Independent Voters: Yes, They're Real, and They're Not Centrist!

Alan Abramowitz makes the case for independents, in a "counter-intuitive" kinda way, at UVA professor Larry Sabato's "Crystal Ball" (- hmmm, fitting blog name for a political psychic?) You might want to check out IndependentVoting.org's Sarah Lyons' piece
"Independents are not Moderates" which ran nationally, and linked here at politics from the eyes of an ebony mom - political perspectives from Joni Hudson-Reynolds, an African-American Mom


INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Sam Reed's gift to Washington's independent voters (Posted by Kate Riley, Seattle Times EDITORIAL) While his Democratic opponent was squired around by state party officials who wanted more of a closed partisan primary, Reed, a former Thurston County auditor, took the independent path, stating strongly his commitment to being true to Washington's voters who embraced the blanket primary by initiative in the 1930s.
• First Thoughts: A crucial 72 hours (By NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg, msnbc/First Read) And since we’re geeking out with numbers today, political scientist Alan Abramowitz makes this counter-intuitive point: Independent voters don’t matter as much as some claim... [Really?]
• Setting the Record Straight: Correcting Myths About Independent Voters (Alan I. Abramowitz, Sabato's Crystal Ball) It’s true that independents are a diverse group. But that’s mostly because the large majority of independents are independents in name only. [Again, really?]

2012
McManus: Team Obama's victory plan (By Doyle McManus, LA Times) At a breakfast organized by Bloomberg News, Plouffe said he thought Obama could recapture many of those independents, because they still want to "get away from the stale ideas of the left or right and focus on what's going to be right for the country." But he hasn't pulled it off yet.

NEW YORK

• So much for independent redistricting? (by Jay Jochnowitz, Albany Times Union/The Observation Deck) Consumers Union says there’s plenty of time if they call a special session and get it done.
• Marriage Equality: The Hows and Whys (BY WILLIAM BRINA AND NATHAN RILEY, Chelsea Now) The final major factor setting the stage for marriage equality’s victory was the blunting of the Conservative Party’s sway.
• Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: 7/7 (by David Nir for Daily Kos Elections) Round up of NY House races
• Democrats tap David Weprin to run for seat vacated by Anthony Weiner (BY ERIN EINHORN, ALISON GENDAR AND JONATHAN LEMIRE, NY Daily News) Assemblyman David Weprin, member of a powerful Queens political family, is the Democrats' choice to run for Anthony Weiner's vacant congressional seat. Weprin, who has close ties to the borough's political machine, will become the candidate to represent Congressional District 9, which spans sections of Queens and Brooklyn.

EDUCATION REFORM
Institute to Host Innovative Brazilian Educators (East Side Institute Community News) Dr. Liberali is currently working closely with São Paulo’s Director of Education, Regina Licco, and Secretary of Education, Alexandre Schneider, to bring her group’s progressive reforms to the city’s schools. Institute director Lois Holzman and Liberali initially met in 2006, when Liberali invited Holzman to present to her students at the university.

Independents shifting left

Moderates Migrate to Dems, By Paul Silver (The Moderate Voice) ...As a moderate Independent I will probably tend to support Democrats in the next elections, not so much because they have better ideas but because the bar for competence and reform has been so lowered by the current crop of GOP leaders that the Dems seems relatively more likely to move the country forward in the healthiest direction. By comparison they seem to me to be more open minded, more far sighted, more practical, and more likely to get meaningful things accomplished for the environment, diplomacy, healthcare, energy and civil liberties....

Thanks, Paul -- and let's not forget that independents must remain independent in order to change the direction our country is going in. That takes organization at the grassroots!

By the way, my friend Pete Abel from Central Sanity is also writing for The Moderate Voice. If you haven't checked out his columns, please do! "...If I’ve learned anything in the last five months of participating in the moderate/centrist/independent corner of the online world, it’s this: The universe of disillusioned voters is growing. Americans are increasingly fed up with both major parties; they don’t feel either speaks for them, and thus, they want alternatives to rise up and represent them...."