Hankster News of the Day for Independent Voters - August 10

INDEPENDENTS RISING

• Independents Rising, by Jacqueline Salit (By Kymberly Bays, IVN) Where Salit’s book is most interesting is the anecdotes of independent successes and failures. A deeply entrenched member of two decades of independent movements, she gives insider accounts of campaign activities, deals and negotiations.
• Book Review: Jackie Salit’s “Independents Rising” (Posted by Nancy Hanks, The Moderate Voice) Are you among the 40 something percent of Americans who consider themselves political independents? You will appreciate this new book by Jacqueline Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, long-time activist and strategist for the independent movement. I urge you to rush to your local bookstore and read this smart, witty and engaging look at American politics in 2012 from an outsider’s inside take.

Q&A with Jackie Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org

June 1, 2012 

Morrison Institute 

Jackie Salit

Jackie Salit, a leader in the independent movement and author of INDEPENDENTS RISING, Outsider Movements, Third Parties, and the Struggle for a Post-Partisan America, was recently interviewed by Joseph Garcia, communications director at Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Salit is president of IndependentVoting.org and managed all three of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns on the Independence Party line. She also was a leader in the fight for nonpartisan elections in New York City and consulted with leaders of the coalition that passed Proposition 14, the Top Two Initiative in California that will be in effect this year. 
Salit recently was in Arizona, which could decide in the fall whether to also adopt the top-two vote-getter system for elections.

Audio: Q&A with Jackie Salit (32:33 running time)
MI Briefing: Top-Two Proposition: What Nonpartisan Elections Could Mean for Arizona


INDEPENDENT REFORM
What Are Your Favored Electoral Reforms? (By Damon Eris, IVN) Primary System Reform: In the vast majority of states, primary elections are the means by which the Democratic and Republican parties nominate their candidates for a given office, and in states with closed primaries (roughly half), only party members may cast ballots in those elections, thus disenfranchising millions of Independent voters across the country. Why should tax payers be forced to subsidize an internal party process that they are prohibited from participating in? The solution here is rather simple: primary elections should be open to all registered voters or they should not be publicly funded. If the parties desire to maintain closed primary elections, they can privately fund these elections themselves. Surely, their corporate sponsors would be willing to supply the necessary funding, as, in many cases, they already own the major parties’ candidates.

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

• Letter: Inequality exists for independents (Albany Times Union) I am pleased to see the Times Union has adopted my long-held opinion of "one ballot line per candidate" ("Third-party shenanigans," Aug. 3). The editorial makes reference to the petition process but fails to emphasize the inequality that exists between candidates who are truly independent and those who belong to parties recognized by the state.
• The third-party candidate who could derail Mitt Romney (By Scott Bomboy, CONSTITUTION DAILY in Philadelphia Inquirer) With Mitt Romney needing Virginia - especially if President Barack Obama can take Ohio or Florida - Goode could become the little-known spoiler in the national election.