INDEPENDENT VOTERS:
- It's Not the Economy, Stupid-professional politicians try to figure out the independent vote (Dan Henninger-Wall Street Journal)
- Interesting feature article "Independent's Day-Republicans, Democrats, whatever. This Fourth of July, we salute the real American politician — the independent." (Style Weekly, Richmond's Alternative for news, arts, culture and opinion.)
- Hillary can't take women's vote for granted-Obama leads among indies (Denver Post)
- Leftist call for impeachment has limited appeal (Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times)
- Hillary's unpopular, if Republicans have the wit to nominate a candidate with appeal to independent voters, they can retain the White House in 2008 (Naples News)
BLOOMBERG 08:
- Poll: Bloomberg candidacy might even up presidential contest in N.J. (NJ online)
- Bloomberg could be what voters want (Seattle Post Intelligencer)
- Mayor's Independence Is Focus of Aides (New York Sun)
OBAMA CAMPAIGN:
- Democrats' mantra: Change-Obama campaign in Pella IA (Washington Times)
LOCAL NEWS:
- Don Allen running as an independent for president (The Youngstown Vindicator)
- AN ABUSE OF POWER?-Spitzer surveillence of Bruno (NY Post)
4 comments:
Interesting that Arianna Huffington wrote an article titled "Memo to Media: Libby Outrage Not Confined to the Left" but you choose to highlight the following. Maybe you didn't get the memo!
P. S. Per the quote below - I'm really touched that a Republican anyalyst is soooo concerned about the prospects of the Democratic party!
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"Republican analyst Arnold Steinberg said an impeachment drive would help his side: "This gambit will excite the leftist base but marginalize reasonable Democrats and alienate independent voters — and motivate Republicans. I can only say, 'Grow up and get a life.' Or, better yet, 'Go for it.' You'll end up sinking Democratic Party prospects for 2008."
... and Watergate was only a 3rd-rate burglary!
On July 5th we registered the following recall petition with the Secretary of State of Arizona.
We the qualified electors of the electoral district from which Terry Goddard, Attorney General, was elected, demand his recall. The grounds of this demand are as follows:
In April of 2005 Governor Janet Napolitano signed into law a Senate bill requiring a new voter registration form for the state of Arizona. The form had one significant change, which was to remove the check box marked No Party Preference, leaving only a space marked Specify Party Preference. A political party spokesman has indicated that this was done by the political parties to stop a rapid increase in the number of independent voter registrations which had taken place in recent years. The right to register to vote is retained by the people and cannot be legally denied or diminished by political parties or any oter self-created societies.
The immediate effect of this petition was to inject into this discussion the statement of the Attorney General that he has nothing to do with this matter and that the Secretary of State is free to write the voter registration form any way she chooses as long as it is approved by the Judicial Review Board in Washington, D. C. This differs from statements made by the Secretary of State's office which said that the wording of the new voter registration form came to the Secretary of State from the legislature and the governor and was approved by the Judicial Review Board in Washington, D.C. and was therefore final.
Our position is that the new voter registration form was a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and that the Attorney General has a duty to inform the Governor when the state is in violation of federal law.
Robert B. Winn
Party tactics regarding voter registration--Watch for this in your state.
In 2005 The Arizona legislature sent to the governor of Arizona Senate bill 1218 which was signed into law by the governor requiring a new voter registration form. The wording for the new form was included in the bill, which was essentially the same as far as the information a voter would give except that the option to register as an independent voter had been removed, leaving only a space marked Specify Party Preference.
Here are the statistics for registrations of new independent voters in Arizona from 2000 to 2006.
2000-2002 107,715
2002-2004 165,771
2004-2006 26,483
2006-2007 30,738
We have registered a petition to recall the Attorney General of Arizona with the Secretary of State to inform the parties that we have caught them red-handed once again, and that they are not as clever as they believe they are.
The signature requirement and time constraints on the petition will probably make it impractical to obtain enough signatures to actually recall the Attorney General.
These statistics for voter registration show the dilemma that the parties have. Using a voter registration form that tells them that they must register as members of political parties, 26,483 citizens of Arizona on their own volition registered as independent voters. The next statistic is even more interesting. The rate of independent voter registrations more than doubles the next year. In the end, the new voter registration form will have no effect except to increase registration of independent voters in Arizona.
The United States government was organized and established by independent voters, and originally all voters in the United States were independent. Political parties are self-created societies which seek special status for themselves in government the same way royalty in Europe have special status.
Robert B. Winn
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