TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OPEN PRIMARIES
WA: Parties should work within framework of Top 2 primary (The Daily News editorial) State political party leaders have been battling in court ever since. They claim they are being denied their right to choose who represents the party. But that obscures the core issue here, which is who owns the primary process, the parties or the people.
LA: State to probe blocked ballots-Some couldn't vote in 2nd District race (Times Picayune) Secretary of State Jay Dardenne said he is trying to determine how many independents were wrongly barred from voting in the 2nd Congressional District primary Saturday before he certifies the results.

CAMPAIGN
Independent Voters Move Toward Obama (Wall Street Journal)

THIRD PARTIES

• Third parties: less than the sum of their parts (Iowa Independent) REG: Right. You’re in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the Judean People’s Front....
• The Race for 3rd Place (Taki's Magazine) In recent years, there has been little room for serious third-party challenges on the right. The two most successful—George Wallace in 1968 and Ross Perot in 1992—were difficult to classify ideologically and did not appeal exclusively to conservatives.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Voters Want Barr, Nader in Debates (Examiner) Among independent voters, 69% favored Barr's inclusion in the debates. 59% favor having Nader in debate...
• Independents are loving 2008 (John Laird, The Columbian)

REFORM

• Lights out for parties? Tuesday’s top two primary could signal a new political era for Washington state (The Columbian) “Parties have no constitutional right to be part of the primary system,” says former Oregon Secretary of State Phil Keisling
• Washington voters offer preview to Oregon’s Measure 65 (The Register-Guard) Joseph Cornwell, vice chairman of the Libertarian Party of Oregon, said his counterparts in Washington oppose the new format because it makes it harder for third parties to access the general election ballot. “It’s not exciting,” he said. “It’s basically taking a choice away from the voters by pushing out any of the smaller parties.”

CAMPAIGN

• NORTH CAROLINA: Obama Backers Mobilize in Bid to Wrest State From Republican Grip (New York Times) Democratic registration in the state is soaring, with 45,000 new registrants since May, and 7,000 new Republicans. About 44,000 have registered as unaffiliated.
• Colorado crucial in presidential race (Vail Daily) Republicans have a slight edge over Democrats in this university town of 130,000, 32 percent to 30 percent. But the dominant voting bloc are the unaffiliated voters with 38 percent.

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS: No challenge to Tennessee open primary

• Memo outlined two courses for Davis to contest primary vote (Kingsport Times News)
• Davis Concedes Primary to Roe (Bristol Herald Courier) Tennessee Republican Party officials voiced relief that Davis decided against a messy squabble over state election law.
• Davis concedes, says delay designed to point out that Roe won with 'illegal votes' (Kingsport Times News)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

REFORM: Washington 'Top Two' Primary will be "tested" Tuesday

• Major parties' unhappiness with blanket primary led to top 2 (Seattle Post Intelligencer)
• Washington plays Top 2 Primary roulette-Tuesday vote - Two candidates in each race, regardless of party, will move to November (The Oregonian)
• Voters will cast ballots in unloved 'top 2' primary (Seattle Post Intelligencer) "The biggest impact is going to be the continued ambiguity over the role of the party in determining who their candidate is," Democratic campaign consultant Christian Sinderman said.

CAMPAIGN

• Presidential Race a Tossup as Obama Lead Slips, Pew Poll Says (Bloomberg News) The candidates are in a dead heat among independent voters - - one-third of the electorate -- with 12 percent favoring Obama, 11 percent backing McCain and 10 percent undecided, according to the poll.
• Obama maintains slim lead in Pa. (Morning Call/Pennsylvania Ave. Blog) Obama has a 49 percent to 27 percent lead among self-described independent voters, but garners only 68 percent of the vote among registered Democrats.

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS: Voters say 'sour grapes' fueling losing candidate's attack on open primary in Tennessee

• Davis Maintains Democrats Interfered With GOP Primary (Bristol Herald Courier)
• Davis Needs To Accept Loss (By Bristol Herald Courier Editorial Board) under Davis’ scenario, independents would have to align themselves with one of the two parties and vote accordingly. That’s not very democratic (little d).
• Two election losers challenge crossover voting (Knoxville News Sentinel)
• Davis claims 'Democratic activists' aided Roe's congressional campaign (Kingsport Times News)
• Davis could contest loss (Politico)
• Rep. Davis moves closer to contesting primary loss (The Hill) Davis’s campaign is fighting the notion that Tennessee actually has an open primary system, though voters are currently allowed to vote in whatever primary they would like.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Devil is in the details for independent voters (Minnesota Public Radio) Jackie Salit on Broadcast: Midmorning, 08/13/2008, 9:06 a.m. [NOTE: I wasn't able to figure out how to tune in online, however, hopefully others did or Minnesota independents were able to listen to the radio waves.... If you happened to catch this -- please let me know your responses!! email The Hankster and I'll publish your remarks.)
• Suburban cowboys lasso Colorado into purple camp (Seattle Post Intelligencer RERUN FROM THE ECONOMIST)

REFORM

• WA: In our view: Our state's top two primary is making a lot of sense to other states (The Columbian) Yes, voters are excited about our state’s new top two primary because it follows the astoundingly logical concept of advancing the top two vote-getters to the Nov. 4 election, regardless of party. You can’t get much more democratic than that.
• NY: Petitions have power-Government downsizing initiative finds a way to take to the streets (Buffalo News)

CAMPAIGN

• Female voters heed character issue (Adrienne T. Washington, Washington Times) Michelle Bernard says "They are overwhelmingly concerned about pocketbook issues," of the 2008 presidential election, which she predicts will be decided by centrists and independent voters.
• Republicans for Obama (Minnesota Star Tribune)

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS: Local Congressional candidate in Tennessee considers contesting nonpartisan election to close party primary. Ahh, the desperation of partisan politics!

• Little-Used Law At Root Of Davis’ Recount Effort (BRISTOL HERALD COURIER - TN) According to published reports, the freshman congressman cited Tennessee election law, which states voters who aren’t party members are ineligible to vote in that party’s primary. He contends Democrats voted in the Republican primary and claims such votes improperly influenced the results. Tennessee, however, has an open primary, meaning party affiliation is not a prerequisite to vote.
• Ramsey says Davis should not challenge results of election (Kingsport Times News - TN) “You declare the way you are voting when you walk into a voting booth,” the Blountville Republican said. “It would be very hard to prove that there was concerted effort to get Democrats to vote in a Republican primary or vice versa. Even if you could prove that, I don’t see it’s illegal.”
• Davis ponders challenge to primary vote (The Hill) Davis told a local paper that he might challenge some of the primary votes based on the voting history of the people who cast them.
• Commentary - Colorado in '08 is preview of unions' plans in '09 (by Mark Tapscott, The Examiner)
• Williams back on trail (Austin Daily Herald) Dean Barkley, an Independence Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, praised Williams’ responses, which Minnesota Public Radio featured on their newscasts the following day.

THIRD PARTY NEWS
Thomas Knapp endorses Gravel’s National Initiative (Knapp for Congress) The latest endorser of Gravel’s “National Initiative for Democracy,” which would enable a process for direct lawmaking by popular vote, is Thomas L. Knapp, the Libertarian Party’s candidate for US House of Representatives from Missouri’s 2nd District.