The Naked City: The Antidote to Corruption is Democracy

"There are eight million stories in the naked city. This is one million of them."

No, it's not the celebrated 1948 film noir... or *is* it???.....

The New York City Independence Party, which represents the nearly one million independent voters in the City, has endorsed Adolfo Carrion for Mayor in 2013 (see NYC independent strategist Jacqueline Salit's delightful and passionate introduction before the NYC IP City-wide County Committee here), released a comprehensive political reform package last week in the wake of the current political scandals (which apparently has moved Gov Cuomo to "Call for 'Open Primaries'") in New York, and which according the the IPNYC "expose structural weaknesses in the system that need to be addressed, but not in ways that entrench the powerful and preclude a more nonpartisan process."

Nonpartisan municipal elections, or open primaries at the state level, is a central tenent of the reform package and IP General Counsel Harry Kresky made a very succinct case in his recent amNewYork oped: Kresky: Nonpartisan voting would make NYC elections fairer:  "But if you eliminate the "gateway," then no "gatekeeper" can charge a candidate to pass through it. That's what nonpartisan municipal elections would do."

The New York City Independence Party Political Reform Package - The Antidote to Corruption is Democracy (PRESS RELEASE NYC Independence Party) From the release:

The Independence Party (IP) was first created in 1994 to bring political reform to New York. Unlike other minor parties, its purpose was not to influence the electoral process on the basis of ideology, but rather to influence the political process itself; to make it more open, less partisan and less corruptible. For nearly 20 years, the Independence Party built on that vision, using fusion and the appeal of political independence to push nonpartisan reforms.

Over the last few weeks, it has become evident that such reform is desperately needed. The current political scandals expose structural weaknesses in the system that need to be addressed, but not in ways that entrench the powerful and preclude a more nonpartisan process....

The reform agenda includes: 1) Nonpartisan Elections and Fusion, 2) Initiative and Referendum, 3) Term Limits for State Legislators, 4) Voter Mobility, 5) Nonpartisan Administration of Elections, 6) Campaign Finance Reform, 7) Nonpartisan Redistricting Reform, 8) Full Public Hearings on All Reforms. For the full statement go here.

And if you are one of the million, let us know!
Email TheHankster or catch us on Twitter or Facebook at The-Hankster.

See you in the streets!!
NH

235 Years Later, One Man (and Now Woman), One Vote Achieves Judicial Legitimacy in New York!

Congratulations to the minor party coalition Conservative Party, Working Families Party and the Taxpayers Party that brought the lawsuit that reviewed the double-count "glitch" --  it took a lawsuit to correct a computer glitch? Ahh, the world we live in!

NEW YORK

• State Heeds Minor Parties on Voting-Machine Complaint (By SAM ROBERTS, NY Times/City Room) Under a consent decree signed approved Thursday by Judge Jed S. Rakoff of United States District Court in Manhattan, the board agreed to reprogram voting machines before the 2012 general election to prevent people from voting more than once for the same candidate.
• Editorials - The Daily News endorses Jesus Gonzalez to represent Brooklyn's 54th District in the Assembly
• Forget Rome: Jesus Gonzalez Takes on Brooklyn (Village Voice) Gonzalez, meanwhile, has the Working Families Party line, which is working to reestablish its political potency ahead of the 2013 citywide cycle after a rough few years with nearly losing its ballot line amidst an investigation of its apparent collaboration with Data and Field Services, a nominally independent private company that seemed to only work for WFP picks and at remarkable discounts.
• Democrats now likely to lose Anthony Weiner's seat (By Alex Pareene, Salon/New York City) Siena college now has Turner at 50%, with Weprin at 44%. That's within the margin of error, but it's obviously a bad sign for Democrats.
• NY-9: A referendum on Obama? (By Jennifer Rubin,Washington Post/Right Turn) Whaa?
• Turner blows past Weprin, leads by 6 points in latest NY-9 Siena poll (by Colby Hamilton, WNYC/The Empire)

Arizona Independents Told to Pick a Party to Vote; California Politicians Conflict of Interest in Drawing Their Own Districts

OPEN PRIMARIES
No-party adherents are told to pick one (Rhonda Bodfield, Arizona Daily Star) There is no independent primary. But since 1998, independents have been able to vote in the various party primaries. They just have to pick which one they want to vote in. For an all-mail election, the notice telling them to pick a party is the equivalent of walking into a polling place and telling the poll worker which party's primary you want to vote in.

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING
Letter: Supervisors shouldn't draw districts (Chico Enterprise-Record) When will politicians like Wahl get the message that it is a conflict of interest to be drawing their own lines?

2012

• Obama needs to court Latino vote (By: C. Nicole Mason, executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, in Winnipeg Free Press) In 2008, Obama relied heavily on the votes of blacks and independent voters to carry him to victory. However, in the mid-term elections, uneasy about the economy and high unemployment, both groups preferred the couch to the voting booth. This, however, was not the case for Latinos, who set a mid-term election record with a turnout of more than six million. 
• Obama’s drawdown plan ‘about right,’ poll finds (By Scott Wilson and Jon Cohen, Washington Post/Checkpoint) Obama has been courting independent voters for months, and 40 percent of respondents who identified themselves as independents said his withdrawal plan is “about right."

NEW JERSEY
From Confusion to Fusion: Union Survival in the Age of Christie (By John D. Atlas/NJ Voices, Star Ledger) If the union movement wants to break out its dilemma it better build some kind of independent political party capable of winning power or it will face a future between a rock and a hard place.

NEW YORK
Before Passing Marriage Bill, Senate Extended Rent Regulations and More (by David King, Gotham Gazette) According to a study by Common Cause/NY, New York City, real estate interests donated almost $10 million to local and statewide races in 2009-2010 -- a sum nearly double what was spent by the real estate industry from 2007-2008. Fifty-two percent ($5,114,665) of that cash went to Democrats, while 24 percent ($2,351,924) went to Republicans. The remaining 24 percent was spread throughout third parties and ther groups, with the largest amount -- more than 9 percent -- going to the Independence Party… One major issue that the Senate chose to ignore was independent redistricting. During the 2010 election season, former Mayor Ed Koch and his NY Uprising group won pledges from a majority of legislators on both sides of the aisle to support independent redistricting.


MEDIA
Poll: Fewer Californians follow political news (The Associated Press, Sac Bee) The 25 percent who say they follow news of government and politics "only now and then (or) hardly at all" is up from 20 percent in 1999 and 16 percent in 1979. Voters who consider themselves independents were the least likely to say they follow political news closely: Only 30 percent of nonpartisan voters said they paid close attention to political news, compared with 41 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans.

Obama's Health Care Problem: Which Side Are You On Boys?

SEIU prez Andrew Stern is threatening to "go independent" on local races to oppose Dems who oppose Prez Obama's healthcare reform bill. New York is a fusion voting state, which has empowered third parties like the New York Independence Party, Conservative Party and Working Families Party.  Meanwhile, former Dem La Plata County Colorado Commissioner Joelle Riddle didn't threaten -- she went independent for real.

HEALTH CARE, OBAMA AND LABOR

• Health Care, The Final Act (Talk Talk with Fred Newman and Jackie Salit)
• Union Chief Warns He’ll Back Independent Candidates Against Democrats Opposed to Health Care (By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, NY Times/The Caucus)
• Liberals warn Dems on health care (By: Ben Smith and Gabriel Beltrone, Politico)
• SI rep under pressure on health care reform (Richmond County Elections 2010 Examiner, John Signoriello)

COLORADO

• Caucuses picking delegates today (by Garrett Andrews, Durango Herald) And though the herd of Democrats running to replace Joelle Riddle as La Plata County's District 1 Commissioner won't be thinned today, the party might get a better idea of how the candidates will fare at the County Assembly, Walter said. Riddle - who cut ties with the Democratic Party in August 2009 and is suing to have her name listed as an Independent on the November ballot - is slated to appear as a write-in in November. She currently faces a field of four Democrats: Dryside water lawyer Bruce Baizel, south Durango resident Chris Dolphin, former Durango City Councilor Scott Graham and cattleman author Jeff Mannix.

NEW YORK

• Paladino heads for crucial meeting, Hopes to win over Conservative leaders (By Robert J. McCarthy, BUFFALO NEWS POLITICAL REPORTER) The Independence Party, expected to eventually back Democratic Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo for governor, now occupies the critical third line on the ballot — behind the Democrats and Republicans. Occupying the third line is considered extremely beneficial as the state’s “major minor party.”
• Fusion Voting in New York, the Working Families Party & Close Elections (by: DavidNYC, Swing State Project) There are fewer small parties today than in the past, and only three of them matter: the Conservative Party, the Independence Party, and the Working Families Party.
• Panel to revise New York City Charter to host first public meeting this week (By Tom Wrobleski, SI Advance)
• Long's Dilemma (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Daily News/Daily Politics) The Working Families Party, usually allied with the Democrats, still has the US attorney's probe hanging over its head. Ditto for the state Independence Party, which endorsed Eliot Spitzer for governor in 2006 after its founder and patron, Tom Golisano, decided against a fourth statewide wide.

BLOGOSPHERE

• No More Politics as Usual! Get Political News and Views for Independent Voters at PoliticalCentrist.com (Press Release, PoliticalCentrist.com) "Reasonable ideas from reasonable people"
• Exploring The Mood Gap (Hotline)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Gallup finds independents ideologically diverse
• Open primaries: what California needs
• Romney would win 2012 Repub primary -- IF they shut down open primaries and keep out independents....
• New York fusion voting gives weight to third parties
• Where does Pedro Espada get all that chutzpa??
• Stop the presses! Political consultant gives up on "change"!
• Albany partisan struggles inside the parties
• How Mayor Bloomberg improved NYC schools
• Personal Democracy Forum -- personal and bi-partisan

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Somehow Steve Kornacki wrote a whole article in the PolitickerNY about New York fusion voting without ever mentioning Mayor Fiorello La Guardia or Mayor John Lindsay.... Fusion is a good tool for anti-corruption forces, a fact that Kornacki conveniently leaves out....
  
• Bloomberg wants WFP but does WFP want Bloomberg? and the Repubs say aye
  

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• S.D. keeps gaining independent voters (Argus Leader) Republicans have lost some of their edge in voter registration since 1970 in South Dakota, but the shift largely has gone to independents, not Democrats, election records suggest.
• Iowa expected to be electoral battleground (Waterloo and Cedar Falls Iowa News) One of the reasons Iowa is considered a battleground state is its large group of independent voters.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• CALIFORNIA: David Little: Protest vote cast in primary (Chico Enterprise-Record) Blindly going to the polls because the politicians tell us to only makes them believe we lemmings will do anything they say.
• OREGON: Petitioner scarcity-Voters will still consider as many as 10 initiatives on the ballot this fall (The Register-Guard)
• IDAHO: Beck, Ron Paul supporter join in bid to oust ID's GOP head (Idaho Press)

SOUTH CAROLINA FUSION
Obama Could Conceivably Be Listed Four Times on South Carolina Ballot (Ballot Access News) Probably Dems, SC Working Families Party, United Citizens Party, and possibly SC Independence Party...

CAMPAIGN
Black Americans mark mileston of Obama campaign (StarNewsOnline - Wilmington DE)

POLITICS AND RELIGION
On politics and faith/Let's face it: Religion looms large (Boulder Daily Camera) The Pew Forum reports that only about 16 percent of Americans define themselves as "unaffiliated" with any organized religion.

Conversations on Independence

• Check out Associated Content, The People's Media Company (thanks to Ron DeYoung)... Here's a post by Sundance McGee "America Should Eliminate Partisan Politics--We Deserve More Than Two Choices "
• And Registered Independent has a good post from yesterday: Today's Dynamic The most popular dynamic in politics these days isn't Republicans vs Democrats. It's not capitalists vs socialists. It's not libertarians vs communitarians.It's the people vs the government.
• "Put down your guns and vote" – How fusion moves swing voters to the Democrats (By Dan Cantor-TPM Cafe) For some more information, be sure to see The Bloomberg Story by Jackie Salit...
• Minnesota IP leader Tammy Lee meets with NY independent leaders (Minnesota In the Middle )
• Chris Weigant ponders an independent run by Mike Bloomberg and the 2008 election getting thrown to the House... (Huffington Post)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

BLOOMBERG 08

• Mike Bloomberg 101 for political reporters (Marketwatch)
• Clinton Pollster Sued Over E-Mails (AP-Casper Star Tribune)
• Bloomberg and Villaraigosa: Was That a Dress Rehearsal? (LA Downtown News)
• Bloomberg is thinking about how he could shape the political conversation for the next several years. (Hartford Courant)

OBAMA CAMPAIGN

• Clinton-Obama ticket? Key conflict: Iraq war record (Rocky Mountain News) * ''All-American'' Debate Reveals Stratified Black Constituency (Amsterdam News)
• Howard University Dem debate: Black Voters Figure Prominently (Diverse Education.com)

ELECTORAL REFORM

• NJ: Doing away with election spoilers-IRV is the answer (NJ Times)
• DE: Victory for Open Government; Death of the Fusion ban. (Stop Taxing blog)
• NJ: Legislative override makes initiative and referendum meaningless (Asbury Park Press)

Conversations on Independence

• Thanks to Pete Abel's Center of Attention on The Moderate Voice for mention of The Hankster, AND for taking us to Jim Satterfield's blog where he revisits the age-old question, “Does money equal speech?” and considers what democratic dialogue is...
• And while you're there, be sure to read Joe Gandelman's post on the Washington Post study "Study: Diverse Independent Voters Could Swing 2008 Race" where he says of The Moderate Voice: ...Please note that we’ve repeatedly said this about reaction to this site: being a “moderate” or “independent” does NOT mean coming down lockstep on an issue with other moderates. Some may be center, center-left and center right and vary, depending on the issue. And there is not an opinion poll that shows that independent voters and/or moderates think totally alike on any given issue...
• Meanwhile, Steve Perez at A New America wonders what good fusion voting does...
• And Paul Scott, an Iowa independent voter, tries his hand at blogging with a post about independents' interest in Barack Obama on BarackObama.com...

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• New York Working Families Party executive director Dan Cantor talks about fusion voting and why it's a good thing.
• Independent Voters Revealed as Anti-War Extremists (Talking Stick Rules blog)
• Poll: Who Are the Independents? Study of Politically Unaffiliated Bodes Poorly for GOP (TRANSCRIPT - Washington Post)
• Disconnect Between Candidates And Voters (Internet Financial News)

Conversations on Independence

CROWD: The attempt by a player to match or adopt an opponent's position in a marketplace or to affiliate with a trend, idea, or issue. (Politico's commissioned politics game The Playmaker's Table) ...In case you thought politics was a HUMAN activity......

In the "I coulda told you that for the price of a cheesburger...." category, Rasmussen tells us the results of their newest Poll: "56% Believe Most Congressmen Willing to Sell Their Vote" with 59% of those not affiliated with either major party agreeing. Interestingly, 60% of Repubs agree. Are the Dems (49%) naieve, and do the Repubs just have more experience? Any partisan or non-partisan way you cut it (and let's not forget about the 50% of us who choose not to participate....), most Americans don't think their representatives are representing them. I picked this up from The Drudge Retort.... Thanks, Drudge!

Matt Jerzyk on Rhode Island's Future (of the Providence Phoenix) ran this recap of the Washington Post's Chris Cizzilla's take on The Bloomberg 08 Possibility. Matt thinks the independent mayor of New York could be the first serious independent presidential candidate in a "long, long time".... As an independent and a New Yorker, I thank Matt for drawing attention to the potential independent run for President by Mayor Bloomberg. Little known fact: It was the ground operation of the Independence Party of New York (specifically the NYC faction) and the savy of independent political consultant Jacqueline Salit that got Mike elected in the first place in 2001 (and the added weight of Lenora Fulani's Outsider Coalition that swept 47% of the black vote for his re-election in 2005. BTW - he did NOT run as a Dem... (We have fusion in New York, where candidates are allowed to run on more than one line) If you haven't already, you might want to check out Salit's "Bloomberg Story"... My take: If Bloomberg is willing to work with the "unwashed" at the national level, it would be an interesting campaign... One thing we know for sure is that the American people are expensive!

From the Rothenberg Political Report: "From a purely political point of view, Democrats had their cake and ate it too." I would agree. Ever the more reason for independent voters to speak out on behalf of everyone. Independents broke 2-1 for the Dems and empowered them in Congress and some suggest for the 2008 national election. But, independents are -- independent. Looking for change of direction.

And finally, thanks for his post "Future Strength of Independent Voters Predicted by FDR", and congratulations to my new friend Jack Dunning, (The Dunning Letter) a personal information consumer advocate. Jack is very well the Ralph Nader of the information age! The Dunning Letter is very informative AND political!)

Maine: Fusion voting?

But that argument does not hold in New York, because in New York minor parties are allowed to nominate one of the major party candidates as their candidate as well -- and the votes cast for that candidate on any party lines on which his or her name appears are added to that candidate's total vote.
The procedure is called fusion or open ballot voting -- and the WFP is attempting to have it made law in Maine and many other states. Those who favor third parties as an alternative to the major parties should favor such a change -- and even someone like me, someone with grave reservations about third parties, sees positive aspects of this way of counting votes... (Kennebec Journal)