Unraveling New York State Independence Party With John Haggerty

• NYC mayor: Victim in political operative's trial? (Associated Press, Wall Street Journal) While the party isn't charged, prosecutors have said in a lawsuit that the party knew or should have known about Haggerty's alleged scam. The lawsuit seeks to force the party and Haggerty to forfeit the money he allegedly stole; for now, the suit has prompted a civil court judge to freeze one of the party's accounts last winter.
  
• Setback in Bloomberg Case (By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL, Wall Street Journal) Mayor Michael Bloomberg knew he wouldn't control the spending of more than $1 million he gave the New York State Independence Party for the 2009 election, a defense attorney for a political operative accused of stealing the mayor's money argued Monday. State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel dealt Manhattan prosecutors a setback by denying their motion to bar the defense from making that argument at the trial of the operative, John Haggerty.
  
• Bloomberg recovers in Quinnipiac poll (By ALEXANDER BURNS, Politico) Incidentally, the path for Bloomberg — or any wealthy, moderate independent — to run for president has always involved President Obama tanking and the Republicans nominating someone with drastically limited appeal. So the conditions for a serious third-party run haven't faded, even if the prospect of finding a viable candidate has.
• Is Independence Party’s influence waning? (By ELIZABETH COOPER, Utica Observer-Dispatch) The Independence Party has taken a tumble from the coveted third line — directly below the Democratic and Republican parties — down to the fifth line.

Hot Summer, Volatile Political Scene in New York State

NEW YORK

• Protesters surprise Meeks over debt vote; Pol calms fears of demonstrators (by AnnMarie Costella, Queens Chronicle) On a picturesque afternoon, the group — a combination of individuals from UnitedNY.org, New York Communities for Change and the Working Families Party — marched in front of Meeks’ office chanting slogans like “Help the poor and the needy, not the rich and the greedy,” and “This is what democracy looks like.” They also waved signs, some of which read “Protect Queens” and “Whose side are you on?”
• Protestors in Harlem Rail Against Zimbabwe Sanctions and Libya Bombing (Bulawayo 24 News) Some of the organizing groups were the Nation of Islam, the December 12 Movement, the Freedom Party and many local organizations, most reflecting the Pan-African activist movement. Anti-imperialist organizations like the International Action Center also supported the event. Workers World Party members distributed thousands of newspapers and leaflets throughout the city to build for the action.
• MATTER OF NEW YORK STATE COMM. OF INDEPENDENCE PARTY v. NEW YORK STATE BD. OF ELECTIONS ( Leagle.com) Re: Erie County Wilson Pakula authorization
• MATTER OF McGRATH v. ABELOVE (Leagle.com) Re: Rensselaer County Wilson Pakula authorization
• Bosworth loses Independence ballot line (JESSICA ABLAMSKY, The Island Now) Nassau County Legislator Judi Bosworth (D-Great Neck) was thrown off the Independence Party line for the Sept. 13 primary election after a successful lawsuit by her District 10 opponent, Republican Elizabeth Berney, a Great Neck resident who twice ran unsuccessful challenges against Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights).

NY Assembly 23 Special Election Shaping Up

NEW YORK

• Queens Dems Respond To Koch Bid For GOP Vote Swing (John Toscano, Queens Gazette) In admonishing Koch for his opposition to Weprin, Silver acknowledged that Obama has a problem with Jewish New Yorkers, but electing a Republican to take the 9th CD seat was not the answer. Koch had said electing Republican Turner to the long-held Democratic seat would send a message to Obama that his position on Israel was wrong.
• QUEENS GOP NOMINATES THREE IN SPECIAL ELECTIONS (John Toscano, Queens Gazette) In the 23d AD (Rockaway), County Chairman Phil Ragusa announced, the party nominated Jane Deacy, of Rockaway, the candidate against Democrat Phillip Goldfeder, in the election to fill Audrey Pheffer’s seat. Deacy is a former police officer, a grandmother, and co-leader with Councilmember Eric Ulrich (R-C-Ozone Park).
• Previewing the Special Elections (Gotham Gazette/The Wonkster) The Towns faction and the Lopez faction have been at odds, and some see the outcome of this as a high-stakes proxy fight. ” If Deidra Towns is victorious, the argument goes, there would be a ripple effect for the congressional players involved…. The other races seem more clear-cut. In the 23rd Assembly District in Queens, Philip Golfeder, an aide to Sen. Charles Schumer and former aide to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and onetime City Councilmember Simcha Felder, has Democratic, Independence and Working Families Party backing for the seat in the 23rd district, left vacant when Audrey Pheffer left to become Queens County clerk. Jane Deacy is the Republican/Conservative candidate. Vivian Carter has filed to get on the ballot as the Green Party candidate but documents from the Board of Elections indicate possible problems with her filing papers.
• Party claims GOP stole its line (Justin Murphy The Citizen, AuburnPub.com) Leaders of the Cayuga County Independence Party, unhappy about the slate of Republicans that will appear on its ballot line this November, are asking the county Board of Elections to remove them.

NY Independence Part in a Fix

The NY independence parties funds remain frozen by judge ruling as the drama over the case of the mayor's money continues.

NEW YORK

• Case of mayor's money puts NY Independence Party in costly spot; funds frozen as judge queries (JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press, EXCERPT The Republic - Columbus IN)

Pardon Billy the Kid, NOT the Parties!

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Calif. blue election not likely to see conservative voters (Becky Yeh - OneNewsNow California correspondent, American Family News Network) The election will take place February 15 and will be the first of its kind since constituents voted to pass Proposition 14 and enable the top two vote-getters to run in the general election. But Craig Huey, speaker and founder of the Election Forum, says the Christian voice will be completely silenced this election in blue (Democrat-dominated) California.
• Special election set for Runner's seat (Wesley G. Hughes, San Bernardino Sun) The deadline for filing for candidacy for the seat in the district, which cuts a swath across the northern sectors of San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Ventura counties, plus a minuscule piece of south Kern County, is 5 p.m. Jan. 3
• Status of Republican Party Attempts to Obtain Party Registration via Courts in Two States (Ballot Access News) The Republican Parties in two states, Idaho and South Carolina, are currently litigating whether they are constitutionally entitled to some procedure that will prevent adherents of other political parties from voting in Republican primaries.

NEW YORK

• Third Parties Have Newfound Clout in NY (By Michael Gormley, Associated Press, Brooklyn Eagle) “It certainly is a stronger position,” said Long. “We moved up, and the Working Families Party moved up. I would give them credit ... the reason we moved up is because both parties represent something.”
• Green, Conservative parties ready newfound clout (Associated Press, Wall Street Journal) "I think it's a better system, even though we changed positions," MacKay said. "Obviously we all want to be on Row A for bragging rights, but under the new system it's better for the voter to pick who he or she wants."

LAST WORD

• Decision on possible Billy the Kid pardon expected by end of week (By Phil Gast, CNN) As of last week, Gov. Bill Richardson had received about 400 responses on a special website dedicated to answering a generations-old question: Should outlaw Billy the Kid get a pardon in the killing of a sheriff?
• Pardon Billy the Kid?

City Hall News: Independent Streak -- Back and Forth: Fred Newman

Independent Streak

Back and Forth: Fred Newman

By Chris Bragg

Fred Newman, the controversial psychotherapist, philosopher, playwright and political activist, has not been in the news as much as his onetime nemesis, Frank MacKay, the chair of the State Independence Party who once tried to boot Newman from the party over his beliefs.
Nonetheless, the city-based faction of the Independence Party has been working hard to make one last push for non-partisan elections, while watching MacKay’s travails from afar. Newman discussed his desire to see Mayor Michael Bloomberg push harder for non-partisan elections, how the state Independence Party has strayed from its roots, and why reporters do not call him very much anymore.
Click here for an edited transcript.

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS: Is Open Primaries Coming to Your State?

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Arizonans should watch closely (The Arizona Republic) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's outgoing Republican governor, readily acknowledged in a news conference that the goal is to reduce the power of political parties: "We wanted to have the politicians be public servants and not party servants." He touted open primaries as a way to keep politicians from getting "stuck in their ideological corners."
• In Our View: One More Top Two - Washington’s system for primary voting is starting to catch on elsewhere (The Columbian - WA)
• EDITORIAL: Watch this California experiment: State's move to an open primary might reveal what works, what doesn't (The Buffalo News, printed on Leagle.com) But it is a big step with a noble purpose. New York should watch and learn.
• House backs open primary elections for 2011 (Capitol News Bureau, Louisiana Politics Blog, By JORDAN BLUM, Advocate Capitol News Bureau)
• Alvin M. Greene’s Improbable Nomination For Senator From South Carolina (Posted by Rudi Stettner, IndyPosted.com) NOTE: trying to make a case against open primaries and for partisanship
• When a Party Seeks a Role in Primary of Another (By KIRK JOHNSON, NY Times)

PROP 14

• Take politics back from the extremes (By John P. Avlon, CNN) Proposition 14 passed with broad support despite the opposition of the two parties. The only two California counties where it didn't pass are symbols of polarization on opposite sides of the spectrum: conservative Orange County and liberal San Francisco.
• As California Counts More Votes, Proposition 14 Margin Drops (Ballot Access News) Now at 53.8%
• New math may rule Calif. politics (By: Emily Schultheis, Politico) Proponents of the new system — including California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — call it a victory for moderate, centrist candidates who appeal to a broader cross section of voters than do the narrow wings of the two parties. 
• Primary election sets up key races for November (By Ching Lee, California Farm Bureau Federation) “The open primary is another step in making state government more responsive,” [California Farm Bureau President Paul Wenger] said. “It will broaden opportunities to elect candidates who will consider all points of view and find compromise. We see the passage of Proposition 14 as a welcome sequel to the passage of Proposition 11 two years ago, which changed how legislative districts will be redrawn. Californians want more representative government, and these measures will help.”
• California Politics Update With Sacramento Political Consultant Leo McElroy (BY DWANE BROWN, PAMELA DAVIS, KPBS) MCELROY: Well, there’s been a lot of political concern. The minor political parties, like the major political parties, hated this idea. They did not want the primary opened to all voters. Historically, the minor parties in California, unlike the major parties, actually bar, “decline to state,” or “independent” voters, from voting in their primaries. They don’t want more members. They don’t want more people participating. The Republicans and Democrats do allow independents to vote in their primaries.
• Jerry Brown says Prop. 14 could break Sacramento gridlock (By Jack Chang, Fresno Bee)

GOVERNORS RACES

• Looking forward - beyond November (By: Gov. Jack Markell and Jim Kessler, Politico) Governors may have found the answer and are looking to reframe the 2010 midterms. They argue that the most important way to approach November is not as a left-right ideological argument or as an insider-vs.-outsider choice but, instead, to ask people to make a simple decision about our shared future: “Should we go forward with a plan or backward to the failed policies that launched this national recession?”

COLORADO

• Kathleen Curry, Colorado’s Only Independent Legislator, Opens Campaign Office and Submits Petition (Ballot Access News)

FLORIDA

• Surge of Independent Candidates In Florida - The number of independent candidates running for statewide office is soaring. So far 27 people have announced their intentions to run as an independent for Congress, state cabinet or the governor’s mansion. Just four years ago, only 11 people ran for statewide office with no party affiliation. (Whitney Ray, WJHG Channel 7)

NEW YORK

• Indictment Over Bloomberg Campaign Funds (By DAVID W. CHEN AND COLIN MOYNIHAN, for The New York Times/City Room)
• Political Operative Indicted for Stealing $1.1 Million From Mayor's Campaign (DNAInfo - Manhattan local news)
• Andrew Cuomo Takes "We'll See" Approach To Indy Party Probe (BY CELESTE KATZ, Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Indy voters cool to Cuomo, Dems (By BRENDAN SCOTT, NY Post)
• Adviser allegedly robbed mayor's coffers (UPI)

LAST WORD(S)

• The Democratic Party and Blanche Lincoln (BY GLENN GREENWALD, Salon) [T]he real conflict in politics is not Left v. Right or liberal v. conservative, but rather, insider v. outsider. 
• Democrats and the 'world domination' theory of politics (By: Scott Payne, Special to The Washington Examiner) NOTE: thinks independents don't exist

Harry Kresky to Charter Revision Commission: Increase NYC Voter Participation - Allow 1.4 million voters to participate in the crucial first round of voting

Wednesday night's NYC Charter Revision issue forum at Lehman College in the Bronx featured an expert panel on the topic of voter participation, including NYC Independence Party attorney Harry Kresky.

"Why I'm an Independent": Bryan Puertas, NYC Independence Party

Greetings. My name is Bryan Puertas. I’m an activist and organizer with the New York City Independence Party.

I read and enjoyed the piece by Randy Miller on why he became an independent, and thought I would take a shot at doing something similar. It’s important that independents tell their own stories. Certainly there are already plenty of stories being told about us. You may have heard some of them. Undecideds. Spoilers. Soft Democrats. Soft Republicans. Flip floppers. None of them get it right. Yet if we don’t speak up and tell our own stories, we hear theirs so often that we may even start to believe them. I respectfully submit some new labels. The New Majority. The Deciding Voters. The Nonpartisans. The Youth Vote. Stories are how we share our values and culture, how we have a group conversation as a community. I talk to you every day on the phones, and there are more of you out there than you know. I challenge all of you reading this to not let other people tell you what your independence means, to share your own story here. I’ll go first.

Growing up in Queens and Long Island, I did a lot of reading. There was much I didn’t like about my life and about the world, and stories provided the escapism I needed to stay sane. Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, I devoured everything I could get my hands on. The medium that made the biggest impression on me though, was comic books. Here was something exciting! Characters with incredible power taking matters into their own hands to fight injustice and corruption. This was something to aspire to. While I may have been drawn to the colorful costumes and epic battles, it was the ideas of Might in the service of Right, Great Power coming with Great Responsibility, the never ending battle, that transformed my young brain as much or more than any church sermon or boy scout lesson I sat through.

By the time I hit High School, several things happened to pull me back into the larger world. I joined JROTC, which taught discipline and how to work in a group. The second thing was that in September of my senior year two planes struck the World Trade Center. This was something out of a comic book, happening in real living color. While there might have been no one with a flashy costume to stop it, I did learn later of the extraordinary relief efforts that took place at St. Paul’s chapel adjacent to the site. If you have never been, I highly recommend visiting. It made an impression on me to see how something so good could come out of such heartbreak. I resolved to find some way to serve my country, planning to join the military. As an afterthought, I registered to vote, joining the Independence Party. Politics in my mind was a dirty business. The Democrats and Republicans fought for money, power, and influence, not truth, justice, and the American way. I didn’t think much about it though. I was just one man. I had no power, and so no responsibility.

A year and a half later, things were not looking good. I had lost an ROTC scholarship for medical reasons, had to leave school due to the cost, was depressed, and was slowly atrophying away at minimum wage. How was I going to serve my country now? Out of the blue, (or not, if you believe in providence) I received a call from the Independence Party for a survey on Politics. They patiently listened to my jaded answers, and asked at the end if I’d like to get involved. I said, “Sure. I need a job. Do you have jobs?”.

So began an eye opening time for me. I learned that while my basic assumptions about politics had been correct, reality went so much deeper than that. I learned that the Democrats and Republicans are a political duopoly, an electoral cosa nostra that has inserted itself between the people and the government. They have changed the rules to keep themselves in power, making competition from outsiders all but impossible. They force good people who want a seat at the table to be brokered through them, to pay them tribute and promise them favors. Truly these are villains fit for the Legion of Doom.

While there are villains certainly, there are also those who oppose them, those who take matters into their own hands to fight injustice and corruption. They may not be faster than a locomotive or leap tall buildings, but they have what history has shown to be the greatest power of all. The power to organize people. There is a movement building across the country to reform the rules the parties have written to keep themselves perpetually in power, to break up the duopoly the two “families” have on the political process. And it’s the organizers who are leading it, on the phones, the street corners, the blogosphere. The power of conversation, the power to organize people to work together for their common good, to dream the same dream, that is the greatest superpower, and I’ll take that any day over heat vision.

So that’s my story. While I still read Superman and Spiderman, I read Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr., and Jackie Salit now too. I think they’d get along well together. Why am I an independent? Because I’m a comic book geek, and I know who the good guys are.

Bryan Puertas is an activist with IndependentVoting.org and an executive committee member of the Queens Independence Party of New York. He currently heads up the citywide college campus drive for nonpartisan elections in NYC, which has collected over 2000 signatures from young people in favor of nonpartisan municipal elections in NYC. You can reach him at bowerman84@yahoo.com

Obama's Health Care Problem: Which Side Are You On Boys?

SEIU prez Andrew Stern is threatening to "go independent" on local races to oppose Dems who oppose Prez Obama's healthcare reform bill. New York is a fusion voting state, which has empowered third parties like the New York Independence Party, Conservative Party and Working Families Party.  Meanwhile, former Dem La Plata County Colorado Commissioner Joelle Riddle didn't threaten -- she went independent for real.

HEALTH CARE, OBAMA AND LABOR

• Health Care, The Final Act (Talk Talk with Fred Newman and Jackie Salit)
• Union Chief Warns He’ll Back Independent Candidates Against Democrats Opposed to Health Care (By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, NY Times/The Caucus)
• Liberals warn Dems on health care (By: Ben Smith and Gabriel Beltrone, Politico)
• SI rep under pressure on health care reform (Richmond County Elections 2010 Examiner, John Signoriello)

COLORADO

• Caucuses picking delegates today (by Garrett Andrews, Durango Herald) And though the herd of Democrats running to replace Joelle Riddle as La Plata County's District 1 Commissioner won't be thinned today, the party might get a better idea of how the candidates will fare at the County Assembly, Walter said. Riddle - who cut ties with the Democratic Party in August 2009 and is suing to have her name listed as an Independent on the November ballot - is slated to appear as a write-in in November. She currently faces a field of four Democrats: Dryside water lawyer Bruce Baizel, south Durango resident Chris Dolphin, former Durango City Councilor Scott Graham and cattleman author Jeff Mannix.

NEW YORK

• Paladino heads for crucial meeting, Hopes to win over Conservative leaders (By Robert J. McCarthy, BUFFALO NEWS POLITICAL REPORTER) The Independence Party, expected to eventually back Democratic Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo for governor, now occupies the critical third line on the ballot — behind the Democrats and Republicans. Occupying the third line is considered extremely beneficial as the state’s “major minor party.”
• Fusion Voting in New York, the Working Families Party & Close Elections (by: DavidNYC, Swing State Project) There are fewer small parties today than in the past, and only three of them matter: the Conservative Party, the Independence Party, and the Working Families Party.
• Panel to revise New York City Charter to host first public meeting this week (By Tom Wrobleski, SI Advance)
• Long's Dilemma (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Daily News/Daily Politics) The Working Families Party, usually allied with the Democrats, still has the US attorney's probe hanging over its head. Ditto for the state Independence Party, which endorsed Eliot Spitzer for governor in 2006 after its founder and patron, Tom Golisano, decided against a fourth statewide wide.

BLOGOSPHERE

• No More Politics as Usual! Get Political News and Views for Independent Voters at PoliticalCentrist.com (Press Release, PoliticalCentrist.com) "Reasonable ideas from reasonable people"
• Exploring The Mood Gap (Hotline)

New York State Independence Party Politics Makes for Strange Bank Accounts

The New York City Independence Party Organizations received $400,000 from Mike Bloomberg to run his independent campaign for Mayor, which pulled 150,000 votes on Column C, the IP ballot line. Another $1.2 mil went to the State Party, and of that $750,000 went to a company called Special Election Operations. "We have nothing to do with MacKay and Company and we're not the least bit surprised that what they're doing looks fishy, perhaps even corrupt," said Jacqueline Salit, a spokeswoman for the city party and a Bloomberg ally." Upstate IP State Chair Frank MacKay can't recall who or what that money went to... 

• Mike mystery money went to key elex aide (By DAVID SEIFMAN City Hall Bureau Chief, NY Post)
• Bloomberg used political party to pay backer: Post (By Howard Koplowitz, YourNabe Queens)
• 'Phantom' firm got $$ in re-elex (By FREDRIC U. DICKER in Albany and DAVID SEIFMAN in NY, EXCLUSIVE, NY Post)
• What did Hizzoner know? (NY Post)
• Ethics, Shmethics: The Culture of NY Politics--In Albany, even the watchdogs have ethics issues (By GABE PRESSMAN, NBC New York) And the question of where and how that 1.2 million that Bloomberg donated to the Independence Party was spent requires further investigation.
• Bloomberg's Independence (Pay)Day (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Newsday) At the start of the six-month filing period, the [State] Independence Party was $15,156 in the red. Bloomberg's cash accounted for the bulk of the $1,205,600 it reported raising since then. It spent $863,236 and now has $327,206 on hand. The party spent $18,480 for "cars and drivers" on Election Day, according to its filing. And also sent $750,000 to an Albany-based firm called Special Election Operations LLC.
• N.Y. insurgents stand up for Wall St. (By: Ben Smith, Politico)
• Union officials are disturbingly inflexible toward charter schools (Washington Post Editorial)