Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Hankster News of the Day for Independents - May 29

Today's picks on the independent political scene:

  • The Buzz: Independent Voter Project urging 'nones' to vote on June 5 (By Bee staff) The Independent Voter Project, which wrote the measure leading to the new top-two primary, is mailing fliers and using social media to urge people with no party preference to vote on June 5. One flier pictures two men smoking cigars and says, "Political bosses made their choices" and "you were not involved." It adds, "This time you're invited … the new open primary puts you in charge." The flier was sent to about 250,000 Californians who listed no party preference when they registered to vote, said Steve Peace, a former state legislator and chairman of the Independent Voter Project.
  • Top-two primary affects Assembly race - Two Republicans are certain to face-off in November (Written by Christopher Cadelago, UT San Diego News) Under the old partisan primary system, these candidates likely would be motivated to appeal to the Republican core to win their party’s nomination for the November election. But all voters can now vote for any candidate.
  • Linda Parks Tops IVN Survey of Independent Voters in CD-26 (By Kymberly Bays, IVN) The results are in for the IVN Independent Voter Survey in California’s 26th Congressional District. Over a thousand voters participated in the first of its kind demonstration project. The election was by secret ballot, conducted by Everyone Counts, the international leader in online election technology.
  • Massachusetts Senate Race to Be Decided by Independent Voters (By Michael Abrams, IVN) Most significant, however, is Massachusetts’s voter demographics: more than half the state’s voters are registered independents. With Warren a dream-candidate for the States’ liberals, and Brown conservative enough for most establishment Republicans, the race has become a brawl for the independent vote.
  • Donald Trump and Mitt Romney's Kiss of Death to Black and Independent Voters (Black Star News Editorial) Gingrich and Trump are the last people Romney wants to embrace if he's serious about reaching level-headed Black voters and many Independents as well who repudiate race-baiting. Gingrich famously referred to President Obama as the "welfare president." It was his desperate appeal to racists, including some in the Tea Party, who have never forgiven voters for electing Barack Obama as the country's first Black president. 
  • 2012 Election: King gift to Obama draws fire from rivals - The independent donated to Democrats before he became a candidate for the U.S. Senate. (By Colin Woodard, Morning Sentinel)
  • Gay marriage? Bullying? Voters don’t care. (Posted by Chris Cillizza, Washington Post/The Fix) In a brand spanking new Washington Post-ABC News national poll, 56 percent of registered voters said that Obama’s stance on gay marriage would not be a major factor in their vote. Fifty seven percent of independents said the same.
  • Romney Handily Winning Independent Voters (by Bryan Schott, UTAH POLICY) The Hill notes that in 12 of the last 14 major polls taken about the 2012 race, Romney has an average lead among independent voters over Barack Obama of 6.5%. That's despite a national lead for Obama in 8 of those 14 polls.
  • Brazile: Not the year of the third party (By Donna Brazile/Syndicated columnist, MetroWest Daily News) Then, from the center, came Americans Elect, an ambitious organization that spent $35 million dollars and accomplished the impressive feat of registering in 29 states. It received a lot of favorable publicity, as well as respectful recognition from credible political writers.
  • Kelly's Tenure Divides the Mayoral Contenders (By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL, Wall Street Journal) Two Democrats—Bill Thompson, a former city comptroller, and John Liu, the current comptroller—said they wouldn't keep Mr. Kelly at 1 Police Plaza. City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who leads in mayoral polls, and Tom Allon, a long-shot, have signaled they would. And two others—Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer—won't say, though both have expressed deep concerns about some of Mr. Kelly's policies, most notably the street tactic known as "stop and frisk."
  • NY-8: "An Evolution Of Charles Barron"? (BY Celeste Katz, NY Daily News/ Daily Politics) I spoke at some length with Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron and DC 37 Political Director Wanda Williams about the union's decision to go with him over Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries in the battle for the NY-8 Congressional endorsement. 
  • Romney’s plan seems certain to hasten privatization of public schools systems (BY Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, In Salt Lake Tribune) If you don’t like Obama’s agenda, you might like Romney’s even less. A Chance For Every Child is the education program that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee spelled out in a speech and a white paper released Wednesday. Romney is advancing a pro-choice, pro-voucher, pro-states-rights education program that seems certain to hasten the privatization of the public education system. In a Romney-run education world, the parents of poor and special-education students would choose a school - public or private, based on standardized test scores and other data - and then a specific amount of public money would follow the child to the school.
  • Red Mind, Blue Mind: Are There Really Any Independents? (Wray Herbert, Author "On Second Thought: Outsmarting Your Mind's Hard-Wired Habits", Huffington Post) As Hawkins reported this week at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, in Chicago, self-proclaimed Independents are not as independent-minded as they claim they are. In fact, Independents vary greatly in their unconscious partisanship, and they make partisan political judgments in line with their implicit political identities.

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