TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 9/3/10

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Close primary election loophole - Lawmakers should let Floridians close the loophole that closes primaries. (Orlando Sentinel)
• Sign the open primaries pledge at Florida Sunshine Independents

GOV RACES

• Candidate Cahill promises reforms (By JIM KINNEY, The Republican on Mass Live.com) State Treasurer and independent candidate for governor Timothy P. Cahill promised Wednesday morning to apply reforms from the Massachusetts School Building Authority to transportation projects.
• Gov. Deval Patrick, Glenn Beck, and the First Amendment (The State Column) Mr. Patrick is facing his first re-election fight. Mr. Cahill is running against the incumbent governor, along with Republican Charles Baker. Recent polls show a tight race between Mr. Patrick and Mr. Baker.
• Maine Gubernatorial Candidates Spar Over Education Reforms (By: A.J. Higgins, Maine Public Broadcasting Network) [Independent gov candidate Eliot] Cutler says the dual system has created silos that preserve the status quo at a time when collaboration could benefit students and decrease costs. "These silos may benefit certain programs or certain professors, but they're not benefiting the kids," he says. "And you have kids that are caught between the community colleges and the universities, you have one university changing its curriculum in a way that another university in the same system doesn't realize it's doing. We're not using our resources well to the benefit of the kids who we're trying to educate. It's just an enormous set of mistakes."
• Louisiana GOP, Obama Making Democrats See Red (by Jeff Crouere, Bayou Buzz) All of these trends are leading toward a very uncomfortable electoral season for the Democratic Party in Louisiana. While the party still retains the loyalty of African American voters, white voters are leaving the Democrats in huge numbers.... In a conservative state like Louisiana, the challenge for Democrats is even greater. On Saturday, in the Senate primaries, more people voted for David Vitter than Charlie Melancon, even though Democrats allowed Independents to vote in their primary and approximately 75 percent of voters were eligible to participate.
•  NOTE: Crouere is an explicit opponent of what he has called the "socialist agenda" of Barack Obama...
• Independence Party Ticket will be Allen-Zanni (KEVIN DERBY'S BLOG, Sunshine State News)
• Kendrick Who? Crist camp says its poll points to a Crist-Rubio Senate race (by George Bennett, Palm Beach Post)

NEW YORK

• NYC mayor: No reason to probe mosque's finances (By The Associated Press, First Amendment Center) U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Republican who’s the ranking minority leader of the Homeland Security Committee, said on Aug. 31 that he disagreed with the mayor. He said the question of financing was fundamental to assessing the Islamic center project’s backers.
• Critics Root for Espada’s Exit, but He’s Dug In (By SAM DOLNICK, NY Times) He vowed to defeat his opponents, whom, over the course of an interviews, he dismissed as “outsiders,” “bullies” “limousine liberals” and more. “They’re ganging up on me,” he said. “They’re an invading army coming in and leasing someone in the community to do their bidding, and the people of this district see it for what it is.”

NYC CHARTER REVISION

• After All These Years: Another Term Limits Column (By MICHAEL SCHENKLER, Queens Tribune) I’m with Henry and wer’re both with the people.

LAST WORD

• How Barack Obama Became Mr. Unpopular (By MICHAEL SCHERER, Time Magazine)