Ashley Casey gets 4% in Louisiana's 6th special election Saturday

Chris Cillizza missed the story in his column "Democrat Wins La. Special Election" about special election in Louisiana's 6th district yesterday, where independent candidate Ashley Casey won 4% of the votes, the margin of defeat for Repub Woody Jenkins which allowed Dem Don Cazayoux to win. Fortunately, Robert Goodwin got it (see his comment).

More here:

• Can Youx Believe It? (National Journal/Hotline) A surprising factor in the race for the Baton Rouge-area CD turned out to be conservative/GOPer-turned-indie Ashley Casey, who took 3.7K votes (4.2% - the margin of defeat for Jenkins)
• Democrat takes Louisiana special U.S. House election (Southern Political Report) small but significant number -- 3,718 (4%) -- of votes cast for Ashley Casey, a no-party candidate and a former aide to last year’s millionaire gubernatorial candidate John Georges.
• RESULTS BY PARISH

Ashley Casey wants your vote in Louisiana.

Ashley, from Baton Rouge, and a former aide to top Republicans in the state, is running as an independent. She told the Press Club of Baton Rouge this week that her election would send a forceful message to the major parties about the unpopularity of “business as usual” in Congress."
Please feel free to email me at ashley@ashleycasey.com with any questions!

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Democrats to let independents vote in primary (Register-Herald - Beckley WV) In advance of the May 13 primary, Democrats mailed special letters to some 145,000 non-affiliated voters, the so-called “independents,” inviting them to help pick their candidates for the fall balloting.
• Independents say they’ll be back (Paul Giblin, East Valley Tribune/Checking In/Freedom Blogging)
• Democrats sending 100,000 invitations to Independent voters before primary (Charleston Daily Mail)
• Parties look ahead to May 13 primary (Huntington Herald-Dispatch.com)

POLLS

• Hillary Drops Back-A new Newsweek poll shows Obama pulling away. (Newsweek Web Exclusive) In a race against McCain, Obama gets more independent support than Clinton does.
• LINK TO COMPLETE POLL RESULTS
• Pre-Pennsylvania Primary Poll: Obama O-Belts it Out of the Park (Half Empty - pro-Obama blog)

NORTH CAROLINA

• Clinton aide: NC win would be 'biggest upset of the century' (CNN Political Ticker)
• Tight race draws people out (Blueridge Times-News)
• Officials: Interest growing in one-stop early voting (Hickory Daily Record)

LOUISIANA INDEPENDENT ASHLEY CASEY * Candidates Face Challenges in Louisiana 6th Congressional Race (Bayou Buzz)

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Missouri Senate Committee Hears Testimony on Bill to Move Independent Petition Deadline from July to March (Ballot Access News)


• Clearly, change is needed in the U.S. (El Paso Times) No matter our political affiliation, we can probably all agree that the past eight years have been rife with deception on the part of our national leaders.


• Oregon: Party means zip (Albany Democrat Herald - OR) Link to One Ballot campaign for open primaries in Oregon -- You can download a petition from the site


• Crunching the NC registration numbers (msnbc First Read) And the unaffiliated group, which gained almost 50,000 new voters in the last three months, added an additional 2,700 net from the shuffle.

CAMPAIGN

• In swing states, which Democrat has the edge? (The Arizona Republic) Mark Blumenthal, editor and publisher of the Web site Pollster.com, noted that Bill Clinton wasn't ahead in a single poll at this time in 1992 and that John Kerry was leading this time in 2004. In both cases, voters had changed their minds by November. NOTE: At this time in 1992, Ross Perot was leading with an estimated 284 electoral votes based on state polls, compared to 158 for Bush and 16 for Bill Clinton [from Doug Schoen's Declaring Independence: The Beginning of the End of the Two-Party System]...


• Weak Economy Sours Public’s View of Future, New Poll Finds (NY Times) 81% of Americans think we're on the wrong track; poll pdf includes numbers on partisan identification since 1992


• New North Carolina Debate Proposed For April 27th (CBS Horserace)


• Indiana Demo chair raises threat of challenging GOP crossovers (WTHI-TV) Indiana does not require voters to declare their party allegiances.

LOCAL

• Louisiana Congressional Race: The Voice of Reform (Bayou Buzz) Ashley Casey, the former political consultant for John Georges and Suzie Terrell, seeks to demonstrate to the public that she is the only candidate truly Independent of the Washington power-brokers in the race.


• GA: Is Bob Barr the next Ron Paul? (The Loft/GOP-USA) Former Georgia Repub congressman might run for prez as independent


• CT: The Bloomfield Republican Town Committee submitted its list of delegates for the forthcoming state conventions (Bloomfield Journal - CT) There are 7,152 Democrats, 1,598 Republicans and 4,515 unaffiliated voters in Bloomfield.

REFORM ----- California Voters First Redistricting Reform Update (The Rose Report)

FEATURE ----- No Really. Hillary Has a Decent Shot (RealClearPolitics) Facinating map work!


P.S.-- If you haven't already, do Click here to take the CUIP Presidential Survey... CUIP wants to know what independent voters think!