Significant Victory for Open Primaries and Voting Rights in South Carolina for Independents and African American Voters

Independents Are Growing in Number and Stature

By John Opdycke on 08/27/2013 in INV

On steps of the Donald S. Russell Federal courthouse in Spartanburg, SC (left to right): Jackie Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org; South Carolina Independence Party chair Wayne Griffin; local counsel Fletcher Smith, and IndependentVoting.org general counsel Harry Kresky.

...Last Wednesday, IndependentVoting.org president Jackie Salit and general counsel Harry Kresky traveled to South Carolina to defend open primaries from the Greenville County Republican Party, which has been attempting to force the state to enact closed primaries since 2010. After hearing arguments from both sides, Federal Judge Mary Lewis sided with the defendants and dismissed the case – a significant victory for open primaries advocates.

IndependentVoting.org issued a press release in the wake of the ruling, stating: “Political crossfire inside the Republican Party gave rise to this lawsuit but African American and independent voters would have been the big losers if the primaries had been closed as a result.”...

Read Opdycke's full article here

Read more about IndependentVoting.org's campaign for open primaries here

Independents Need to Be Heard

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• An independent view of the budget debate, partisanship ([presumably by Linda Ricke], Tampa Bay Online) Two weeks ago I received a call from Fox News asking me to be a guest on a segment about independent voters. They wanted my reaction to the budget negotiations. I agreed to be on the show, even though the thought of being on national TV terrified me. I agreed because I simply could not turn down the opportunity to let the voice of independents be heard.
• Fox News clip of independents talking about the debt crisis VIDEO
• Time for Independents to walk the walk in 2012 (by Damon Eris, CAIVN) If Independents desire adequate representation in government, as opposed to the automatic reproduction of the two-party political status quo, they are going to have to demand it by supporting alternatives to the Republicans and Democrats. 2012 is right around the corner.
• Record-Low 21% Say Most in Congress Deserve Re-Election (by Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup) Independent voters are especially critical of Congress, with 14% saying most members deserve re-election, compared with 24% of Republican and 26% of Democratic voters. Democrats and independents are significantly less likely now than in May (36% and 23%, respectively, at that time) to endorse re-electing most members of Congress, while Republicans (26% in May) show only a minimal decline.

Stay Tuned: Independent Voters Talk with John Avlon and Margaret Hoover on CBS The Early Show Saturday Morning

Independents continue to add their voice to the national debate on the debt ceiling and budget negotiations. 

Tune in Saturday morning, July 23rd to CBS's "The Early Show " 7:00 - 9:00 am/ET, for a panel discussion moderated by John Avlon and Margaret Hoover featuring a group of NYC independents.

Also, next Wednesday, July 27th at 8:15 am/ET, catch Jackie Salit on "Fox and Friends."

Jackie's most recent oped, "How Obama can be a Non-Partisan President " was published in the Huffington Post and is slated to appear this weekend in the Des Moines Register.

Finally, in case you missed it, check out this segment from "Fox and Friends " featuring independent voters John Opdycke from New York, Greg Moohn in the DC bureau and Linda Ricke in Tallahassee, Florida.

Independent Voters on Budget Negotiations

38% of American voters consider themselves to be independent.



John Opdycke of independentvoting.org, Gregory Moohn of Independent Workers of America, and Linda Ricke of Florida Sunshine Independents

REVIEW: Independence and Talk Talk About the Talk of Talking Heads

Review

Talk/Talk: Fred Newman and Jackie Salit Making (Non) Sense of an Irrational World

Edited by John Opdyke

Review by Todd Neff

I once covered local politics as a newspaper reporter in Boulder, Colorado. I felt I understood Democrats. Broadly speaking, they seemed to make decisions based on some semblance of what my five senses construed as reality, with a degree of humility, and with at least some empathy for the nonrich, not-environmentally destructive, nonfundamentalist masses. I thought I understood modern Republicans, a self-certain lot who seemed to make decisions unburdened by such empathy, based on a worldview so pixilated as to seem otherworldly.

I had no clue about independents. I mean, an independence movement seemed inimical to the idea of a movement in the first place. Michael Bloomberg’s rationality notwithstanding, a bunch of independent ideas assembled into a movement would regurgitate a mess of helter-skelter policy, right? The book Talk/Talk has helped set me straight.

Talk/Talk is a very different concoction, as books go. It’s a compilation of talking heads talking about the talk of talking heads they (that is, the talking heads featured in Talk/Talk) watched on Sunday TV talk shows. Independence movement leaders Jacqueline Salit and Fred Newman are the stars of this 170-page show, which proceeds in dialogue format, as in:

Newman: What we’ve said before and will say again: that independents are able to shape positions which come closer to where the people are. Democrats and Republicans who are party loyalists can’t easily do that. They can’t do that because their loyalty is fundamentally party loyalty.

That’s on page 45, the beginning of Salit and Newman’s discourse on “This Week with George Stephanopolous” of Sunday, July 8, 2007. The shows they watch change, and the dates and topics leap back and forth with pleasant randomness. There is no central message, no polemic. You realize, as you read through conversations on topics as diverse as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the applicability of Henry Kissinger’s power politics to the modern world, that being independent is mostly about thinking, and that Salit and Newman are well practiced at the art.

Closing the book, I had a sense that, perhaps, the independence movement is actually about policy-making on a rational basis, based on a will to deliver the greatest good for the citizenry – and not, as is the case with today’s political parties, warped by the pressures of self-serving lobbies from the left or right.

I’ll close with Newman’s words, spoken after a PBS News Hour on December 14, 2008. In the wake of the catastrophe in northern Japan and in the face of our own unfolding policy disaster courtesy of party politics, they resonate.

“There is something fundamentally tragic about our lives, all our lives. . . We’re up against forces which we’re thought to be smarter than and more powerful than, but which, in fact, we’re not smarter or more powerful than at all,” Newman said. “That’s our tragedy. We, meaning human beings, believe we are supposed to be in control – of nature, of the world. But we’re not, as we’re discovering. Can we do things better? Yes. Do we? Sometimes.”

Todd Neff is a Denver journalist and author of “From Jars to the Stars: How Ball Came to Build a Comet-Hunting Machine.”

California and Florida Voters: We Will Have Nonpartisan Redistricting!

California continues to lead the way in political reform. Back in June, passage of Prop 14, the Top Two Open Primary referendum, enfranchised 3.4 million independent decline-to-state voters in the state in the first round of voting.

And now, as Committee for a Unified Independent Party (IndependentVoting.org) Chief of Staff John Opdycke reported last week, voters in Florida are speaking out on the need for political reform:

Proposition 20-which expanded the California Redistricting Commission's mandate to include Congressional districts-passed by 20 points.  In addition, Proposition 27, a bi-partisan ploy to dismantle the Commission, was defeated by a similar margin.

And in Florida, the voters passed Amendment 5 by a 25 point margin. Its passage establishes clear, non-partisan guidelines for the drawing of legislative districts.

Opdycke goes on to point out the significance of these votes:

While the big story yesterday was the new Republican Congressional majority, the victory for redistricting reform in California and Florida was an important subtext.  The Democratic and Republican Parties have mastered the non-developmental game of capturing and recapturing the approximately 60 competitive Congressional districts.  But this back and forth blood sport-while making for good copy-does not provide the American people the opportunity to fully express their desire for change.  When voters have the opportunity to speak directly, as they did in Florida and California, without being filtered by the political parties, reform passes overwhelmingly.

REFORM

• Voters make right call on redistricting (LA Daily Breeze) itizen redistricting will be a huge improvement over Legislature-drawn districts, which were so gerrymandered in 2001 that it's almost impossible for any seat to change hands from one party to the other.

MIDTERMS

• What really happened in the 2010 election (By E.J. Dionne, Washington Post) Incumbent Democrats suffered a genuine backlash of voter discontent due to a weak economy with considerable concerns about job creation, deep skepticism among independents, poor turnout among key base groups, and strong enthusiasm among energized conservatives.
• Can the Tea Party endure? (CNN International) The midterm elections dealt a powerful blow to President Obama and the Democratic Party as the country appeared to shift decisively to the right, moved by mass anger, "due to a combination of two kinds of fear," historian Michael Kazin told CNN.

COLORADO

• Curry's write-in campaign creates confusion in HD 61 vote tally - Democratic officials call for recount (By Jessica Fender, The Denver Post)

BLOOMBERG

• Bloomberg to America: Lay Off The Chinese (By Peter Stein, Wall Street Journal/Metropolis)

NEW YORK

• Working Families Party To Row D? We'll See... (By Celeste Katz, Daily News/Daily Politics)
• Working Families Party Looks To Better Ballot Placement (By David Freedlander, NY Observers)
  Howie Hawkins Saves Green Party, loads trucks (By Nick Rizzo, Capital)
• New York Working Families Party Likely to Have Received More Votes for Governor than Independence Party (Ballot Access News)
• Schumer Passes On Leadership Speculation, Warns Against Independent Redistricting For Congress (By Edward-Isaac Dovere, City Hall)
• Charter Commissioner Launching Effort To Take Third Term Away From Electeds Grandfathered In (By Chris Bragg, City Hall)

How Independents Used Their Votes on November 2

The Jim Crow of Bipartisan Rule (Dr. Omar Ali, The Public Professor blog) "Voting for candidates who offer a challenge to the rules of the game is a way of dealing a blow to the Jim Crow of bipartisan rule. It is also a way of building today’s independent movement and helping the nation move toward non-partisan governance. So, please, keep the movement and the long-term in mind when you cast your ballot this Tuesday."


Will Election Day be independents’ day? (By Susan Frick Carlman, Naperville IL Sun Times) "Four out of 10 voters would check “neither of the above” if asked to choose between Democratic and Republican loyalties, according to polls taken by CNN, ABC News, the Wall Street Journal and others. “It’s hovered around 40 percent since 2006, so it’s not spiked dramatically in the last year, but it hasn’t gone down,” said John Opdycke, an Evanston IL native and chief of staff at New York-based Independentvoting.org, the online presence of the Committee for a Unified Independent Party...“In general, independents are dissatisfied with partisan politics, and the way in which partisans have turned American civic and political life into a bloodsport,” he said. “And they express that dissatisfaction on Election Day, typically by voting against the party in power.”

Letter to the Editor/Staten Island Advance
By SARAH LYONS
ST. GEORGE

I applaud Borough President Jim Molinaro’s willingness to cross party lines and endorse Andrew Cuomo for governor.

Cuomo, of course, is not just running as a Democrat. He’s also on The Independence Party line. The more votes Cuomo receives on Column "C," the more pressure he’ll feel to govern in a non-partisan fashion.

That’s important because we’ve all seen the negative effects of party politics. Indeed, both major parties derive much of their power from the fact that voters have no other place to go. That’s why the independent movement, with its focus on structural political reform and opening up the process, remains so important and so relevant.

There’s another good choice in the governor’s race this year. It’s helping the fledgling Freedom Party win ballot status with 50,000 votes.

Launched by City Councilman Charles Barron as a challenge to the Democratic Party’s monopoly of the black and Latino vote, it’s an independent effort with the potential to bring much needed political options to a growing segment of New York City’s population.

Staten Island has vibrant minor parties in Independence, Conservative and Working Families. A minor party highlighting the interests of the African-American and Latino communities would be a welcome addition to the mix.

[The writer is chair of the Independence Party of Richmond County.]
Published: Thursday, October 28, 2010, 12:00 PM Updated: Thursday, October 28, 2010, 12:48 PM

Women, Independent Voters Show Biggest Swing From 2008 (FoxNews.com) Independent voters supported Democrats 51 percent of the time compared to 43 percent of the time for Republicans in 2008. But in 2010, the Democrats garnered only 39 percent of the independent vote compared to 55 percent for the GOP.

Talk/Talk: Making (Non) Sense of an Irrational World

Authored by Fred Newman, Jackie Salit
Introduction by Omar H Ali
Edited by John Opdycke
For many years, Fred Newman and Jacqueline Salit-two leading activists and intellectuals within the independent political movement-have met on the weekends to have coffee and watch political talk and interview shows. They watch Charlie Rose, Chris Matthews, Meet the Press, This Week with George Stephanopoulos (now Christiane Amanpour), The McLaughlin Group, Hardball, and other shows. After they watch them, they have a conversation. In early 2005, they began transcribing these conversations and distributing them to their friends and followers. Over the years, their "talk about the talk"-hence the name Talk/Talk-developed into a popular weekly missive that is presently distributed via e-mail to tens of thousands of readers worldwide. Making (Non) Sense of an Irrational World is a compilation of some of their most popular and thought provoking discussions from the last five years.


Hankster recommended! Independents and progressives of all stripes should read this book. Several times!

TODAY'S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS 4/3/10

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Op-Ed: For youth in politics, the ‘party’ is over (BY JOHN OPDYCKE, The Record North Jersey.com)
• Quote of the Day: Young Voters Are Increasingly Independent Voters (POSTED BY JOE GANDELMAN, The Moderate Voice) Links to and comments on John Opdycke's piece in NJ Record.
• GOP Needs To Keep It Simple-NOW IT'S THE REPUBLICANS WHO RISK BEING SEEN AS DWELLING OBSESSIVELY ON HEALTH CARE. (by Charlie Cook, National Journal) To win races this fall, Republican hopefuls don't need to convince independents that Democrats are drunk on power or brazenly thwarting the will of the people. They only need to convince them that shared power and "checks and balances" are good things -- that Democrats have gotten some of what they wanted but that fresh GOP voices could hold the president's party accountable.
• Independent voters turn from hopeful to angry (Jennifer Haberkorn, Washington Times) The percentage of independents who disapprove of Mr. Obama's job performance has dropped nine points, from 53 percent to 44 percent.
• Dan Quayle: Don't let the tea party go Perot (By Dan Quayle, Washington Post)
• President Seeks Middle Path (By JONATHAN WEISMAN, Wall Street Journal)

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Candidates agree: Reforms are needed - At forum, six gubernatorial hopefuls say state government needs fixing, but differ on amending the constitution (By John L. Micek, Allentown Morning Call)
• Pennsylvania's gubernatorial candidates agree more than disagree at first face-off (By KARI ANDREN, The Patriot-News)

PROP 14

• The Great Voter Silencer: CA’s Prop 14 (by Thomas Del Beccaro, Big Government)
• OPEN PRIMARY INITIATIVE DRAWS FIRE FROM SKEPTICS (by Mytheos Holt, CAIVN) The reasons for Nader’s opposition are not fully known, as the only person reporting on his denunciation of Proposition 14 is the pro-Prop 14 attorney Harry Kresky, who simply mentioned Nader’s opposition in passing in an op-ed for the Sacramento Bee.
• Meg Whitman Opposes California’s Proposition 14 (Ballot Access News)
• EDITORIAL: PROPOSITION 14 WILL MAKE OUR BROKEN TWO-PARTY POLITICAL SYSTEM EVEN WORSE (By Ann Menasche, East County Magazine) Ann Menasche of San Diego is the Green Party candidate for California Secretary of State.
• Our View: Capital's expansion faces no challenge (Appeal Democrat - Marysville CA)
• Editorial: California still No. 1, in raising taxes (THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER)
• 90 Ballot Questions Certified in 31 Statewide Ballots for 2010 (By: Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake) Prop 14 is interesting in theory, but the practical impact is debatable. Since incumbents in heavily gerrymandered districts never face serious election challenges from the opposition party, having the top two vote getters face off regardless of party could have the impact of shaking up entrenched incumbents and encouraging accountability.  There are serious questions being raised as to whether this bill will actually achieves that, however, or if it just make it easier for corporatist candidates to buy their way into the general election. On the good side, both parties hate the bill.  On the bad side, Arnold Schwarzenegger loves it and recently got a huge infusion of corporate cash. 
• STEPHEN MOORE: California Prop. 14 – Political Diary – WSJ (Big Time Conservative blog) As if Californians don’t have enough problems to worry about, in June voters will decide on whether to switch to a system of open primary elections. Open primaries have long been the dream of the state’s business groups and good government types who want more middle-of-the-road politicians in Sacramento. However, conservatives in the state are up in arms about the initiative, dubbed “Proposition 14.

NEW YORK

• Citing “Yes We Did!” Health Care Response From Ackerman, Halloran Warms To Challenge - Freshman Council Republican seeking Independence line (By Chris Bragg, City Hall News)
• Stringer Rails Against Charter Commission (BY ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Daily News/Daily Politics)