Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Monday, July 12, 2010

Independent Voters and Partisan Primaries

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
  • Independents skip role in primaries (by Mary Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic)
  • The rise of the independent voter: Will it matter? (by Bill Hart, Arizona Republic/azcentral) As of June 1, Republicans made up 36 percent of registered voters, Democrats had 33 percent and independents 31 percent.
  • Passion Pit - Democrats are trapped in a fiendish electoral dilemma. (E.J. Dionne Jr., The National Review) If there is an answer to this conundrum, it lies in the reality that many voters—partisans and independents alike—are not particularly ideological. They respond to facts as they see them (a stalled economic recovery) and to a party's performance (the Senate Republicans' obstruction ends up hurting Democrats because they are supposed to be in charge).
  • A Modest Proposal: the Pelosi-Boehner Speaker Debates - Top party leaders should face each other just as presidential candidates do. (Jonathan Alter, Newsweek) Speaker debates would do little or nothing to change the minds of Democrats and Republicans; the same is true of the presidential versions. But the election, while dependent in part on party turnout, will also hinge on the reaction of independent voters, who make up a third or more of the electorate. Do they think President Obama and the Democrats are passing too much legislation? Are they ready to go back to Republican priorities in Congress? These are the most central political questions of our time, and speaker debates would help the voters answer them.
  • America Needs A Nancy Pelosi-John Boehner Debate Like It Needs A Gaping Head Wound (Jason Linkins, Huffington Post/Eat the Press) I'd also have to point out that if you want to find out if independent voters are ready to "go back to Republican priorities," you would have to GO AND ASK THE INDEPENDENT VOTERS. (Spoiler alert: Pelosi's answer will be, "No," and Boehner's answer will be "Yes.")
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