWS, John Avlon)
• In Washington, an Awkward Triangle of Power (By GERALD F. SEIB, Wall Street Journal) Overnight, the most important relationship in town is no longer between the president and his party's congressional leaders, but the uneasy triangle of Mr. Obama, Republican John Boehner, the likely new House Speaker, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
• Tuesday's results are open to (careful) interpretation (By Dan Balz, Washington Post) Independents didn't just defect from Democrats - they deserted them in droves. If there is one number from all the exit polls that leaps out, it is from Ohio, where independents went for Republican Rob Portman, who won the Senate race, by a staggering 39 percentage points. In the state's gubernatorial election, independents backed winner John Kasich by 16 points. Overall, independents voted Tuesday for Republicans by a margin of 18 points. Two years ago, Democrats won them by eight points.
• The Nation We Have, Not the Nation We Wish For (Mark Lilla, New York Review of Books blog) But there is still one powerful symbol the Democrats could capture because today’s Republicans explicitly reject it: fairness. “Life isn’t fair” is a refrain you hear constantly from the right. Yet there is a strong sense in the nation today that things are rigged, especially at the top of the economic ladder, and this has only intensified since the bailouts of early 2009. The unwillingness of the Obama administration to engage in economic populism in this intensely populist age, when skepticism of “Wall Street” just keeps rising, is utterly baffling to me. This is the one area where they could get a toehold, if not with the Tea Party hardcore then with the vast numbers of independents who sympathize with it and have floated back to the Republican Party because of it

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Stop coddling voters (Reno News & Review) There have been four changes in elections in the last few cycles that have undermined democracy in Nevada and created an unsustainable cycle of ignorant voters and legislators, and rich and connected candidates. The four changes were 1) term limits for some elected officials; 2) earlier primaries; 3) early voting, and 4) motor voter. There are other problems. For example, non-partisan, independent voters—the electorate that decides most elections in Nevada—are excluded from the primaries. Many states have open primaries that allow all registered voters to vote, which would allow every party to get better candidates, but that’s a topic for another editorial in about 18 months

NEW YORK

• Unions made the NY difference (By JERRY SKURNIK, NY Post) The unions were effective again. Avella was one of two Democrats to take a GOP Senate seat; the other was David Carlucci in Rockland County. UFT President Michael Mulgrew told me that hundreds of union members campaigned for both candidates, with members from Manhattan and The Bronx going to Rockland.
• NY Taxpayers Party Unlikely to Qualify for Ballot Line (Uncovered Politics blog)
• The other third party, on the left (By Azi Paybarah, WNYC/The Empire) …is the Green Party.
• Barron: 'They Were Afraid Of Us' (By David Freedlander, NY Observer/Politicker)

Book Review, Mad as Hell by Doug Schoen and Scott Rasmussen

Mad as Hell
How the Tea Party Movement is Fundamentally Remaking our Two-Party System

I was not impressed by this book initially. I started with an open mind thinking maybe the Tea Party movement is more mainstream, less ideological or effective than I thought according to the claims in the introduction of Mad as Hell. The first half of the book left me the impression they were trying to affirm the relevance of the Tea Party as means of selling books as if to say ‘See, you are mainstream. Our book says so. Now buy our book.’

It is worth noting that the editing prior to publishing was not done. The book is rife with spelling and grammatical errors as many reviews for Mad as Hell on Amazon.com will point out in detail. I can't help but wonder if this publication was just a get-rich-quick for-profit venture.

Granted the challenge to Rasmussen and Schoen is the rapidly changing dynamic of what the Tea Party movement is and who it is led by. Even since I started this review things have taken a turn with the Rand Paul campaign violence episode. Some old questions are now up in the air again: Who or what is the Tea Party? Who are the leaders? Is the Tea Party a bunch of racist hillbillies or a legitimate political force? Is the Tea Party grassroots or Astroturf? Pinning an accurate label on the Tea Party is probably not impossible. Just about anything one might say could stick with some truth and relevance. But being a groundswell movement, any labels subscribed to the Tea Party can only be transitory at best. Time will still have to tell what the movement will definitively stand for and more importantly accomplish long term.

From page 5 of the introduction of Mad as Hell: “It is not only America’s most vibrant political force “at the moment” to quote The Economist, but a movement that has unprecedented broad-based support, and the power to influence the 2010 and 2012 elections and, indeed, the future of American politics in ways that have been fundamentally misunderstood and not appreciated.”

From their own statistics later in the book on the demographics of Tea Party sympathizers: 80% are White, just 2% African-American. 68% are Protestant. Are we to conclude that White and Protestant is the new mainstream?
According to the University of Washington study on the subject (http://depts.washington.edu/uwiser/racepolitics.html) 45% of White Americans support the Tea Party movement. White support is evenly divided in enthusiasm: 23% strongly support, 22% somewhat support. White population (18 years old and older) from the 2000 Census is 205,158,752. Translation, nearly 1 in 3 Americans is a Tea Party supporter. One third is hardly a majority but still a substantial showing. Mad as Hell opens by asserting that the Tea Party movement can be classified as mainstream. I was skeptical of that assertion, but given these numbers it is safe to say that the Tea Party in general terms is in fact a mainstream movement.

Effectiveness

The effectiveness of the Tea Party can clearly be measured in the short term, but what about long term? The Obama administration has advanced a number of ideological agendas and the Tea Party is a largely dare I say ‘knee jerk’ ideological reaction. Neither persuasion addresses the issue of the necessity of systematic power to the people political reforms. Each side of this short term ideological skirmish is looking at the outcome of this skirmish as an ominous indicator of the future of this country. Although those concerns probably have some merit, where are the strategic thinkers looking beyond this relatively brief skirmish? And why or how did we wind up on opposite sides seemingly on grappling for control of our republic?

More insight into the Tea Party direction and affiliation with the GOP from Mad as Hell: “”the plurality of GOP voters (43%) say their party has been too moderate over the past eight years, and 55% think it should become more like Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the future.” These numbers reflect a party driven by a populist core increasingly uninterested in compromise.” (p.171) More like Sarah Palin? Uninterested in compromise? Let me know how that works out for ‘ya. I guess I draw a lot of my skepticism from the fact that factions uninterested in compromise usually have a limited lifecycle in this country or go to great lengths to maintain their control unconstitutionally and unethically (Jim Crow for example).

The Palin Factor

Perhaps my skepticism is related to the Palin factor. I just assumed that both conservatives and liberals know that more appeal is better than less when it comes to winning elections. Like, love or hate Palin, or somewhere in between, I thought it was pretty obvious that Sarah Palin only appealed to party loyalists and evidently white protestant GOP loyalists at that. Truth is, Sarah ‘Fox News’ Palin does not have wide appeal. And the Tea Party movement seems OK with these types of ideological purist arrangements. So, I guess I am skeptical why they think the inequality 33%<51% isn’t an impediment from the start. The best consensus builder (Obama) won in the 2008 Presidential election. He hasn’t done much for that consensus in the meantime, but the basic logic has not changed. I don’t know. Perhaps they are banking on continuing to manipulate the Electoral College and to gerrymander districts (something Karl Rove has unabashedly sworn to do) —another testament to how radically we need to reform the political process away from party manipulation and control. GOP 'tea party' gains in 2010 are from a different kind of establishment power assertion and manipulation of the system, not from a wider appeal and building coalitions of groups who disagree on some points. It appears to me to be a line in the sand when success depends on a successful sales pitch.

So, I started the book skeptical that the Tea Party movement could be considered truly ‘mainstream’. I’m much less skeptical now, but the definition of the Tea Party changes so much from day to day, that it will just be interesting to see what shakes out.

The Conclusion chapter of Mad as Hell was the best. The book would have held me better had I read the conclusion first. Still, if any chapter received any solid editing, I would think it would be the conclusion and the editing is noticeably absent. Perhaps coverage of such a mercurial subject as the Tea Party requires that you publish quickly to get out in front before the subject reinvents itself. I’ll give the authors that one, but I do wonder if there is a niche of sorts for a new style of relevant content much lengthier than a blog, not suited for published video content, but not worth publishing as a hard cover or even e-book as the content may not be relevant in six weeks.

About the author: Randy Miller is an independent in Utah, founder of the Utah League of independent Voters and an independent candidate for County Surveyor in Davis County Utah.

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

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Trial About to Begin in Idaho Republican Party Lawsuit to Create a Closed Republican Primary (Ballot Access News)

THIRD PARTY

• Cokie and Steve Roberts: Voter discontent could result in a third party (Muskegon Chronicle - MI) Will a third party emerge and play a major role in the elections of 2012? History says the answer is no, and that’s probably a good thing. 

BLOOMBERG

• NYC mayor to campaign for redistricting in Fla. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Miami Herald)

TEA PARTY

• Poll examines Tea Party faith values - Nearly Half of Tea Party Movement also identify with Christian Conservative Movement (By Public Religion Research Institute) They are largely Republican partisans. More than three-quarters say they identify with (48%) or lean towards (28%) the Republican Party. More than 8-in-10 (83%) say they are voting for or leaning towards Republican candidates in their districts, and nearly three-quarters (74%) of this group report usually supporting Republican candidates.
• Tea party convention hears congressional hopefuls (By TYLER WHITLEY, Richmond TIMES-DISPATCH) Asked at the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Convention whom he would support for Speaker of the House, Golden answered "Ron Paul."

FLORIDA

• Q Poll Shows a Dead Heat in Governor's Race; Independents Shift? (Sunshine State News/KENRIC WARD'S BLOG) Independent voters appear to be shifting the race. Independents, who backed Scott 46-40 at the start of the month, now support Sink 51-34.
•  QUINNIPIAC POLL
• Wild swings in Florida gov. race (By: CNN's Jeff Simon)

CALIFORNIA

• Maldonado, Bowen should keep jobs (BY San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL BOARD) Maldonado is highly unconventional by California political standards, a Republican willing to buck the GOP establishment and work with moderates and across party lines.

COLORADO

• 527 equals sleaze (LETTER The Aspen Times) One canvasser came to my door and told me — incorrectly — that I might as well vote for Wilson because there is no way independent candidate Kathleen Curry, who is running for re-election as our House District 61 state representative, can win as a write-in candidate.
• In fact, as a widely respected legislator and the only candidate in the race with actual elected experience, Kathleen is clearly the leading contender.
• Curry sees tough fight for the election (by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Daily News) Curry was a democrat until dis-affiliating in December, citing frustration with the increasing bitterness of the two-party system. She is attempting to do what many political observers say is impossible: Win as a write-in candidate.
• Curry's dedication should earn votes (LETTER Glenwood Springs CO Post Independent) I encourage other citizens of the Roaring Fork Valley in joining me in demonstrating our support for rational centrist policies by writing-in Kathleen Curry for State Representative. Let's lead Colorado in making this election day Independent's Day as a rejection of political extremism and partisan gridlock!
• Korkowski sticks to conservative principles (by Curtis Wackerle, Aspen Daily News) “It didn’t look like there was a solid conservative candidate in the race ... so I decided to do it,” said Korkowski, who is in a three-way race to represent House District 61 with democrat Roger Wilson of Missouri Heights and unaffiliated candidate Kathleen Curry of Gunnison.

FLORIDA

• Meet Charlie Crist's unconventional U.S. Senate campaign team (By Adam C. Smith, Times Political Editor, St. Petersburg Times)

MAINE

• Race for Maine Governor 2010: Who the candidates are, and what they stand for (By Steve Mistler, Lewiston Sun Journal) Maine voters this November will have five distinct options for governor, along with five declared write-in candidates.

SOUTH DAKOTA

• Other View: Shutting out independent voters sends bad message - Every vote counts. That phrase is tossed about whenever an election is so close, a single vote can determine the outcome. It rarely happens, but that doesn’t diminish the value of each vote cast in every election. (Mitchell Daily Republic)

NEW YORK

• New York’s Debate Gap (NY Times) Mr. Paladino’s insistence that any debates include the minor candidates, and that excluding the African-American and female candidates would be unfair, has given the front-running Mr. Cuomo cover to avoid a two-candidate debate.
• Poll: 58 % of Voters Say a 3rd Political Party is Needed (Reported by: Jane Flasch, WHAM Channel 13 ABC Rochester) Barron is a New York City Councilman.  He broke with the Democratic Party over Andrew Cuomo’s choice of Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy for a running mate. “The Democratic Party has taken us for granted,” he said in announcing his run.  “The Republican Party has ignored us.”  Barron is seeking 50 thousand votes to make his “all Black” Freedom Party a recognized party on the state ballot.
• Avella lands teachers union nod (BY LISA L. COLANGELO, NY Daily News) RECENT POLLS may show former Councilman and Democratic state Senate candidate Tony Avella lagging behind Republican incumbent Frank Padavan. But last week, Avella unveiled an endorsement he thinks is key to winning in the Democratic-leaning 10th Senate District.
• AG candidate Dan Donovan believes opponent Eric Schiderman is part of the problem in Albany (Tom Wrobleski, SI Advance)
• New Yorkers’ Anger at Politicians Doesn’t Fuel a Surge in Voter Registration (By SAM ROBERTS, NY Times) Despite professed outrage over dysfunctional politicians, few unregistered New Yorkers have been motivated enough to register to vote in November, according to election officials.
• Dan Donovan Clears Independence Party Chief In Loan Probe (BY CELESTE KATZ
• Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Real Estate Flexes Muscle - Industry Backing Both Democrats and Republicans in Aggressive Campaign Push (By ELIOT BROWN, Wall Street Journal)
• Freedom Party event launches election campaign (By Dee Knight, Bronx, N.Y., Workers World) An exciting event launched the Freedom Party campaign on Oct. 3 at the Church of the Resurrection, which also serves as home to the South Bronx Community Congress. Charles Barron and Ramon Jimenez, candidates for governor and attorney general, respectively, both spoke eloquently about the emerging Black and Latino/a alliance that sees well beyond the Nov. 2 elections to a new “people’s power bloc” that can genuinely fight for and protect the interests of working people in the city and state of New York.
• 'General' mayhem - AG debate bares 'party' animals (By BRENDAN SCOTT NY Post Correspondent) The Rev. Al Sharpton, Pedro Espada Jr. and Carl Paladino unexpectedly took center stage in yesterday's testy attorney-general debate, as both candidates sought to force the other to carry his party's baggage.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 9/2/10

NYC NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS

• The case of the missing data (Crain's New York) Fiala: “As sad as it is that the data was not provided to the research analyst, the report wouldn't have made a difference,” he says. “The majority of these commissioners did not want to take this up.”

TEA PARTY

• Is the tea party becoming the new Grand Old Party? (By LIZ SIDOTI (AP) Some Democrats privately worry that the party risks alienating important numbers of independent voters who already are trending toward the GOP, identifying with the tea party's disgust with what it calls out-of-control spending and the growth of government under President Barack Obama.

COLORADO

• 10th Circuit Upholds Colorado Ballot Access Restriction, Even Though the Legislature has Already Repealed That Restriction Effective in 2011 (Ballot Access News)

PENNSYLVANIA

• ACLU appeals ballot ruling on Pa. House candidate - Carl Stevenson, an Independent, was seeking to challenge Doug Reichley in the 134th District. (THE MORNING CALL) "Requiring petition circulators to be residents of the election district is a serious burden on independent and minor party candidates' ability to gather the signatures necessary to get on the ballot, and there is no good reason for the requirement," Walczak, who is representing Stevenson, said in a news release.

FLORIDA

• The Role of Independent Voters (by Andy Corty, Florida Trend) But today, this other group has grown to more than 22% of the electorate, which means that 2.5 million of Florida’s 11 million voters don’t affiliate with either major party. Those 2.5 million voters are disenfranchised from our closed primaries so don’t play a role in selecting major party candidates. With these moderate citizens on the sidelines, the major parties tend to gravitate left or right to appease their hard-core voters. - Quotes John Avlon
• Florida Governor's race shake-up (WINK News - CBS) Indy candidate Chiles drops out of gov race
• Alternative political parties hold some sway in Florida (By Scott Powers, ORLANDO SENTINEL) If they voted as a bloc, Florida's third-party members could have a decisive impact on close races throughout the state, including some in Central Florida.
• Dude, you're not getting my Bud Chiles vote (By John A. Tures, Associate Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College, Southern Political Report) Democrats think the Chiles move will help them.  The governor’s mansion is in Republican hands (Crist) and Chiles will no longer split the vote among those dissatisfied with the politics of Tallahassee.

NEW YORK

• Bloomy: Only 'total incapacitation' or death would end term early (Maggie Haberman, Politico)
• Bloomberg, Shermanesque (Ben Smith, Politico)

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• Speak Out On The NYC Charter! (BY CELESTE KATZ, NY Daily News/Daily politics)

Happy Independence Day 2010!

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Rougher Road for Democrats Without Obama Atop Ticket (By JEFF ZELENY, NY Times) If Republicans are to win control of the House, party leaders are relying on candidates like Mr. Chabot to whittle away the 39-seat Democratic majority. Their strategy is rooted in the belief that the Republican base is significantly more energized than it was two years ago, particularly because of the influence of Tea Party activists and at least a share of independent voters who have soured on the leadership of Democrats.
• Tea partiers ascend in many states - With help from Palin and Tea Party Express, anti-government rhetoricians threaten incumbents (BY MICHAEL R. BLOOD, ASSOCIATED PRESS, Salon)
• The Unsung (And Unintended) Genius Of GOP Class Clown Michael Steele (by Frances Martel, MediaITE)
• Senator Feingold continues to oppose financial reform bill as too weak (Boston Business Commentary Examiner, Wagner Rios) Liberal and independent voters in Massachusetts disgusted with Obama's betrayal of campaign promises abstained from voting in the special election to replace Ted Kennedy and send the wrong person to Washington.
• Cook’s Polling Predictions for “Hurricane GOP” and the Dreaded Enthusiasm Gap (By Elise, Blue Wave News)
• Tea Party candidates, Joe Miller, Clint Didier, Jane Norton try to knock off Republicans across U.S. (BY ALIYAH SHAHID, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER) The real challenge of the Tea Party candidates is if they can garner enough support from moderate and independent voters to win in November. 
• Americans say Obama's 'change' makes nation worse (By Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily) 
• The (Opposite) Tea Party Effect, Pt. 2 (By Josh Feit, PubliCola - Seattle's News Elixer)
• Surprise, surprise: Tea Partyers are Republicans (EJ Dionne, Washington Post/Post Partisan) For some months now, I have been battling against the idea that the Tea Party movement is some brand-new thing in American politics, an independent movement akin to the rebellion led by Ross Perot in the 1990s. Tea Party people, I have been arguing, are simply right-wing Republicans organized under a new banner.
• Tea Party Supporters Overlap Republican Base -  Eight out of 10 Tea Party supporters are Republicans (by Frank Newport, Gallup)
• Democrats shaping battle plan against Republicans for November (By Dan Balz, Washington Post Staff Writer ) Obama's strategists have been analyzing the state of the electorate and have concluded that the path for Democrats is treacherous but that there is room for improvement before November. They must woo back some independent voters who have defected since 2008 while boosting turnout beyond historical patterns for midterm elections among the millions of new or irregular voters who were energized by Obama's campaign.
• Voting Intentions Even, Turnout Indicators Favor GOP (Pew Research) More than half of independent voters (55%) who back the Republican candidate in their district are more enthusiastic than usual about voting this year; that compares with 36% of independents who prefer the Democratic candidate. While 63% of independent voters who favor the GOP candidate are closely following news about the election, just 48% of independents who support the Democratic candidate say the same. And 77% of independent voters who support a Republican say they are absolutely certain to vote, compared with 62% of independents who back Democrat.
• Zogby finds most Indys want new president, Gallup data also points to dissatisfaction with Obama (By: Mark Tapscott, Editorial Page Editor, Washington Examiner)
• Independents move toward Republicans, away from Obama (Chris Cillizza, Washington Post/The Fix)
• Marist poll: Half of voters say Obama a disappointment (Poughkeepsie Journal) While there has been little change among Democrats and Republicans, dissatisfaction has grown among independent voters. Nearly six in ten — 58 percent — say Obama has disappointed them, and 34 percent view the president as meeting their expectations or going above them and 8 percent are unsure.
• The Grand Old Unaffiliated (News Observer NC)
• Is the Democratic Majority Still Emerging or Slipping Away? (Ari Berman, The Nation) Yet that theory was once again challenged in 2009 and early 2010, as Republicans won major gubenatorial and Senate elections in three states—Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts—that Obama won handily. In these elections, Obama’s “coalition of the ascendant” either failed to turn out in sufficient numbers or key blocs, like independent voters and younger professionals, defected to the GOP. 

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Open primaries worth exploring (LETTER NorthJersey.com) 
• Guest Post: Fix America? Fix the Politicians (Submitted by Dylan Ratigan, Investing contrarian)
• GOP loyalty oath draws some Idaho lawmakers' ire (By John Miller, Associated Press, Rochester ID Post Bulliten) BOISE, Idaho — Some Republican lawmakers won't pledge loyalty to Idaho's new state party platform, despite a candidate disclosure measure approved at the 2010 state convention last weekend asking them to do so.
• Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty II (By JOHN EYSTER, Janesville Gazette Extre - OH)
• Oregon’s Older Voters Rule: Phil Keisling’s Take on the May Primary Turnout  (Willamette Week)
• Open the primaries to unaffiliated (By Paul Choiniere, LETTER TheDay.com)

GOV/ STATE/ MIDTERM RACES

• Outreach to Democrats gives Charlie Crist a balancing act (BY ADAM SMITH, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES, Miami Herald) Crist is counting on overwhelming support from independent voters and strong support from Democrats, but also he can't afford to alienate too many Republicans. Independents are expected to make up no more than 15 percent of the electorate, after all, while Republicans consistently have the strongest turnout in nonpresidential election years.

INDEPENDENT PARTIES

• MD: Independent party no longer qualified for party status - Voters are given two weeks to change affiliation to a recognized political party or to specify a party (By DON AINES, The Herald Mail - MD)

NEW YORK

• Kennedy gets Independence Party nod (By Robert J. McCarthy, Buffalo News)

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• Navigating Independence From Bloomberg, Goodman And Staff Shape Charter Revision (By Chris Bragg, City Hall News)
• Watchdog Says Save Public Advocate, Beeps - The Citizen Union's recommendations to the city's charter revision commission go well beyond the good-government group's reversal on nonpartisan elections. (By Jarrett Murphy, City Hall News)
• Report Says City Elections Should Be Nonpartisan (By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ, NY Times)

Tiresome Two-Party System, Open Primaries and Unholy Alliances

Our two-party system creates a point-counterpoint tiresome spin cycle, says Bonnie Erbe on the Thomas Jefferson Street blog. She likes multi-party democracy but doesn't see any quick path to that result. Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-York, with support from Pennsylvania Independents, has introduced an open primary bill into the PA legislature. Some conservative anti-Proposition 14 California Repubs think the multi-party opposition to the Prop 14 open primary initiative is an "unholy alliance". Maybe these forces think ANY alliance is unholy by definition? You might notice that The Hankster occasionally covers the Tea Party, but hardly ever the Coffee Party. The reason for that is that The Hankster covers the media that covers the independent movement and the MSM associates independents with the conservative Tea Party movement, but not the Coffee Party. However, I've got my eye out for welcome signs from the progressive Coffee Party to independents.... Meanwhile, some gays want a separate nation-state.


INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Can Voters Change the Two-Party, Democrat-Republican System? (Bonnie Erbe, US News & World Report/Thomas Jefferson Street blog)
• Voters in Yuma County feeling independent too (BY TERRY ROSS - NEWS AND INFORMATION CENTER DIRECTOR, Yuma Sun - AZ)

OPEN PRIMARIES

• PA: 1 million voters left out in primary (By Brad Bumsted, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW) "We pay taxes, and we can't participate," said Stephen Bouikidis, a software company executive from Jenkintown in Montgomery County, who is a founder of Independent Pennsylvanians, a group advocating open primaries. "This is the biggest issue for us. We're locked out of the system."
• PA: Editorial: Pennsylvania primaries should be opened (Chambersburg PA Public Opinion Online)
• FL: Reform the primaries and untie our hands (Mary Ann Lindley, Editorial Page Editor, Tallahassee Democrat) To vote for whom you like in this state, you have to be more cunning than party organizations that hold more power than any individual candidate, that hold the purse strings, that call the shots and that are so good at this manipulation that politics has become more like the NFL than representative government. Too many voters are left sitting on the bench.
• OH: Officials talk directive (By MIKE BURKHOLDER, Managing Editor, The Evening Leader - OH) "Failure to enforce the challenge statutes essentially changes the nature of the primary into an unconstitutional open primary," Ortega said.

PROP 14

• Open primaries, better government (Daily Breeze - LA) The unlikely bipartisan coalition of opponents to Proposition 14, the "top-two" open primary initiative on the June 8 ballot, tells us a lot about who's worried about their power.
• Reader Rebuttal: Jeannie English: Proposition 14 (By JEANNINE ENGLISH, President, AARP California, Co-Chair of Californians for an Open Primary, OC Register)
• LOCAL VIEW: Prop. 14 will shutter political process (North County Times) Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Prop. 14 would, in fact, abrogate primaries and replace them with two general elections, causing the effective disappearance of all minor parties from the November election. No surprise, then, that an unholy alliance of the California Democratic and Republican parties, the Libertarian Party and the ACLU all forcefully oppose it.
• The Buzz: More than 650 candidates running in June 8 primary (Sac Bee)

TEA PARTY

• State GOP doing aggressive outreach with Tea Party movement (by Betsy Sundquist, Politics In Minnesota blog)

LAST WORD

• Graham Elected President of FIGS, International Gay Independence Party Grows; Launching Int’l Gay News Network Part of Platform (Street Insider PRESS RELEASE) Members are known to one another as “Figgies” and advocate for a politically autonomous Gay Nation-State and stress their demands for Gay independence.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS - Health Care Reform, Open Primaries

Health Care Reform fallout -- it's about the independents. Arizona Repubs: Independents need not apply. California Proposition 14 open primary initiative has 56% approval to 27% opposition. Only 5% of Tea Party activists consider themselves independent. NY Times commentator Thomas Friedman supports ranked voting. ACORN reorganizes operations. Kinston NC struggles for nonpartisan elections. Kathleen Curry and Joelle Riddle shake up Colorado politics. NYC Charter Revision Commission gets underway. NY State Sen. Pedro Espada stumps for farm workers.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• CA: The Voters That Might Sway Elections (Posted By John Myers, KQED/Capital Notes) When asked about hypothetical matchups between each of the three Republicans and the incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer, the feelings of another subgroup of voters are worth noting: independents, the single fastest growing group of voters in the state.
• Obama and GOP battle for independent voters (By: JULIE MASON, Washington Examiner White House Correspondent)

OPEN PRIMARIES

• AZ State GOP Considers Blocking Independents (Peter Busch, KPHO Phoenix)

PROP 14

• California voters angry, irritated, pessimistic says new survey  (Central Valley Business Times)
• Look out, incumbents! (JOHN MARELIUS, San Diego Union Tribune)
• MAJORITY FAVOR PROPOSITION 14 (Full report from PPIC 3/24 Survey)
• California Green Party Creates Anti-Prop. 14 Leaflet (Ballot Access News)

TEA PARTY

• Poll: Tea Party Is The Home Of The Angry White Woman (Evan McMorris-Santoro, TPMDC Talking Points Memo)
• March 24, 2010 - Tea Party Could Hurt GOP In Congressional Races, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Dems Trail 2-Way Races, But Win If Tea Party Runs (Quinnipiac) 5 percent are solidly independent
• A Tea Party Without Nuts (By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NY Times) But I’ve come to realize that none of these innovations will emerge at scale until we get the most important innovation of all — political innovation that will empower independents and centrists, which describes a lot of the country. Radical center, ranked voting, nonpartisan redistricting...
• 'Tea party' activists happier with the GOP (By Kathleen Hennessey, LA Times)

ACORN

• ACORN Closing Its Doors, Chapters Might Re-Emerge (By Kate Rogers, Nonprofit Times)
• ACORN to formally disband (Reuters)

NORTH CAROLINA

• Independent voter growth showing its muscle (By Charles Deal | Special to the Hickory Record)
• Doug Clark: The feds could find business here, too (By DOUG CLARK, Greensboro News Record) Of course, most North Carolina cities and towns hold nonpartisan elections. Greensboro does. Is that a violation of civil rights? Could last November's defeat of Yvonne Johnson, Greensboro's first black mayor, be blamed on nonpartisan voting? If she'd been identified on the ballot as a Democrat, and Bill Knight as a Republican, would more voters have figured out they were supposed to vote for her? Please, let's not ask the Justice Department to answer that.

COLORADO

• Democrats still mad at Curry (Scott Condon, The Aspen Times)
• Rep. Curry Says She’s At Peace With Her Decision To Switch Parties (State Bill Colorado)
• Neither party is worthy of support (LETTER Post Independent)

NEW YORK

• Dozen Council Members Form a Bloc for Liberals (By DAVID W. CHEN, NY Times)
• Poll: No Fourth Term For Bloomberg (By Azi Paybarah, NY Observer)
• Cracks Bedevil Bloomberg’s Driveway (By NEW YORK TIMES/City Room) Sometimes, those recommendations are passed. Other times, they fall short, as was the case in 2003, when voters rejected Mr. Bloomberg’s dream of holding nonpartisan elections.
• Amigos Grown Up, But Not Gone (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Espada wants farm workers vote, just like same-sex marriage (by Jimmy Vielkind, Albany Times Union/Capitol Confidential)

Tea Party, Coffee Party -- Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Things have come to a pretty pass
Our romance is growing flat,
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that,
Goodness knows what the end will be
Oh I don't know where I'm at
It looks as if we two will never be one
Something must be done
 (from Let's Call the Whole Thing Off by George & Ira Gershwin)


If the Tea Party is a conservative element seeking to pull the Repubs (more) to the right, what's your guess as to the role the Coffee Party wants to play? Is it MoveOn in disguise? Maybe.... Whatever it is, the notion of rallying people around an agenda of civil discourse makes me a little wary, not because I think screaming and yelling is a productive mode of social dialogue, but because it seems to me it's more like using a silver spoon where a backhoe would do just as well. Is it really ok to destroy the country with a smile on your face and a "so sorry" on your lips?

And isn't this the basis of the independent movement in the first place? We need innovative solutions to very serious problems we're facing, and those solutions are not coming from the two major parties, no matter how polite or nasty they might be. You can't turn a corrupt partisan special-interest driven political culture into something it's not, no matter how carefully you chose your words. That's why 40% of the American people are independent. Politely or rowdily, we're leaving. Here's to an irreverent independent movement for all voices who want to help move the country forward.
-NH

• Tea Party Avoids Divisive Social Issues (By KATE ZERNIKE, NY Times)
• Move over tea party, here comes coffee (By BRIAN MCNEILL, Charlottesville VA Daily Progress) “The tea party is fine, except they’re kind of radical about stuff,” Dick Wilz, a Louisa resident, said at the Barracks Road Shopping Center coffee shop. “This is about civility.”
• Coffee Party; grass roots movement brewing nationwide (KTNV Las Vegas) "Their agenda is to restore respect, accessibility and civility to the process. It's not demean or put fear," said Sandra Myer, a Coffee Party follower.
• Coffee or tea? Naples group holds first meeting for political dialogue (By CATHERINE HOWDEN, Naples News) In addition to his involvement with the Coffee Party, Burkett plans to run for the U.S. Senate this year as a “strategic” Democrat who describes himself as a “conservative independent hawk.”
• 'Coffee party' movement: Not far from the 'tea party' message? - The coffee party movement held its political kickoff Saturday at 370 locations across the US. At one Georgia meeting, the message didn't seem that different from the rival 'tea party' message. (By Patrik Jonsson, Christian Science Monitor) While asserting to be independent, coffee party activists tend to back President Obama and want “obstructionists” in Congress and the media to get out of his way. To attendees like Mr. Landers, the tea party, though demanding a return to American representative ideals, seems co-opted by social conservatives such as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and even Ralph Reed (though tea-partyers see themselves as stressing fiscal and size-of-government issues).  NOTE: Salit's Opinion: Tea party activists: Don't confuse them with independents is linked as a related article here
• Sacramentans plan political 'coffee party' (By Anna Tong, Sac Bee) Castro, a registered independent voter, said he will encourage people at today's gathering to discuss politics in a respectful manner. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to mobilize like the tea party has. "I would like to see us develop a platform based on issues and not on any agenda that would be categorized as left or right," Castro said. "I would also like to see us possibly support candidates."

California Proposition 14 Ballot Wording Decision Expected Today

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Allen Sumner is expected to rule today on the ballot language for Prop 14.

The California School Employees Association has sued the Secretary of State (presumably on behalf of the California State Legislature) to change the ballot wording:

From California Independent Voter Network:

The lawsuit would alter the way the initiative is presented to voters:

The original language approved by the legislature last year:

     Elections. Primaries. Greater Participation in Elections.

     Reforms the primary election process for congressional, statewide and legislative races. Allows all voters to choose any candidate regardless of the candidate’s or voter’s political party preference. Ensures that the two candidates receiving the greatest number of votes will appear on the general election ballot regardless of party preference.

The CSEA’s proposed language:

     Changes primary election process. Changes primary election procedures for congressional, legislative and statewide races. Allows all voters to choose any candidate regardless of the candidate’s or voter’s political party preference. Does not require candidates to disclose their registered political party preference. Eliminates political parties’ rights to be on the general election ballot. Ensures that only the two candidates receiving the greatest number of votes will appear on the general election ballot regardless of their registered political party preference. Does not change primary election for President, party committee officers, and nonpartisan offices.

Keep reading below...

PROP 14

• Leading Independent Attorney Speaks on the Legal Fight over Ballot Wording For Proposition 14 (independentvoting.org)
• Open Primaries in California: The Future of Proposition 14 (Rose Report, Claremont McKenna College)
• Prop 14 Lawsuit: People-1, Politicians-0 (By Jeannine English, President of AARP California and Co-Chair of Californians for an Open Primary, Fox & Hounds Daily)
• EDITORIAL: Mad as hatters in state Capitol (Freso Bee)
• Open-primary ballot measure faces legal challenge (The Associated Press, Mercury News)
• Finally, a California Newspaper Story Mentions that Prop. 14 Would Increase Legal Requirements for Parties to be Recognized (Ballot Access News)
• Christina Tobin, Libertarian for CA Secretary of State, announces schedule and opposes Prop 14 (Independent Political Report blog)
• California’s Prop 14: Power to the People — or to the Party Bosses? (The Moderate Voice)
• Green Party Endorses Only 1 June Ballot Measure; Slams Prop. 14 (News Blaze)
• CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE TRIES TO BACKHAND VOTERS BY SUING THEMSELVES (by Chad Peace, CAIVN)

TEA PARTY - COFFEE PARTY

• The “Coffee Party” Is Brewing For America for March 13 “National Coffee Party Day” (Paul Silver, The Moderate Voice)
• Meet the people who are percolating in the Coffee Party (Jessica Ravitz, CNN)
• Circling the Wagons: The Tea Party Has Liberals on the Run, or Does It? (Politics Daily)
• How tea party politics might play out in Minnesota (by Mark Zdechlik, Minnesota Public Radio)

NEW YORK

• Albany Is At Stake: - Queens Special Election To Define Balance Of Power In State Senate (By DOMENICK RAFTER, Queens Tribune)
• Term Limits, City Law Focus Of Charter Panel (By DOMENICK RAFTER, Queens Tribune)
• Charter panel has two from Queens (BY PETE DAVIS, Queens Courier)

Independent Voters -- Room to Grow in Partisan Gridlocked National Political Scene

Why won't Jerry Brown take a stand on Prop 14? How many independent candidates are running for governor this year? Is the Tea Party independent or just a socially conservative movement to take over the Repubs? Who is Joelle Riddle and why do the Dems hate her? Are you going to Tyra Cohen's meeting this week? Who's behind the fall of the Harlem Dems?

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Judge tosses city's system of partisan elections (Rhonda Bodfield, Arizona Daily Star)
• Our View: Chaos, moderation and open primaries (Pasadena Star News) Our favorite reason so far to vote Yes on 14 is the assertion it would create a California Legislature and congressional delegation with far more moderates than we see elected today.
• Letter: Term limits only empower the unelected (Vero Beach Press Journal)
• Response to "Open Primary" (BY JEFF MARSTON, San Diego News Room Commentary)
• Reform movement fumbles but believers still chase governance changes (By Lisa Vorderbrueggen, Contra Costa Times)
• California Union Official Files Lawsuit to Alter Ballot Description of “Top-Two Open Primary” (Ballot Access News)
• Jerry Brown: 'I have a sympathy for the underdog' (Sac Bee/Capitol Alert) Brown refused to take stands on Proposition 14, which would allow a form of open primary...

GOV RACES

• Online Extra: Former NFL Player Set for Grassroots Gubernatorial Run - Morgan Bruce Reeves Gathered 10,000 Signatures Statewide (BY COREY HUTCHINS, Columbia Free Times)

TEA PARTY

• Understanding the Tea Party movement (Jim Crawford, Ironton Tribune) The movement is, unashamedly, the far right collection of the uneducated of the Republican Party. The Tea Party folks would have us see them as independent voters seeking core principles of democracy. They are not.

COLORADO

• County tackles the tough issues-Commissioners are no strangers to the more controversial projects (by Katie Burford, Durango Herald)
• Riddle's lawsuit need not cost county (by Bill Zimsky, Durango Herald)
• Unaffiliated Candidate Peter Ericson Trying To Buck Odds In HD-44 (Peter Douglas Ericson, STATE BILL COLORADO)

MASSACHUSETTS

• State recognizes Independent Party (By Steve Adams, Enterprise News)

NORTH CAROLINA

• Kinston Independents gather-Local residents meet with Tyra Cohen of N.C. Independents 4 Change (David Anderson, ENC Today)
• Kinston independents hosting meetings - Cohen, founder of N.C. Independents 4 Change, keynote speaker for Saturday and Sunday events (David Anderson, ENC Today)

NEW YORK

• The fall of the Harlem Clubhouse (The Economist)
• Rep. Eric Massa to resign his office Monday (Brian Tumulty, Democrat & Chronicle)
• Ford Theater: The crazy logic of an outsider/insider carpetbagger candidacy. (By Michael Crowley, NY Mag/Intelligencer)
• Bloomberg supporters Christine Quinn, Helen Marshall oppose plan to retool Charter (ADAM LISBERG, Ny Daily News)
• Bloomberg-Appointed Panel To Revise City Charter (Gothamist)
• Quinn Criticizes Charter Revision Commission Process (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Charter Review Commission Not a Slam-Dunk (By Azi Paybarah, NY Observer)