Hankster News of the Day for Independent Voters - August 10

INDEPENDENTS RISING

• Independents Rising, by Jacqueline Salit (By Kymberly Bays, IVN) Where Salit’s book is most interesting is the anecdotes of independent successes and failures. A deeply entrenched member of two decades of independent movements, she gives insider accounts of campaign activities, deals and negotiations.
• Book Review: Jackie Salit’s “Independents Rising” (Posted by Nancy Hanks, The Moderate Voice) Are you among the 40 something percent of Americans who consider themselves political independents? You will appreciate this new book by Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, long-time activist and strategist for the independent movement. I urge you to rush to your local bookstore and read this smart, witty and engaging look at American politics in 2012 from an outsider’s inside take.

Q&A with Jackie Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org

June 1, 2012 

Morrison Institute 

Jackie Salit

Jackie Salit, a leader in the independent movement and author of INDEPENDENTS RISING, Outsider Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America, was recently interviewed by Joseph Garcia, communications director at Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Salit is president of IndependentVoting.org and managed all three of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns on the Independence Party line. She also was a leader in the fight for nonpartisan elections in New York City and consulted with leaders of the coalition that passed Proposition 14, the Top Two Initiative in California that will be in effect this year. 
Salit recently was in Arizona, which could decide in the fall whether to also adopt the top-two vote-getter system for elections.

Audio: Q&A with Jackie Salit (32:33 running time)
MI Briefing: Top-Two Proposition: What Nonpartisan Elections Could Mean for Arizona


INDEPENDENT REFORM
What Are Your Favored Electoral Reforms? (By Damon Eris, IVN) Primary System Reform: In the vast majority of states, primary elections are the means by which the Democratic and Republican parties nominate their candidates for a given office, and in states with closed primaries (roughly half), only party members may cast ballots in those elections, thus disenfranchising millions of Independent voters across the country. Why should tax payers be forced to subsidize an internal party process that they are prohibited from participating in? The solution here is rather simple: primary elections should be open to all registered voters or they should not be publicly funded. If the parties desire to maintain closed primary elections, they can privately fund these elections themselves. Surely, their corporate sponsors would be willing to supply the necessary funding, as, in many cases, they already own the major parties’ candidates.

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

• Letter: Inequality exists for independents (Albany Times Union) I am pleased to see the Times Union has adopted my long-held opinion of "one ballot line per candidate" ("Third-party shenanigans," Aug. 3). The editorial makes reference to the petition process but fails to emphasize the inequality that exists between candidates who are truly independent and those who belong to parties recognized by the state.
• The third-party candidate who could derail Mitt Romney (By Scott Bomboy, CONSTITUTION DAILY in Philadelphia Inquirer) With Mitt Romney needing Virginia - especially if President Barack Obama can take Ohio or Florida - Goode could become the little-known spoiler in the national election.

Hankster News of the Day for Independents - July 10

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Gallop Poll- 50% Of US Hispanics Identify as Independent Voters (Hispanically Speaking News) Sixty percent of Hispanic immigrants identify as political independents, compared with 44% of first-generation Hispanic Americans and 43% of second-generation or higher Hispanics.
• Poll: Most Hispanics Independent Voters (WIBW) Both candidates have released television spots in Spanish, and both spoke in June at a major conference of Latino elected officials in Orlando. The dueling speeches came one week after Obama revealed a new immigration directive that would allow some illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States by their parents to avoid deportation.
• Century Village, long a Democratic stronghold, is changing (By Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Herald) Century Village — the largest condo development in Broward County — is now 60 percent Democratic, down from 77 percent in 2002. Meanwhile, registered Republicans have jumped from about 18 percent to 23.6 percent. But it’s the independent and no-party-affiliation voters who can claim the prize: They grew from 5 percent in 2002 to a hefty 16.3 percent today, according to voter registration records from the county’s Supervisor of Elections. Put another way, that’s a 17 percent shift away from the Democrats.
• Independents: Do they still believe in Obama's change? (By Matt Towery, Florida Times Union - Jacksonville) But of independent voters, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, only 38 percent have a favorable view of President Barack Obama's economic plans.
• Anna in the Swing States: Colorado's Swinging Suburbs and Untapped Latino Voters (By Anna Sale, WNYC/It's a Free Country) The Colorado electorate is largely broken up in thirds among Democrats, Republicans, and independents. Since 2008, the ranks of the unaffiliated, independent voters have grown in Colorado, and Democrats and Republicans now make up a slightly smaller percentage of registered voters in Colorado than they did four years ago. Much of the registration gains for Democrats and independents has happened in congressional districts with urban areas, contributing to the Democrats' recent success there… Further north along the Wyoming border, the suburban voters in Larimer County backed Obama in 2008 but narrowly split in the 2010 midterms… Independent, unaffiliated voters have the registration edge over both Republicans and Democrats here.

THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES

• Playing field uneven for third-party hopefuls (by Paul Singer, Source: USA TODAY in Tucson Citizen) According to Richard Winger— editor of Ballot Access News and an expert in the field — there are probably fewer than a half-dozen minor parties that will qualify for the presidential ballot in more than five states: “It will be Democrats; Republicans; Libertarian; Green; Constitution; Party for Socialism and Liberation; Justice; and Socialist Workers Party and no others, probably,” he said in an e-mail. “The Socialist Party has a remote chance.”
• Goode’s third-party run: Bad news for Romney in Virginia? Ex-lawmaker: I’ll take votes from both (By David Sherfinski, The Washington Times) The latest Real Clear Politics average of polls has Mr. Obama with a two-point lead in the state over Mr. Romney — 47 percent to 45 percent. But figures released in May by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling raised the eyebrows of many poll-watchers and pundits. Mr. Obama topped Mr. Romney by eight points in Virginia, 51 percent to 43 percent, in the PPP poll. If Mr. Goode was on the ballot, however, Mr. Obama’s lead over Mr. Romney increased to 12 points, at 50 percent to 38 percent, with Mr. Goode taking 5 percent of the vote.

Bill King: Party System Blocking Meaningful Change

ECONOMIC CRISIS

• King: Party system blocking meaningful change (By BILL KING, Houston Chronicle) To get any meaningful change in the current system, we are going to have to return to the Founders' view of political parties and start thinking differently about them. Instead of being proud to be associated with a political party, it should be an embarrassment. After this week's debacle with the so-called supercommittee, that sentiment should not be much of a stretch.
• Community Impact of Supercommittee Failure (by Yanick Rice Lamb, Special to the AFRO) Among independent voters surveyed, seven in 10 favor cuts in domestic spending and increases in taxes on corporations and wealthy people. About six in 10 of all respondents are against reductions in defense spending.

BLOOMBERG
Bloomberg pivots to slamming D.C. (By: Alexander Burns and Maggie Haberman, Politico) “My suspicion is he hasn’t quite figured out what his next act is, but the one thing he knows he wants is to stay relevant and continue cultivating his brand as the independent, sane, grown-up voice in American politics,” said Democratic strategist Dan Gerstein, a veteran of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman’s independent 2006 campaign. “This plays into his sweet spot: It’s the intersection of independence, adult leadership, and finance and economics.”

2012
Is the Stage Set For a Third-Party Presidential Candidate? (By Amy Bingham, ABC News) “We are not a third party,” said Elliot Ackerman, the group’s chief operating officer. “The country has enough special interests and goofy ideologies out there. We are a second way to nominate our leaders.” By gathering enough petition signatures, the group has already secured a spot on the ballot in nine states. Ackerman said that number will jump to 28 by the end of the year and before November 2012, he said the group will have secured the remaining 22 states.

Third Party Rising, Tweeting (Which) Revolutions, and Human Development

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Third Party Rising (By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NY Times) We have to rip open this two-party duopoly and have it challenged by a serious third party that will talk about education reform, without worrying about offending unions; financial reform, without worrying about losing donations from Wall Street; corporate tax reductions to stimulate jobs, without worrying about offending the far left; energy and climate reform, without worrying about offending the far right and coal-state Democrats; and proper health care reform, without worrying about offending insurers and drug companies.[
  
  

  • NOTE: Left blogs are aghast...  Nate Silver has tons of calculus to show that Odds Against Third-Party Bid Not as Long as They Seem...]
• Tom Friedman, Naderite? (Ezra Klein, Washington Post/Voices) The worst illusion pundits foist on the populace is the idea that if we just elect the right guy (or gal) to be president, everything will be fine. It won't be. If you don't like how our laws are being made, you have to change how our laws are being made. [NOTE: I agree -- we need structural political reform. I also think there's a real shot for the American people to elect an independent President. -NH]
• • • Independents not buying Dems' core messages (Greg Sargent, Washington Post/The Plum Line) A plurality of independents, 44 percent, agree with the core Dem claim that Dems are better for the middle class. Only 31 percent of indys pick the GOP.
• • • HALPERIN’S TAKE: The Third Man (Mark Halperin, Time mag) If unemployment's 10 percent and if it's Bloomberg-Petraeus against Sarah Palin and whoever against Obama, and Bloomberg spends $3 billion, who would you bet on?" 
      With VIDEO

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Independent votes should count (Rapid City Journal Editorial Board) The more people participate in elections, the more representative the government becomes.
• The process shouldn't involve manipulation. It shouldn't involve disenfranchising anyone who doesn't embrace a party line. Nesselhuf rightly observes that allowing independents to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primaries would provide needed balance.
• It should encourage an outcome that represents the will of the people, all of the people - or at least as many as possible - not a small minority that bothers to get out and vote.
• Secretary of State candidate calls for open primaries (Rapid City Journal - SD) The challenger in this fall's Secretary of State election is calling for the state to allow independents to vote in primary elections in South Dakota.

MIDTERMS

• Keep Murkowski (by David A. James, Fairbanks, LETTER Fairbanks Daily News Miner) Joe Miller’s supporters want a senator who consistently votes the party line. They have the right to feel this way. However, if I wanted a senator who took a predetermined position on every issue, I would vote for a robot. I don’t want a senator who does as told by party bosses. And given the fact that 52 percent of Alaska voters are unaffiliated with any party, I have good reason to believe that plenty of others agree with me.

POLLS

• American Values Survey: Religion, Values and the Mid-Term Elections (Public Religion Research Institute) Nearly half (47%) of Americans who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement say they are also part of the Christian conservative or religious right movement.

CALIFORNIA

• Abel Maldonado for lieutenant governor (The Bakersfield Californian) Endorsement: Abel Maldonado risked his political hide to help California get a budget deal a year and a half ago, voting to accept a temporary tax increase -- since expired -- to help close a $42 billion deficit. In the process, he helped steer the Legislature away from its debilitating partisan extremes, convincing his fellow legislators, as part of his agreement to reach across the aisle, to put the question of an open primary on the June 2010 ballot.
• Independents Endorse Maldonado for Lt. Governor (H/T Jason Olson, IndependentVoice.org) Abel Maldonado proved he's willing to risk his political career and take on both major parties when he used his budget vote leverage to place Proposition 14, the open primary, on the ballot. Because of his courage, 3.4 million independent voters in California will have a full voice in our elections beginning in 2012.  That's the kind of tough and non-partisan leadership independent voters are looking for. 

COLORADO

• Political mailers full of believe-it-or-not gems (By Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post) When state Rep. Kathleen Curry left the Democratic Party to join the ranks of unaffiliated voters, plenty of party members begged her to reconsider. So the Gunnison lawmaker was both annoyed and amused when voters in her vast House district recently received a political mailer that she says insinuates Democrats rejected her.
• Big showing by Tancredo could hurt GOP and adopted third party (By Jessica Fender and Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post) "It would require huge percentages of unaffiliated and a vast majority of Republican voters. There's never been any indication in his career that he can do that," Ciruli said. "And there's going to be a residual vote for Maes hanging on there."
• 527 groups again active in area elections - House candidates seek to steer clear of smear campaigns (John Stroud, Post Independent Staff, Glenwood Springs, CO) A political organization that District 61 State Rep. Kathleen Curry of Gunnison once actively supported has now turned on her with a slew of negative mailers and robo-calls while she seeks re-election as a write-in candidate.

MINNESOTA

• Hein represents a new direction (LETTER Post Bulletin) Isn't it time to look at a candidate that promises reform in the form of term limits and open primaries where we all choose whom we elect? Join us and vote for Al Hein for the Minnesota House of Representatives.

NEW YORK

• Lenora Fulani Seems to Endorse Charles Barron, Freedom Party Nominee for New York Governor (Ballot Access News)
• Hoffman speaks (Maggie Haberman, Politico) “It was never my intention to split the Republican vote in the 23rd District. So today, I withdraw as a candidate from this race."
• Poll: Cuomo leads Paladino by 24 points (By: CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser) Cuomo leads Paladino by 67 points among Democrats, 11 points among independent voters, and trails Paladino by 34 points among Republicans.
• Making 'Fair Share' Fairer (by Eddie Bautista, Gotham Gazette) In November, however, a new iteration of fair share will be on the ballot, and it is a proposal worthy of support. If approved, community districts overrun by private and public waste management and transportation facilities will begin to have a more complete picture of their environmental burdens. 
• Man of the People: The dodges and counters of Pedro Espada Jr. (Albert Samaha, NY Urban Policy Examiner)
• Paladino Blasts McCall-Cuomo Alliance (Adam Dickter, Assistant Managing Editor, The Jewish Week) McCall’s endorsement is important in helping Cuomo, the state attorney general, gain minority support as some, including Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron, accuse the Democratic nominee of ignoring African American concerns until shortly before the election. Barron, a former Black Panther, has launched his own campaign for the statehouse on the newly created Freedom Party ballot.

TECHNOLOGY
NOTE: I for one am grateful for Malcolm Gladwell's perspective in his article Small Change, and for his statement about Clay Shirkey's stupid and racist example of how social media helps mobilize people.  I also think Alan Rosenblatt makes a good point that "technology is a tool" in his very thoughtful piece. I couldn't help wonder in reading both these pieces if we need to be more clear about what we mean by the word "revolution" (as Rosenblatt suggests) and if indeed we might need to overthrow our way of thinking about what a revolution is. The internet, Twitter, connectivity, and all the other instruments and terms of the new technology, are way in advance of   human development. As human beings, we need to catch up with our own smartness before we do each other in. And while we're at it, you might want to check out Harry Kresky's "Political Reform and Human Development" -- somehow, I think this all goes together.

• SMALL CHANGE: Why the revolution will not be tweeted (by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker) Article contrasts the civil rights movement of the sixties with today's social media "activism" -- "Social media can’t provide what social change has always required."
• Which Revolution Will Be Twittered? (Alan Rosenblatt, Huffington Post) Technology is a tool in the hands of the revolutionary. And while, as McLuhan wrote, technology is not ideologically neutral (and therefore favors some revolutionaries over others), it is the revolutionary's cause that drives the revolution. Without a cause that a mass movement can urgently organize around, there can be no revolution, in the sense that Gladwell describes it…. Revolutions of method are different from political/social revolutions.
• Online Party of Canada - OPC is not just another political party. It is a revolutionary introduction of Internet technology to the political process. (from a press release)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Independent Pennsylvanians invites activists to attend press conference (Austin Cassidy's Independent Political Report)

TERM LIMITS/BLOOMBERG

• Fulani on term limits (NY Daily News/Daily Politics) “Mr. Bloomberg has the right to change his mind on this issue. I happen to be a supporter of democracy reform and the people making those decisions. So I think he’s going to have to respond to the people of this city,” she said.
• Bloomberg once called change to term limits a 'disgrace' (Newsday)
• Bloomberg wants 3rd term as New York mayor (Seattle Times)
• Proponent of Limits Reverses His Stand (NY Times)
• Elsewhere: Bloomberg's Gamble, Hope on Capitol Hill (NY Observer) Dan Jacoby supports Bloomberg and opposes term limits, but he opposes Bloomberg overturning them the most. Lenora Fulani, who helped Bloomberg get elected, feels more or less the same way.
• The Real Bloomberg Story (Talk Talk independentvoting.org) Newman: That's right. Now, what is that story? It's the story of how 59,000 votes on the Independence Party line in 2001 made him mayor of New York City. Salit: It's the story of how he had to turn to the independents to give him his margin of victory.

OPEN PRIMARIES/MEASURE 65

• Measure 65 seeks to open primaries (John Sowell, News Review Today)
• Measure 65 forum (Bend Bulletin) Tonight at 7pm in Redmond

CAMPAIGN

• New poll shows Obama ahead in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania (Cleveland Plain Dealer) Independent voters go 46 percent for Obama and 42 percent for McCain, compared to 47 - 43 percent for McCain September 11.
• Stephanopoulos: Independent Voters Hold White House Key (ABC News/Political Radar)

THIRD PARTIES
Third-party presidential candidates to debate at Vanderbilt on Oct. 6 (Vanderbilt myVU)

Jesse Ventura Speech Rally for the Republic: Rock the Debates!!

Be sure to click on the video at the top of The Hankster and listen to former Minnesota Gov Jesse Ventura speaking on September 2, 2008 about the need for independent voices in the presidential campaign. The two parties are destroying our country, says Jesse. He talks about RockTheDebate.org, a grassroots independent organization working for inclusion of independent candidates in the debates. RockTheDebate's co-founder Bob Sullentrup recently delivered a letter to the Committee on Presidential Debates (a company owned jointly by the Democratic and Republican parties to control the presidential debates) detailing demands to change the criteria by which candidates are authorized to be included in a national debate (I'll try to get a copy of this for you).

Read more here on Sound Politics, and here in the Hawaii Reporter from August 25, which says: The poll released by Zogby showed that 55 percent of likely voters want Bob Barr included in the debates. Of the respondents, 69 percent of independents felt that Bob Barr deserves a place in the debate, while 52 percent of Democrats and even 50 percent of Republicans agreed.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Setting the Barr: Presidential bid by ex-rep. may hurt McCain (The Hill) Since leaving Congress in 2002, Barr has bucked the party line in opposing the warrantless wiretapping program and calling for a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.
• I Was a Clinton Volunteer (Philadelphia City Paper) The one unifying sentiment among all Hillary volunteers, besides the obvious, is their disdain for Obama supporters, whom they see as both delusional and impossibly peppy. Clintonites don't hate them per se, they just think they're not smart enough to think on their own.
• Price, Watt endorse Obama (News Observer) Both suberdelegates Watt and Price had previously endorsed John Edwards for president. In a conference call, Price said Obama can help bring independent voters to the Democratic column in November.
• ABC/Washington Post Poll: Campaign Against Obama Gives Clinton Her Highest Negatives Since 1992 (JOE GANDELMAN, The Moderate Voice)
• Democrats Willing to Let Battle Continue-Poll Shows Gains in Key Areas for Obama (By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen, Washington Post) Clinton's favorability rating has dropped among both Democrats and independents over the past three months, although her overall such rating among Democrats remains high. Nearly six in 10 independents now view her unfavorably.

NORTH CAROLINA

• Early voting begins today (Winston Salem Journal) Unaffiliated (independent) voters can vote in either primary
• A letter to the senator (Greensboro News Record) Please debate on April 27: Almost 110,000 Democrats and 69,000 unaffiliated voters (who can choose to vote in the Democratic primary) have been added to the rolls this year. The N.C. Democratic Party has been swamped with requests for tickets to the proposed April 27 debate at the RBC Center in Raleigh. It has received requests from about 20,000 and will hold a drawing to see who gets tickets.
• Time to vote: Starting today, you can cast your ballot in the N.C. primary election. (Fayetteville Observer) Overall, the new voters are 53 percent Democrat, 37 percent unaffiliated and 10 percent Republican

REFORM

• Reform sorely needed in reshaping state's districts (San Joaquin Record)
• Nodler fails to mention personal bias in stance on independent candidate bill (The Turner Report) This legislation obviously does not "level the playing field," but adds to the already substantial advantage Democrats and Republicans have over anyone who tries to get elected as an independent.

SCHWARZENEGGER/BLOOMBERG * Fundraising, alliances on agenda during Schwarzenegger trip to New York (Mercury News) At the Thursday luncheon, talk show host Charlie Rose will ask Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg to address issues "that affect cities and states nationwide, regardless of partisan politics"