New Jersey Independents Officially Classified as 'Unaffiliated'

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
No political party? N.J. calls you unaffiliated (By LYNDSAY CAYETANA BOUCHAL, NJ HERALD) McCabe said New Jersey in 2005 passed legislation stating that as of Jan. 1, 2006, the category of independent voters would be eliminated. Any voter who chose not to affiliate with a political party or group was thereby classified as an unaffiliated voter.

Independents Clearly One Third of Electorate, Racially Diverse

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Partisan Trends: 33.5% of Americans are Republicans, 33.5% Unaffiliated, 33.0% Democrats (Rasmussen Reports) While the ranks of unaffiliateds grew during the month of the debt ceiling debate, the number in the president’s party declined. Now, 33.0% consider themselves to be Democrats, down from 34.8% in July and the lowest level measured in seven years.
• Rasmussen: Unaffiliated voters rise to their highest level ever (by Christopher A. Guzman, CAIVN)
• Independent voters: Disenfranchised and racially diverse (Public Radio International) Taeku Lee, a political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, told The Takeaway: What struck me was the overwhelming presumption that when speaking of independent voters, you're speaking of a predominantly white segment of the electorate, which all the exit polls from 2008 show that clearly, independent voters today in the United States are a far more demographically diverse segment of the electorate. iTunes AUDIO

The Parties Are Over!

The Parties Are Over (by Jacqueline Salit, NEW YORK NEWSDAY) Goodbye two-Party system? Discontent is building to open up the political process

Jacqueline Salit

“The Rise of Unaffiliated Voters” (Kathryn Mobley with Dr. Omar H. Ali, National Public Radio - 88.5 WFDD, North Carolina)

Dr. Omar H. Ali

EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker Michael Moore on Midterm Elections, the Tea Party, and the Future of the Democratic Party (Democracy Now with Amy Goodman)

Michael Moore

Kansas Independent Voters - Yes, You Can Vote in the Primary

Who can vote?

Voters registered as Republicans can vote only in the Republican primary; Democrats can vote only in the Democratic primary.

People who registered as unaffiliated or independent voters can vote in either one. But those who want to vote in the Republican primary will have to fill out a new voter registration card at the polls and join the Republican party.

Read more here


Also see IndependentVoting.org and the Open Primaries page on The Hankster, and why not go national at OpenPrimaries.org!

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Quinnipiac: Obama losing support among independents, but remains strong
  
• Arlen Specter lobbying for open primaries in Pennsylvania
  
• Massachusetts Dems want independent and unaffiliated voter input
  
• South Carolina has open primaries, but some want to close them to independents and unaffiliated
  
• Abel Maldonado local hero
  

ELSEWHERE:

UK website offers "politics without parties"

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Swing voters give Obama flexibility to solve US economic crisis (Christian Science Monitor) The focus group results also give some insight into Obama’s wins in other red states such as Indiana, Colorado, Nevada, and North Carolina. Keeping the support of those swing voters will be crucial if Obama wants to govern effectively.
• Malcolm X, Obama, Powell, Rice and ‘House Negroes’ (Tri-State Defender) Malcolm X: “The organization of Afro-American Unity will organize the Afro-American community block by block to make the community aware of its power and potential; we will start immediately a voter-registration drive to make every unregistered voter in the Afro-American community an independent voter; we propose to support and/or organize political clubs, to run independent candidates for office, and to support any Afro-American already in office who answers to and is responsible to the Afro-American community…"
• State's independents gain a foothold (The Durham News) unaffiliated voters surpassed both parties in their rate of growth, increasing by about 220,000 -- or 18 percent. These gains were made primarily among voters ages 18-24, meaning an increasing number of voters -- especially young voters -- refuse to identify with any party at all.
• Time to target gerrymandering (LETTER Lebanon Daily News) Redistricting reform is not a partisan matter. Redistricting reform in Pennsylvania should be attractive to voters in both political parties as well as independent voters.
• Old Issue, New Twist (NY Daily News/Daily Politics) The New York County Lawyers' Association's Election Law Committee will hold a public forum next week on the question of open primaries, and the line-up - from Independence Party attorney Harry Kresky to Post City Hall Bureau Chief David Seifman (acting as the moderator - is sure to make for a lively discussion.
• Chris Matthews Senate Run? Report Says He's Staffing Up... UPDATE: Matthews Denies (The Huffington Post) yes he is, no he's not, yes he is, no he's not....
• Baseball's postseason needs to capture the 'independents' (USA TODAY) If we compare postseason television broadcasting to the recent election, television has the votes of fans whose teams are playing locked up, but it needs to capture the independent voters.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

ELECTION FALLOUT

• Presidential election highlights growing gap between generations - Young voters, universities buck trend, back Obama (Citizen Times Asheville NC) At Western Carolina University in Jackson County, the student body is actually split evenly among Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters, said Gibbs Knotts, head of the political science department.
• Analysis: Results show Kansas red, not purple (Joplin Globe) The number of registered Democrats was nearly 7 percent higher than it was in 2004, and the number of unaffiliated voters had climbed nearly 9 percent. Meanwhile, the number of registered Republicans slipped 1.5 percent.
• A Progressive Congress Under President Obama (Beyond Chron - San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily News) But the country’s leftward shift that gave Obama a landslide victory also produced a new crop of Democratic legislators – making waves that bode well for the future. This should embolden progressives to demand more from Washington – not less – as a new Congress and President get sworn in.
• End Game for Ideology (North Star Writers Group) Brit Hume, longtime Washington editor for Fox and a man who learned his trade as a reporter rather than a pundit, declared that America, which had been a center-right country, was now, on new evidence, a center-left country. Shock! Horror! Creeping socialism!
• A 'Center-Right' Country? We Shall See. (By Steven M. Warshawsky, American Thinker) Douglas Schoen, who was Bill Clinton's pollster in 1996, similarly argues that Barack Obama "owes his victory not to the left, but to the middle." Huh??
• Dear Obama: Don’t go right; get it right (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) Americans are fed up with government by slogans. They hunger for workable solutions to their pressing problems.
• G.O.P. Dog Days? (By William Kristol, NY Times) What’s more, this year’s exit polls suggested a partisan shift but no ideological realignment.

The vote last Tuesday suggests that the country has shifted center-left. This is the debate now happening among the pundits and political class.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

OREGON OPEN PRIMARIES

• Grass roots not evident in initiatives-Process has been taken over by big money and single-minded interests (The West Linn Tidings)
• Primary change is the only initiative to back-Measure 65 is worth support of voters (The Lake Oswego Review)

CAMPAIGN

• Vermonters cross river for Obama (Brattleboro Reformer) With McCain's popularity among independent voters in the battleground state, many Republicans on the border are looking to help swing New Hampshire back toward the GOP.
• Parties seeking out new registered voters (The Arizona Republic) independent voters showed the biggest gains with nearly 80,000 choosing not to affiliate with a political party.
• How desperate is McCain? Matt Welch says only a domestic act of terrorism could boost McCain out of second-place status. Kareem Crayton says McCain squandered several chances to close the door on Barack Obama.(LA Times)
• Once you’ve gone ugly, it’s tough to turn back (Andy Stone, The Aspen Times) John McCain and Sarah Palin are going flat-out crazy negative, without regard for either truth or consequences. They’re whipping some of their supporters into a frenzy of hatred, apparently in the hope that the frenzy will somehow spill over and convince those treasured, uncommitted “independent” voters.
• County independents: 'Not much new' (THE PRESS DEMOCRAT) Tuesday's debate between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain didn't appear to sway Sonoma County's independent voters as much as it reinforced what they already believed.
• Schenectady: Democrats getting bulk of area's new registrations (Gazette Reporter) So far, among the new registered voters, 3,035 Democrats have registered, 1,135 Republicans have registered; 541 have registered as Independence Party members, 80 have signed up as Conservative Party members, 58 have registered as members of the Working Families Party and 1,683 registered without any party affiliation.

THIRD PARTIES

• Nader launches 22 field offices (Third Party Watch)
• Third Party debate offers new choices (Middle Tennessee State University/The Sidelines)
• MN-Sen: Trying to Handicap This Race (Swing State Project) Not many third-party challengers come out of the starting gates with 18-19%. Most Independence Party candidates in recent years are left-of-center and very well-spoken eggheads either on an ego trip or a journey of personal discovery through their candidacies.

NEW YORK POLITICS/INDEPENDENCE PARTY/Mayor Bloomberg and Term Limits

• New steam for Mike Bloomberg's 3rd-Term Express (DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU) Lauder, who last week agreed to a one-time extension tailored for Bloomberg, was back on the fence this week because the bill called for a permanent change.
• De Blasio Goes Billionaire Shopping (NY Daily News/Daily Politics) That means the city Indys - including Lenora Fulani, who had been thinking of a run for mayor herself - and not the state, will get the final word in '09. [this links to The Hankster]
• On his terms-New York Mayor Bloomberg's attempts to let city council change term limits an insult to voters.(Houston Chronicle)
• Bloomberg's plan to extend term limits is the apogee of arrogance (Harvard Law Record)
• End term limits and their arbitrary paternalism (Harvard Law Record)
• Voters must have final say on term limits (Oakland County MI Daily Tribune)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Independent voters have shaped the 2008 Presidential Election (DAKOTA 21)
• More R.I. voters register as Democrats (Providence Journal) Independents down from 55% to 48%

REFORM: Oregon Measure 65 would help independent voters in Oregon

• Voting experiment might come to Oregon (The Oregonian) Minor parties like that the Top 2 system improves their access to the ballot. They no longer need to gather 1,000 signatures or hold a convention to qualify. But that better access is only to the primary ballot, which attracts less attention and fewer voters than the general election.
• Wash. voters to try new open primary on Tuesday (KTVZ Central Oregon) Political parties are expected to oppose the measure.

CAMPAIGN

• Democrats gather picnic, politics (Havasu News Herald) But independent voters are gaining ground – almost 30,000 voters have not declared a party affiliation – and Dave Tunnell of Lake Havasu City said that’s good news for the Democrats.
• Campaigns connect online and in person (St. Petersburg Times) Social networking and political campaigning...
• How Democrats can mine the West-The party's message appeals to the region's growing population of independents. (By Ken Salazar, LA Times)

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS

• Tilling the soil of the Texas political landscape (By: Harvey Kronberg, News Austin 8) Almost one third of this once bedrock GOP community now consider themselves as politically independent.
• Mayor Bloomberg on Virginia ballot as candidate for President (NY Daily News)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

REFORM
Different take on federal elections (THE DAILY IBERIAN) For the first time in nearly three decades, Louisiana will have closed Congressional primaries Sept. 6.

CAMPAIGN

• Dems Finding Success in Center (RealClearPolitics) That's how the party plans to win seats this year, too, DCCC executive director Brian Wolff told Real Clear Politics. "These are going to be the more fiscally responsible" Democrats, he said. "We're not talking about a lot of progressive Democrats that are running."
• Obama widens California lead to 24 points ahead of McCain (San Diego Union Tribune)

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS:
Libertarian party impact on 2008 elections (ENCToday - North Carolina)

NEW YORK INDEPENDENCE PARTY
Independence Party changes rule, gives Donno ballot line (New York Newsday) NOTE: MacKay wants to control the Independence Party in New York, not grow it, and his hand-picked State Committee goes along with it. This is the fight the New York City Independence Party Organizations are having with the State Committee and State Chairdictator--NH

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

REFORM

• Obama's Liberal Shock Troops (Wall Street Journal) A redistricting commission would be set up to reshape political boundaries, but state courts would be barred from reviewing any plans it draws up. (Only federal courts could review the boundaries.) Voters would also be barred from rejecting or amending the commission's work by initiative.
• Confusion hides in constitutional amendment's fine print-Voters should beware; proposal has way too much 'other stuff' (Detroit Free Press)
• Wall Street Journal Op-Ed Attacks National Popular Vote Plan (Ballot Access News)
• Don't Mess With the Electoral College (Wall Street Journal)
• The push for a popular vote (Boston Globe)
• Current system needs an update (LETTER to Boston Globe)
• Same-day voter registration pushed-Revised bill backed by Augustus gets Galvin’s nod (Worcester Telegram & Gazette News)
• Naming rights (Boston Globe) Same Day Voter Registration - long-running battle between Asian activists and the state's top voting official on how to conduct an election.

CAMPAIGN

• The NEWSWEEK Poll: Is the Glow Fading? (Newsweek/Stumper blog) Is Barack Obama losing independents' support???
• North Dakota Poll Released by Rasmussen Reports: Barack Obama 43%, John McCain 43% (TransworldNews.com) McCain earns the vote from 87% of Republicans while Obama attracts 79% of Democrats and holds an eighteen point lead among unaffiliated voters.
• Wisconsin Poll Released by Rasmussen Reports: Barack Obama 50%, John McCain 39% (TransworldNews.com) In Wisconsin, Obama attracts support from 86% of Democrats and has a twelve point advantage among unaffiliated voters.

LOCAL INDEPENDENT NEWS

• OK: Slim pickings affect interest in primary election (The Journal Record) Another reason for fewer votes in primary elections is the increase in the number of registered independent voters. There are more than 200,000 of them who are not eligible to vote in primaries. Some states allow it as well as cross-party voting in primaries. Oklahoma does not.
• OR: Ben Westlund bucks “career politician” label (Politicker-OR)
• MN: Ventura is saving any news for TV (Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• MD: Md. city with edgy racial past elects black mayor (AP-Google) Newcomer ousts incumbent in nonpartisan race, Decades after the demise of segregation, this sleepy city on Maryland's Eastern Shore has elected not only its first black mayor but also its first woman to the post.
• MD: Cambridge makes history-Racial strife in the past, city picks first African-American mayor (Baltimore Sun)

THIRD PARTY NEWS

• Nader setting up write-in campaign in North Carolina (News Observer) Ballot access very difficult
• Green Party: Red ink in Chicago bash-Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is leading contender for W.H. nomination (Baltimore Sun/The Swamp)
• RALPH NADER FILES AS CANDIDATE IN WASHINGTON (Seattle dbusinessnews.com)

BOOK REVIEW

Body Politic, Rest & Motion (Texas Observer) Review of The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart [The Hankster's 2 cents: it's not clustering that's tearing us apart, it's the two-party partisan system that's got us divided]

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• The independent voter is partisan (Gary Andres, Washington Times) Gary Andres says independents don't exist...


• Primary Blues (Ada Evening News - OK) Independent voters should not be barred from primary elections simply because they choose not to be classified as Republican or Democrat.


• Millions of African Americans Will Be Disenfranchised on Election Day (BlackNews.com) Virginia, for instance, is one of two states (Kentucky being the other) that does not allow ex-felons to vote under any circumstances.


• Why ‘base’ and ‘independent’ campaign strategies converge (Christian Science Monitor/Patchwork Nation) This guy also says independent voters don't exist!


• Most unaffiliated voters didn't change in primary (KSL-SALT LAKE CITY)


• Majority of unaffiliated didn't vote in primary (Deseret News) Independents are steamed about accusations of being lazy! (Read the comments!)


• The Catholic Voter (NJ Politicker) Pew study of 1,007 Catholic votes found 41 percent unaffiliated with either the Democrat Party or the Republican Party, with 38 percent being Democrats and 21 percent Republican.

If independent voters don't exist, why do they keep talking about us? Well, actually they talk about us like we're not there..... TGIIF (Thank God It's Independent Friday!)

Presidential Polls on Independence Day

From Rasmussen Reports:
Voters not affiliated with either party are the most critical of Congressional performance. Just 3% of those voters give Congress positive ratings, down from 6% last month. Sixty-three percent (63%) believe Congress is doing a poor job, up from 57% last month.

From Zogby International:
Bob Barr gets 43% of libertarians and 11% of independents. On the left, Ralph Nader gets less than 2% nationally. Independents break 39% for Obama, compared with 31% who support McCain.

From an independent voter on Roosevelt Island (NYC):
I'm leaning towards Obama, but I really hope he doesn't take Hillary on as a VP candidate. I hear she doesn't like independents.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Obama, McCain Look West as Political Battlegrounds Shift (PBS/Newshour) Colorado voters -- I think more than a third right now are unaffiliated voters. They are indicating as much as any voter that they're unhappy with Washington, the war, the economy, so they're looking for change.
• Candidates Court Colorado's Unaffiliated Voters-State Party Leaders Say Independent Spirit Makes State Key (KMGH Denver)
• Barack Obama: Independent or Flip-Flopper (by sameh abdelaziz, OpEdNews)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Neither Obama nor McCain meets Energy Party standard (The State/Brad Warthens blog) John McCain and Barack Obama are lucky there’s such a thing as Republicans and Democrats in this country, because neither would be able to get the Energy Party nomination.
• Obama to set up shop in South Carolina-In unusual move, staff hopes to swing the state to Democrats (The State) The key, Fowler said, will be registering African-American voters, who vote Democratic about 90 percent of the time, and chipping off more white and independent voters.
• N.C. campaigns have seen little McCain cash (News Observer - NC) When the Libertarians lost party status, those voters became unaffiliated, though they should be able to reregister now that it is a party again.

REFORM

• Watering down the will of the voters (Denver Post) Perhaps the most egregious is Rule 7.E.6, permitting the IEC to dismiss a complaint when the same complaint is "pending before another body with concurrent jurisdiction."
• Mazzaglia: America's magic (MetroWest Daily News - Framingham MA) It was also Jefferson who would later initiate the formation of political parties which have become the focus of governmental power.
• Giving More Power To The People (By Susan Kniep, The Day) It is to the advantage of both conservatives and liberals to lobby for the passage of this referendum question. Upon its passage, Connecticut residents should then work for the right of Statewide Initiative and Referendum (I&R).
• Appeals court to revisit domestic partnership law-Some say petition signatures were unfairly discarded (Statesman Journal) The fund's lawyers have relied heavily on a 2003 decision by the 9th Circuit, which struck down Idaho's requirement for initiative signatures to come from 6 percent of voters in each of at least half the state's 44 counties.
• Defining Marriage Is At Heart Of Ballot Question (LETTERS Hartford Courant)
• Under charter, citizens take 'initiative'- It could lead to more referendums on local ballot (Sunday News Lancaster Online)
• HOME RULE 101: Article VI: Initiative and referendumSunday News (Lancaster Online)
• THIS ARTICLE RAN YESTERDAY: Op-Ed: 'Bipartisan' proposal faces criticism (BY JACK LESSENBERRY, Traverse City Record Eagle )
• Petitioners poised to submit ballot issue that chops Michigan lawmakers, judges and their pay (MichiganLive.com) If the Reform Michigan Government Now constitutional amendment does get on the ballot, voters would be asked to consider the most wholesale change in state government since term limits were approved for elected executive and legislative offices in 1992.
• Michigan Democrats express concern about government reform proposal (Gordon Trowbridge and Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau)
• Socialists holding national event in Ann Arbor (The Ann Arbor News) "Ann Arbor has been a seminal location for larger radical movements in the United States, he said, referring to activity in the 1960s and '70s.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Idaho independents file intervention in closed primary lawsuit (Associated Press - KTVB)
• Committee for a United Independent Party Asks to Intervene in Idaho Republican Closed Primary Lawsuit (Ballot Access News)
• Shifting Stands: Is That Real Change? (LETTER NY Times) Independent activist Fran Miller in response to Krugman oped
• Independent voters can lead (LETTER Florida Times Union Jacksonville) doesn't want Democrats in office
• Joe not the boost McCain needs in state (Connecticut Post) Strikingly, Lieberman appears to hurt McCain among independent voters in the state.
• Joe Lieberman's Potential 2012 Dilemma (NY Observer/Politicker)
• Catholic voters: A somewhat contradictory statistical look (The Tidings) The CARA study of 1,007 Catholic voters found 41 percent unaffiliated with either the Democratic Party or Republican Party
• Voter registration surges in Georgia, North Carolina (Southern Sudies/Facing South) Democrats have gone from 44.8% to 45.3%, and unaffiliated voters from 20.9% to 21.4% since January.

CAMPAIGN * Obama's Move to the Center (Examiner.com)

PARTY BUSINESS

• Minnesota Independence party enlists Mayor Bloomberg (Minnesota Public Radio)
• Bloomberg brings taste of Big Apple to Independence Party fundraiser (Associated Press - Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• Rochester Billionaire Targets Silver With New PAC (NY Sun)
  

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
FLORIDA

• Suit Targets Write-In Candidates Loophole (The Tampa Tribune) Don't close the primaries
• Aronberg sues over write-in loophole (Palm Beach Post FL) Independent voter joins suit
• EDITORIAL ~~ Commissioner is no democrat either . . . (Fernandina Beach Leader - FL) Higginbotham changed from a Democrat to a Republican for convenience as the GOP became Nassau County's majority party. He has become nonpartisan for convenience as well.

CAMPAIGN

• Deeply divided Colorado could be a toss-up state (CNN) Colorado, with its large population of independent voters, could become the ultimate battleground state in the general election.
• Obama Camp Thinks Democrats Can Rise in South (BlueRidgeNow - NC)

REFORM: Initiative and Referendum, Redistricting

• Citizens Have A Right To Legislate (LETTERS Hartford Courant )
• Voter reforms should be included on ballots (LETTER Albany Times Union)
• First step in city council recall attempt begins with meeting (BY DAVID TEWES - VICTORIA ADVOCATE - TX)
• Shameless Anti-Redistricting Web Site Goes Up (New America/Blockbuster Democracy blog)
• Stop the Power Grab Redistricting Initiative (Citizens for Accountability website) ref. above
• Sacramento Bee Account of Redistricting Debate (Rose Report)
• Senator Perata’s Redistricting Hypocrisy (Rose Report)
• Orlando Sentinel Editorial on Florida Redistricting Reform (Rose Report)
• Perata's power play (San Francisco Chronicle)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

CAMPAIGN

• Obama has head start in Oregon (Statesman Journal) About 70 "Obama organizing fellows" have poured into Oregon in the past week, out of 3,600 volunteers dispatched nationwide.
• Colorado: Middle-of-the-road voters steer state (The Denver Post) The state's pragmatic and progressive unaffiliated voters are largely credited — or blamed, depending on whom you ask — for the political conversion.
• Lawrence voters will play pivotal role in races (Lawrence Journal World) As of June 1, there were approximately 1,645,703 registered voters in Kansas. Republican registration stood at 739,070; unaffiliated at 448,745; and Democrats, 447,419.

REFORM

• MN: Petition was sound, council's obligation clear: Let the people vote (TwinCities.com)
• FL: Lake County Republicans thwart public's right to vote (Orlando Sentinel) Monkeying with the democratic system is just wrong, regardless of how some Republicans try to justify it.
• WA voters get first shot at Gregoire-Rossi rematch (Seattle Post Intelligencer) "The voters of the state of Washington have historically believed deeply that it is the people who should be controlling this process, and nobody else," Secretary of State Sam Reed said.

Independent voters in the polls

From the L.A. Times blog: Polling, and how people pick their party
Today's poll story showing Barack Obama with a 12-point lead over John McCain drew almost as much reaction from readers for what it had to say about voters' party affiliation as for what it said about the candidates' popularity. The questions centered on this passage in the story: "In this national poll's random sample of voters, 39% identified themselves as Democrats, 22% as Republicans and 27% as independents. In a similar poll a year ago, 33% identified themselves as Democrats, 28% as Republicans and 30% as independents."....

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• * Protack added to Independent ballot, Gubernatorial hopeful intends to pursue GOP nomination as well; critics call foul (Delaware News Journal)
• * Third party deserves a voice (Greensboro News Record)