TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS - Health Care Reform, Open Primaries

Health Care Reform fallout -- it's about the independents. Arizona Repubs: Independents need not apply. California Proposition 14 open primary initiative has 56% approval to 27% opposition. Only 5% of Tea Party activists consider themselves independent. NY Times commentator Thomas Friedman supports ranked voting. ACORN reorganizes operations. Kinston NC struggles for nonpartisan elections. Kathleen Curry and Joelle Riddle shake up Colorado politics. NYC Charter Revision Commission gets underway. NY State Sen. Pedro Espada stumps for farm workers.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• CA: The Voters That Might Sway Elections (Posted By John Myers, KQED/Capital Notes) When asked about hypothetical matchups between each of the three Republicans and the incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer, the feelings of another subgroup of voters are worth noting: independents, the single fastest growing group of voters in the state.
• Obama and GOP battle for independent voters (By: JULIE MASON, Washington Examiner White House Correspondent)

OPEN PRIMARIES

• AZ State GOP Considers Blocking Independents (Peter Busch, KPHO Phoenix)

PROP 14

• California voters angry, irritated, pessimistic says new survey  (Central Valley Business Times)
• Look out, incumbents! (JOHN MARELIUS, San Diego Union Tribune)
• MAJORITY FAVOR PROPOSITION 14 (Full report from PPIC 3/24 Survey)
• California Green Party Creates Anti-Prop. 14 Leaflet (Ballot Access News)

TEA PARTY

• Poll: Tea Party Is The Home Of The Angry White Woman (Evan McMorris-Santoro, TPMDC Talking Points Memo)
• March 24, 2010 - Tea Party Could Hurt GOP In Congressional Races, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Dems Trail 2-Way Races, But Win If Tea Party Runs (Quinnipiac) 5 percent are solidly independent
• A Tea Party Without Nuts (By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, NY Times) But I’ve come to realize that none of these innovations will emerge at scale until we get the most important innovation of all — political innovation that will empower independents and centrists, which describes a lot of the country. Radical center, ranked voting, nonpartisan redistricting...
• 'Tea party' activists happier with the GOP (By Kathleen Hennessey, LA Times)

ACORN

• ACORN Closing Its Doors, Chapters Might Re-Emerge (By Kate Rogers, Nonprofit Times)
• ACORN to formally disband (Reuters)

NORTH CAROLINA

• Independent voter growth showing its muscle (By Charles Deal | Special to the Hickory Record)
• Doug Clark: The feds could find business here, too (By DOUG CLARK, Greensboro News Record) Of course, most North Carolina cities and towns hold nonpartisan elections. Greensboro does. Is that a violation of civil rights? Could last November's defeat of Yvonne Johnson, Greensboro's first black mayor, be blamed on nonpartisan voting? If she'd been identified on the ballot as a Democrat, and Bill Knight as a Republican, would more voters have figured out they were supposed to vote for her? Please, let's not ask the Justice Department to answer that.

COLORADO

• Democrats still mad at Curry (Scott Condon, The Aspen Times)
• Rep. Curry Says She’s At Peace With Her Decision To Switch Parties (State Bill Colorado)
• Neither party is worthy of support (LETTER Post Independent)

NEW YORK

• Dozen Council Members Form a Bloc for Liberals (By DAVID W. CHEN, NY Times)
• Poll: No Fourth Term For Bloomberg (By Azi Paybarah, NY Observer)
• Cracks Bedevil Bloomberg’s Driveway (By NEW YORK TIMES/City Room) Sometimes, those recommendations are passed. Other times, they fall short, as was the case in 2003, when voters rejected Mr. Bloomberg’s dream of holding nonpartisan elections.
• Amigos Grown Up, But Not Gone (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Espada wants farm workers vote, just like same-sex marriage (by Jimmy Vielkind, Albany Times Union/Capitol Confidential)