TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 8/9/10

OPEN PRIMARIES

• State primary system needs to change (BY ROCHELLE RILEY, DETROIT FREE PRESS) For frustrated independent voters, Tuesday's primary forced them to temporarily join parties they didn't want to belong to in the first place... It's time to put people's rights above parties' rights. 

COLORADO

• Colorado Independents Can Still Vote in Primary Election (Brian Larson, NPR - KUNC) This voting bloc helped Democrats elect Barack Obama in 2008....  Dumm says the law allows unaffiliated voters to sign up with a party, even on primary election day, cast a ballot - and then switch back to their independent status. Nearly a third of Colorado voters are unaffiliated with either of the major political parties.
• Lawsuit challenges contribution limits for third-party and unaffiliated candidates in Colorado (By Jessica Fender, The Denver Post)
• Curry embodies the real spirit of democracy (LETTER Glenwood Springs Post Independent)
• Curry Files Lawsuit Over Campaign Finance Rules (CBS4 Denver)

ILLINOIS

• Our Opinion: Time is not right for citizen initiative (THE STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER) His amendment would allow voters to propose bills related to ethics and campaign finance.

NEW YORK

• Dem leader John Sampson gets a nasty earful from disgruntled LGBT activists (ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, NY Daily News) Former Bronx Borough President Freddy Ferrer is reigniting an old fight against his former nemesis, Mayor Bloomberg, saying the mayor is again pushing nonpartisan elections so he can handpick his successor.
• Ex-Independence Party Officer Frank Morano Files Scathing Elections Complaint (BY CELESTE KATZ, NY Daily News/Daily Politics)

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• No Easy Answers In Charter Review (By DOMENICK RAFTER, Queens Tribune) On non-partisan elections, most commissioners agreed that the current process is unfair to most voters. Commissioner Fiala said that there were more than three quarters of a million voters in New York City not registered in a party, thus meaning they could not vote in partisan primaries, which is where most elections in the city are decided.
• Kresky: Race Relations, Nonpartisan Elections, and … (Written by jamiemoffett, LINK at You May Not Spit On Black People in 2010)

LAST WORD

• America Goes Dark (By PAUL KRUGMAN, NY Times) In effect, a large part of our political class is showing its priorities: given the choice between asking the richest 2 percent or so of Americans to go back to paying the tax rates they paid during the Clinton-era boom, or allowing the nation’s foundations to crumble — literally in the case of roads, figuratively in the case of education — they’re choosing the latter.