TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS - Independents have a lot to be thankful for!

Thanksgiving is this week. Time to clear out the leftover stalks from the harvest. All those dried leaves from the NJ and VA gov races and the NY-23 congressional race... And the pods from the NYC mayoral (by the way, the final count including paper ballots is 150,000 votes on the Independence Party line). Do we pile them up, burn the field, or mulch and wait? Some of the most interesting things in the field right now are the roots -- nonpartisan elections, open primaries and independent candidates in local races -- as independents prepare for the next season. We have a lot to be thankful for -- let's celebrate a bountiful harvest!

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Economy Is Weak, Voters Are Angry -- Time for Third Party? (By Mort Kondracke, RealClearPolitics)
• Voters' disgust is mere illusion (Daily Record - Morristown NJ)

OPEN PRIMARIES/ NONPARTISAN ELECTIONS

• Local African-American voters weigh in on nonpartisan voting (David Anderson, ENC Today) “When I vote I look at the person, listen to their views, then I compare them to the person they’re running against; that’s how I make my decision.”
• Republicans decide to retain the "open primary" system (Beaufort Observer - NC)
• State GOP is wise to keep primaries open (Stanford Herald)

2010 GOV RACES

• Candidates for governor spar over local aid cuts (By John R. Ellement, Boston Globe) State Treasurer Timothy Cahill, an independent candidate for governor, spars with Republican gubernatorial hopefuls, Charles Baker and Christy Mihos, over cutting local aid.
• Poll shows Michigan voters lack enthusiasm for party politics (BY DAWSON BELL, DETROIT FREE PRESS)

2012

• Mark McKinnon Suggests Bloomberg Could Win Presidency as an Independent in 2012 (Ballot Access News)

WORKING FAMILIES PARTY

• Labor's love lost for Working Families Party (David Seifman, NY Post/Inside City Hall)
• Pressure on Region’s House Democrats to Back Health Care Overhaul (By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ, NY Times)
• Vote for Business! An anti-labor party. (By Jacob Gershman, New York Magazine/Intelligencer) NOTE: This is a terrible article, but I include here because it's part of how the media continues to "cover" third parties like WFP and NYC Independence Party -- i.e. like they don't know what they're talking about. Clearly, Jacob Gershman doesn't know what he's talking about...

LOCAL INDEPENDENT POLITICS

• Independent Fiala declared winner of Kent mayoral election after coin flip (Tom Gallick, Kent News Net)