TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES FOR INDEPENDENT VOTERS 9/21/10

POVERTY

• Surprising number of Americans believe government programs increase poverty level (Access News) There is a fundamental difference of opinion on this topic between the nation's Political Class and Mainstream Americans. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the Political Class believe that government programs reduce poverty. But 56% of those in the Mainstream think government programs actually increase the amount of poverty in the United States.

MIDTERMS

• Diamondstone, Newton run on socialist ticket (By CHRIS GAROFOLO / Brattleboro Reformer Staff) Brattleboro resident and longtime Liberty Union Party member Peter Diamondstone has appeared on numerous Vermont ballots in the last four decades. But for the first time, the party he helped found will not appear next to his name. Diamondstone is seeking public office on the socialist ticket, campaigning for Vermont’s U.S. Senate seat currently held by longtime Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy.
• Under Fire from Kendrick Meek and Marco Rubio, Charlie Crist Runs TV Ad Targeting Rubio (BY: KEVIN DERBY, Sunshine State News) Mired in third place in most polls, the Meek camp hopes to win over Democrats and liberal independent voters who may be backing Crist as the best option to defeat Rubio.
• Our view: We'll find out - Senator stakes career on claim that she's Alaska's choice (Anchorage Daily News) With a cry of "Let's make history," and a Dena'ina center rally, she launched an independent, write-in campaign to keep her seat in the United States Senate. Reactions range from "sore loser" to "thank heaven," from the view that Murkowski is putting herself above the party process and breaking her word, to the view that she's defying the party process for the sake of Alaska.
• Blue strongholds are becoming Democratic graveyards (By Michael Gerson, Washington Post) The Quinnipiac poll produced the single-most startling figure of the midterm election so far: 65 percent of Ohio's likely independent voters now disapprove of Obama's job performance -- a 2 to 1 rejection. Obama has lost the center of the electorate in the center of America.
• Pennsylvania Voters May Toss Out Dems In Nov. Midterms (By JED GRAHAM, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY) The GOP rebound reflects both the depths to which the party had fallen and an apparent rejection by independent voters of Democratic rule, at least of the one-party type.

NEW YORK

• A Tea Party Gov Candidate Not Named Paladino (By Azi Paybarah, WNYC/The Empire)
• Election 2010: New York Governor: Cuomo (D) 54%, Paladino (R) 38% (Rasmussen Reports)
• Bloomberg on Obama, a White House Bid and Bloggers (By MICHAEL BARBARO, NY Times/City Room)
• O'Malley gets nod from NYC mayor (Baltimore Sun/Maryland Politics) Gov. Martin O’Malley Sunday obtained a blessing from an increasingly rare national political creature: A self-proclaimed moderate.
• Freedom Party pushes Black, Latino power and politics (BY FINALCALL.COM NEWS) In an open letter to the Black and Latino community, the Freedom Party said, “We are asking you to think differently about the political process. Like all other groups, Blacks must play to win, symbolic victories will no longer suffice. Consider this, other leaders want immigration reform in return for 68 percent of the Latino vote, a woman Supreme Court judge who is committed to woman's rights, and more attention given to protect the rights of gay Americans. However, in the absence of a strident Black voice, the legitimate unresolved issues still confronting Black Americans become obscured.”
• Second Circuit Upholds Restrictive New York Law on When Voters Can Switch from One Party to Another (Ballot Access News)