Get it: 4 out of 4 New Yorkers want open primaries in NY.

The Hankster conducted an informal, small, and very unscientific exit poll this afternoon at my polling place and am pleased to report that 4 out of 4 voters think closed primaries that exclude independents in New York are bad and should be changed. Three of those voters voted for Bernie Sanders, and one voted for Donald Trump.

Here's one of them:

And here's a clip of the protest at City Hall last Thursday calling for open primaries:

Lenora Fulani: No More Fergusons Means No More Partisan Manipulation (reddingnewsreview.com)

No More Fergusons Means No More Partisan Manipulation

By Dr. Lenora Fulani

Sept. 5, 2014, 6 p.m. - Grief can be a terrible blinder.  Tears of rage and sorrow can fill our eyes and make it hard to see, even though we have the experience that we have become more lucid, more knowing and more capable in the face of tragedy.  My fear is that the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York will make us, will make black people blind and will foster illusions about the political actions we must take.  We should not allow that to happen. 

         Election Day is two months away.  The messengers of the political status quo, known to us as the Democratic Party, are knocking on our doors, ringing us on our cell phones, texting us and stuffing our mailboxes with fliers.  Remember Ferguson, they say.  We must make things right in America, so be sure to come out and vote in record numbers in Georgia, in North Carolina, in Arkansas and Louisiana, and vote for Democratic candidates for the US Senate.  At all costs, we are told, preserve the Democratic majority in the Senate.   

Read more of Redding News Review here

Congressman John Lewis, whom I deeply admire and whose service to the cause of civil rights and voting rights is legendary, is among those now on the stump.  "Ferguson has made it crystal clear to the African-American community and others that we've got to go to the polls," he said.  Rev. Al Sharpton, with whom I just marched in Staten Island and who had me speak at his rally there, observed, "People feel like they would be betraying the spirit of what happened in Ferguson, as well as enabling this impeachment rhetoric, if there's a low turnout.”  We are truly caught in the crossfire.  How? Because we, who have been victimized by a profound and never-ending racial violence, are to be blamed if we do not turn out in record numbers to prevent the Democratic Party from losing seats in the US Senate. Who made up those rules?  Not us, that's for sure. 

         It is well known in the Black community and in political circles that I am an independent.  I ran for president twice as an independent in 1988 and 1992.  In the first run I became the only African American and only woman to access the ballot in all 50 states.  In the second, I used my candidacy to forge an alliance with the Perot movement and through the founding of the Reform Party propelled the earliest development of a new movement for political reform, one aimed at opening the electoral process to include independent voters of all racial backgrounds and political persuasions. This was based on the belief that the political parties - Democrat and Republican - were becoming completely vested in their own self-preservation and less willing or able to address the crisis of rising poverty, the breakdown of social infrastructure, and to reverse an interventionist foreign policy that undermines peace.  
Read more of Redding News Review here

Today 42 percent of Americans are independents and that includes many, many Black, Latino and Asian voters, especially young people.  The political system is very hostile to these voters, locking us out of primary voting in many states, forcing us into a second class status as participants in the political process.  I have appealed to the Black community on many occasions to use its power to be independent as a means of leveraging our interests.  

         Recently, when Black voters cast ballots in the Republican primary runoff in Mississippi against the far right Tea Party candidate and for a moderate Republican, the whole world took notice.  Mississippi is a state with an open primary, where all voters can choose which primary to vote in. Through this system Black voters were able to slam the door on right wing extremists.   

         In New York City in 2005, through the NYC Independence Party, I led a powerful coalition of Black and Latino independents and Democrats to pull 47 percent of black voters away from the Democratic Party and for Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  Democratic Party bigwigs from Hillary Clinton to Eliot Spitzer (remember him?) went on a rampage to undercut the independent movement.  We survived, but the message to the Black community was clear. Stay put, politically speaking, or you will pay a serious price.  For the most part, we have stayed put.  And we continue to pay a heavy price for that immobility, do we not?

         These instances of exercising independent political power were just the faintest beginnings of what can and should be a tool for Black empowerment.  It's old news that we are taken for granted by the Democrats and that our political power is greatly diminished by being entirely predictable.  Need I mention that the Governor of Missouri and the Mayor of New York City are both Democrats?  Missouri and New York are where the two recent episodes of the excessive use of force by police took place.  And yet we are being asked, some would say coerced, to buy the idea that the Democratic Party is our savior and the Republican Party is evil incarnate.  Neither is true.   

         Each party represents a segment of the American public and both want to prevent new forces and new alignments from changing the game. This is why the growing movement for political reform - in particular that wing which is focused on reforming the primary system to downgrade the power of the parties and upgrade the power of the voters - is so important.  I am a strong supporter of that movement and I want the Black community to join me in doing that.  That is how we build our political power. We need to be part of new coalitions, with diverse interests that develop our capacity to grow our political strength.  We need a system that encourages—rather than represses—new coalitions. 

         Barack Obama, who was elected president by winning the support of independent voters in the Democratic Primary in sufficient numbers to defeat Hillary Clinton, will be leaving office in two years.  Electing him was a great accomplishment for the nation and for Black America.  His ability to lead, however, was greatly impaired by the demands the Democratic Party placed on him to re-enforce its power.  He turned down many overtures from the progressive wing of the independent movement to develop a new majority coalition and this has greatly weakened the country and, ironically, the Black community.  Sadly enough, the legacy of America's first black president may be to leave the Black community more isolated, deprived and underdeveloped than it has been for 60 years.  Black people feel very protective of Barack Obama.  He is Black, and he has come under vicious attack from the Right Wing.  But the Democratic Party opportunizes off of that and tries to extend it to require loyalty to the party above all else.  Promoting the idea that justice for Ferguson means voting for Democrats is one more manipulation in that game. 

         As far as the upcoming Senate races are concerned, my message to the black community is this.  Make sure the candidate you support gives their support to all forms of voter mobility - open primaries, nonpartisan primaries, nonpartisan redistricting, etc. No voter, regardless of race, political creed or color, should be required to join a political party in order to participate in an election.  That is a violation of the most fundamental of voting rights!   

         Nothing can bring Michael Brown or Eric Garner back to life.  Both were poor Black males, like millions of others, for whom this country cannot find a place, other than in jail or in the grave. We must be willing to make real and significant changes in the way our political process works if we mean to take these deaths seriously. The same slogans, the same funeral grief, and the same voting patterns simply are not enough. 

         Recently, in response to pressure from independents and the nonpartisan reform movement, New York Senator Charles Schumer, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee responsible for electing Democrats to the US Senate, reversed his prior position and publicly endorsed a Top Two nonpartisan election system in which all voters - Independents, Democrats, Republicans, third party members - get to vote in every round of every election.  This is a sign of the growing strength of that movement, a movement in which my very dear friend and colleague Jacqueline Salit is a major leader. 

            However, the conventional wisdom is that Black people will not rally to this cause, that we have one and only one political home and that is in the Democratic Party, so the inclusion of non-Democrats is of no value to us.  We must defy that conventional wisdom!  First of all, many of us are independents –about 31 percent according to some polls.  And second, we need to coalesce with other Americans who share our belief that the system is no longer working for the American people.  63% of independents in New York, according to a recent Quinnipiac Poll, say that the death of Eric Garner "was a tragic thing and there is absolutely no excuse for how the police acted." 
           My colleagues Dr. Jessie Fields and Alvaader Frazier, Esq, are leading a campaign directed at Schumer demanding that he lead the fight for nonpartisan elections in New York.  Hundreds of signatures were gathered in just a few hours at Harlem Week.  The Black community is hungry to find new ways of expressing ourselves.  We must do more than go to funerals and weep, but then turn a blind eye to the political changes that must occur.  We must free up the Black community to become more powerful.  Join me in building a national Black Reformers Network. 

 Dr. Lenora Fulani is a developmental psychologist, education innovator and the country’s leading political independent.  In 2006, she initiated Operation Conversation: Cops and Kids, a successful, alternative approach to addressing police / community relations. 

Thanks to Read Redding News Review here

 

Federal judge rejects councilwoman's challenge to NJ primary system

Federal judge rejects Morristown councilwoman’s challenge to New Jersey primary system

August 19, 2014 by Kevin Coughlin 

 

A federal judge has upheld New Jersey’s closed primary system, rejecting a legal challenge from Morristown Council President Rebecca Feldman and others who contended the taxpayer-funded primaries unfairly exclude nearly half the state’s voters, who are unaffiliated...

Community Activist Tia Williams talking to voters in Jersey City

“The Supreme Court has drawn an important distinction between casting a ballot in a general election, which implies the ‘fundamental’ right to vote, and nominating a candidate for general election, which does not,” wrote Judge Chesler, granting New Jersey Secretary of State Kim Guadagno’s motion to dismiss the case.



Harry Kresky, one of the lawyers representing Feldman and eight other plaintiffs, said they are weighing an appeal.

Harry Kresky, Councel for independentvoting.org

“We think the Court misunderstood our argument. The judge addressed this as a case of Independents wanting to participate in party politics. That’s not what this case is about. It’s about whether the state of New Jersey can fund and administer a system that’s for the parties and not for anyone else,” said Kresky, adding he was surprised that no oral arguments were heard in the case.

Morristown NJ Council President Rebecca Feldman
Photo by Kevin Coughlin

“This is only the first round,” said Feldman, an Independent on the town council, in a statement. “The other plaintiffs and I never thought it would be easy to get beyond the hold the major parties have on our election system.”







Go to independenvoting.org for more information about the national movement for a fair and open -- and nonpartisan -- primary election system.

A tip -- you can read more from Harry Kresky about our current constitutional crisis here.

- NH

Federal judge dismisses law suit challenging NJ primary election system

Aug. 18, 2014
Federal judge dismisses suite challenging NJ primary election system
by Karen Sudol in The Record


...“By denying over 2.6 million New Jersey voters the right to cast a vote in primary elections, the state has disenfranchised nearly half of its electorate, thereby, giving private political parties a state subsidized advantage and partisan voters greater and unequal access to the voting franchise,” the lawsuit contended.

Harry Kresky, one of three lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said they were considering an appeal.

“Judge Chesler treated the case from a vantage point that the plaintiffs who were mainly independent voters were seeking to vote in the primaries,” he said. “That’s not what they’re seeking – it’s whether the state can fund and conduct an election system that gives favorable treatment to voters who are members of major parties.”...

Harry Kresky, one of three lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said they were considering an appeal.
“Judge Chesler treated the case from a vantage point that the plaintiffs who were mainly independent voters were seeking to vote in the primaries,” he said. “That’s not what they’re seeking – it’s whether the state can fund and conduct an election system that gives favorable treatment to voters who are members of major parties.”
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/federal-judge-dismisses-suit-challenging-nj-primary-election-system-1.1069358#sthash.77x0Bn8J.dpuf

Harry Kresky, one of three lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said they were considering an appeal.
“Judge Chesler treated the case from a vantage point that the plaintiffs who were mainly independent voters were seeking to vote in the primaries,” he said. “That’s not what they’re seeking – it’s whether the state can fund and conduct an election system that gives favorable treatment to voters who are members of major parties.”
- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/federal-judge-dismisses-suit-challenging-nj-primary-election-system-1.1069358#sthash.77x0Bn8J.dpuf

August 18, 2014, 8:29 PM    Last updated: Monday, August 18, 2014, 8:29 PM

By KAREN SUDOL

STAFF WRITER

The Record

Print

Independent voters who challenged the constitutionality of New Jersey’s primary election system by claiming they had a right to vote in elections that nominate candidates for general runoffs received a blow last week when a federal judge determined that the system will remain intact.
Judge Stanley R. Chesler of U.S District Court in Newark wrote that while the plaintiffs in the suit believe the fundamental right to vote extends to primary elections conducted by political parties of which they are not members, that is not the law established by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court has drawn an important distinction between casting a ballot in a general election, which implicates the fundamental right to vote and nominating a candidate for a general election, which does not,” he wrote in his 12-page decision that dismissed the suit on Thursday.
The lawsuit was filed in March by seven registered voters – four unaffiliated, including one from Bergen County, and three registered with a party – and two non-profit organizations that represent independent voters. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who serves as the acting secretary of state, was named as the defendant because she administers the state election system.
The plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of New Jersey’s primary election system that allows political parties the right to use taxpayer money to pay for the elections. By appropriating public money for private purposes, it forces unaffiliated voters to pay for an election process that denies them full participation, according to the lawsuit.
“By denying over 2.6 million New Jersey voters the right to cast a vote in primary elections, the state has disenfranchised nearly half of its electorate, thereby, giving private political parties a state subsidized advantage and partisan voters greater and unequal access to the voting franchise,” the lawsuit contended.
Harry Kresky, one of three lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said they were considering an appeal.
“Judge Chesler treated the case from a vantage point that the plaintiffs who were mainly independent voters were seeking to vote in the primaries,” he said. “That’s not what they’re seeking – it’s whether the state can fund and conduct an election system that gives favorable treatment to voters who are members of major parties.”
Representatives of the governor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday evening.

- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/federal-judge-dismisses-suit-challenging-nj-primary-election-system-1.1069358#sthash.77x0Bn8J.dpuf

August 18, 2014, 8:29 PM    Last updated: Monday, August 18, 2014, 8:29 PM

By KAREN SUDOL

STAFF WRITER

The Record

Print

Independent voters who challenged the constitutionality of New Jersey’s primary election system by claiming they had a right to vote in elections that nominate candidates for general runoffs received a blow last week when a federal judge determined that the system will remain intact.
Judge Stanley R. Chesler of U.S District Court in Newark wrote that while the plaintiffs in the suit believe the fundamental right to vote extends to primary elections conducted by political parties of which they are not members, that is not the law established by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The Supreme Court has drawn an important distinction between casting a ballot in a general election, which implicates the fundamental right to vote and nominating a candidate for a general election, which does not,” he wrote in his 12-page decision that dismissed the suit on Thursday.
The lawsuit was filed in March by seven registered voters – four unaffiliated, including one from Bergen County, and three registered with a party – and two non-profit organizations that represent independent voters. Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who serves as the acting secretary of state, was named as the defendant because she administers the state election system.
The plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of New Jersey’s primary election system that allows political parties the right to use taxpayer money to pay for the elections. By appropriating public money for private purposes, it forces unaffiliated voters to pay for an election process that denies them full participation, according to the lawsuit.
“By denying over 2.6 million New Jersey voters the right to cast a vote in primary elections, the state has disenfranchised nearly half of its electorate, thereby, giving private political parties a state subsidized advantage and partisan voters greater and unequal access to the voting franchise,” the lawsuit contended.
Harry Kresky, one of three lawyers representing the plaintiffs, said they were considering an appeal.
“Judge Chesler treated the case from a vantage point that the plaintiffs who were mainly independent voters were seeking to vote in the primaries,” he said. “That’s not what they’re seeking – it’s whether the state can fund and conduct an election system that gives favorable treatment to voters who are members of major parties.”
Representatives of the governor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday evening.

- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/news/federal-judge-dismisses-suit-challenging-nj-primary-election-system-1.1069358#sthash.77x0Bn8J.dpuf

An Open Letter to Sen. Charles Schumer: End Partisan Primaries, Save America

Dear Senator Schumer,

Thank you for writing “End Partisan Primaries, Save America” in the July 21st edition of The New York Times.  You are right---closed party primaries do “poison the health” of our democracy, and we need to move to Top Two Open Primaries all across the country, including here in New York.  As you described, in a Top Two open primary system, all voters can vote and choose from all the candidates.  The top two vote getters would then appear on the November ballot. 
 
In your oped, you call for the formation of a national movement to bring this reform to all the states in the country.  There is one, led by forces such as IndependentVoting.org, Endpartisanship.org, and many others across the country.  This fall, a Top Two Open primary initiative will be on the ballot in Oregon.  Plans are underway to put it back on the ballot in Arizona in 2016.

Here in NYC, the NYC Independence Party, former Mayor Bloomberg, and the Citizen’s Union have championed this reform.  Right now in NYC, there are more than a million voters independent of the two major parties who are locked out of our primaries, where most elected officials are actually chosen.  In New York State that number is over 4 million.

We applaud and welcome you to the movement for nonpartisan primary reform, Sen. Schumer.  Yours is an important voice.  We call on you to help make Top Two nonpartisan primaries a reality here in New York.

Yours truly,
The Hanksteristas

Honk for Indies - Utah

Ohio Independent Voters Protest Voting Restrictions

Independent voters across the country are protesting exclusion from party-run private primaries. In Ohio check out their website at http://independentohio.org/ or email Cynthia Carpathios at ccarpathios@independentohio.org http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2014/05/independent_voters_protest_ohi.html

Rick Robel at protest in Columbus.

Jackie Salit: Something's Rotten In...

...New York State politics?

No! That couldn't be! "...Don’t miss the latest drama about the Independence Party in which Governor Cuomo is cast as Hamlet, deciding whether “to IP or not IP.”  Independents must consider our alternatives.  Here’s the backstory..."

Independence Party founder, Jacqueline Salit weighs in on

the Governor's race and

the fate of the Independence Party in

"Something's Rotten In..."

 

Jackie Salit just posted an opinion piece on the NYC Independence Party website calling for Lenora Fulani to challenge Gov Cuomo in 2014.  In it, you'll get her take on the Governor's race and the political gamesmanship and controversy currently surrounding of the New York State Independence Party.

Jackie Salit helped establish the Independence Party in 1994 and managed all three of Mayor Bloomberg's campaigns on the Independence Party line.  She is the author of Independents Rising.

 

This is all sad commentary on the Independence Party’s fate.  All the players in this drama, either directly or indirectly, propped up MacKay as he did their bidding, stripping away the party’s independence and vision.  Now, it’s time to kill it off, they say.  Just as the child who murders his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan, these anti-independent schemers beg for justice.
The climax will star the embattled Cuomo, who, in Hamlet-like fashion, must resolve whether “to IP or not to IP.”  Either he does business with MacKay or becomes a full-fledged Working Families Party-allied Democrat, even as the WFP is going through its own public handwringing.  He is caught between the Devil and deep blue sea.
- See more at: http://www.ipnyc.org/home/opinion-somethings-rotten-in/#sthash.6tGQcfte.dpuf

This is all sad commentary on the Independence Party’s fate.  All the players in this drama, either directly or indirectly, propped up MacKay as he did their bidding, stripping away the party’s independence and vision.  Now, it’s time to kill it off, they say.  Just as the child who murders his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan, these anti-independent schemers beg for justice.
The climax will star the embattled Cuomo, who, in Hamlet-like fashion, must resolve whether “to IP or not to IP.”  Either he does business with MacKay or becomes a full-fledged Working Families Party-allied Democrat, even as the WFP is going through its own public handwringing.  He is caught between the Devil and deep blue sea.
- See more at: http://www.ipnyc.org/home/opinion-somethings-rotten-in/#sthash.6tGQcfte.dpuf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Must read for independents everywhere!

 

 

- NH

 

Don’t miss the latest drama about the Independence Party in which Governor Cuomo is cast as Hamlet, deciding whether “to IP or not IP.”  Independents must consider our alternatives.  Here’s the backstory. - See more at: http://www.ipnyc.org/home/opinion-somethings-rotten-in/#sthash.6tGQcfte.dpuf

This is all sad commentary on the Independence Party’s fate.  All the players in this drama, either directly or indirectly, propped up MacKay as he did their bidding, stripping away the party’s independence and vision.  Now, it’s time to kill it off, they say.  Just as the child who murders his parents and throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan, these anti-independent schemers beg for justice.
The climax will star the embattled Cuomo, who, in Hamlet-like fashion, must resolve whether “to IP or not to IP.”  Either he does business with MacKay or becomes a full-fledged Working Families Party-allied Democrat, even as the WFP is going through its own public handwringing.  He is caught between the Devil and deep blue sea.
- See more at: http://www.ipnyc.org/home/opinion-somethings-rotten-in/#sthash.6tGQcfte.dpuf

Jackie Salit: Arizona a Bellwether of National Independent Political Trend

Please visit http://bcove.me/khcb5tbo

RT America with #EndPartisanship's Chad Peace on Breaking the Party Grip on Our Democracy

Hey hey Hanksteristas!

Lots of breaking news in the independent movement lately! If you have not seen this piece by RT America, check it out now:

RT America invited #EndPartisanship’s legal counsel, Chad Peace, on their ‘Breaking the Set‘ segment to discuss the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars that have been used to conduct closed partisan primary elections.

Host Abby Martin [Move over, Rachel Maddow, WAY over!] discussed the record low turnout rate in states like New Jersey and New York where less than 5% of eligible voters ultimately decide who can be their state’s next Governor or even Senator.



Stay tuned -- more to come from America's growing independent movement!

NH

"Hold Your Horses on the Partisanship, Boys! Our Revolution for Independence didn't include political parties!"

That's what George Washington said as he was leaving office as our first and thus far only nonpartisan President. Captured here on Wall Street, Geo. W.

 Check out independentvoting.org,  IVN and the coalition called EndPartisanship.org

Yes, the movement for independence in America did not end in 1776!

Let's continue the revolution, and let's develop!

-NH

An Independent View of NJ's Gov Christie "Traffic-Gate" Scandal

From Cathy L. Stewart's Politics for the People blog:

An Independent View of NJ’s Christie scandal

Imagine my delight on Saturday morning, when reading the editorial page of the New York Times, I came across a letter by a dear friend and independent activist, Dr. Phyllis Goldberg.  She was the lead letter to the editor under the heading “Christie’s Efforts at Damage Control.”

Here is what Phyllis had to say:

To the Editor:

Re “ ‘Very Sad’ Christie Extends Apology in Bridge Scandal” (front page, Jan. 10):
As an independent, I look at the politically engineered traffic jam in Fort Lee, N.J., as a product of the partisan political culture. The email exchanges between a member of Gov. Chris Christie’s staff and his Port Authority appointee speak volumes about the norms and values of this culture, in which political operatives’ overriding obligation is to their own side’s interests....

Read more to see what the (all the news that fits the party bosses) Times left out...

Voters Demand for Open Primaries Increases Nationally

NONPARTISANS/ OPEN PRIMARIES

• We’ve moved away from political parties. Should government, too? (Bangor Daily News) For Jacqueline Salit, the structures used in almost every state to elect state officials, then to parse out power in state legislatures, perpetuate the power of political parties to run the system rather than act as engaged participants. Salit managed independent Michael Bloomberg’s three campaigns for mayor of New York City. Today, she is president of IndependentVoting.org and she’s trying to mobilize independents around political system reforms.
• Sunday: Tulsa’s ‘nonpartisan’ election format unlikely to seem that way in the near future (Tulsa World) “We all know that they’re Democrats and Republicans; that’s not the point,” he said. “The point is you run the two top candidates in the finals, and they may be both in same party or not.”
• Maryland GOP holds off on idea of opening primaries to independent voters (John Wagner, Washington Post) “I think that as a Republican party in Maryland, we need to do everything we can to reach out to new voters,” Katie Nash, a Maryland GOP activist who favors making a change, said outside the convention hall Saturday.
• An open primary would benefit Alaska (LETTER By Eric Treider, Soldotna, Peninsula Clarion) Washington, California and Louisiana currently enjoy the benefits of open primaries. The citizens love it and the party bosses hate it so you know it’s got to be good.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS
Morning Consult Poll Results on Politics of Healthcare Reform Shows Shift in Independent Voters (Sac Bee/ The Morning Consult) The poll reveals a significant shift in Independent voters heading into a midterm election year. 58% of independent voters now trust Republicans more on handling healthcare. Among all registered voters, President Obama receives a lot of the blame from more than 50% of respondents for the insurance cancellations, and over 60% say the president deserves a lot of the blame for the insurance exchange challenges. 

Year of the Donkey: Mayoral Race 2013, Adolfo Carrion, the NYC Independence Party, and Political Snobbery and Dysfunction

Statement by the Independence Party of New York City on the results of the 2013 Mayoral race

Congratulations to Bill de Blasio and the Working Families Party on their win.

The political coalition taking over City Hall says it will take on the problem of economic inequality and poverty in our city.  We support that 100 percent!

We hope that the new Mayor's agenda will also include taking on political dysfunction.  With voter turnout at a 96-year low and a million independents locked out of primary voting, New York's electoral process clearly needs some drastic reform.  Fairness happens when a process is fair.  We urge Mayor-elect de Blasio to make political inclusion and participation key goals of his administration.


Below are notes by IPNYC Press Secretary Sarah Lyons from interviews after the election between Jackie Salit and the press:

Where is the NYC Independence Party headed post-election? 

The NYC Independence Party is part of a national movement concerned about the state of our political process and about political dysfunction -- a movement seeking nonpartisan reform.  We'll continue to pursue those reforms as we always have.

How we approach that with Bill de Blasio as Mayor is an open question.  After all, unlike Bloomberg, neither de Blasio nor the Working Families Party supports nonpartisan reform.  Quite the contrary.  But when you have a system that produces the lowest voter turnout in 96 years and a million independents locked out of the primaries, there is something very wrong with that system.

Adolfo Carrion received some 8,200 votes. How do you account for the low number of votes? 

First of all, this was the Year of the Donkey, meaning that after 20 years' exile from City Hall, the Democratic Party was going to win the mayoralty under virtually any circumstances.  Consequently, the mayoral election really took place in the Democratic primary, which the city's one million independents were banned from voting in.  To break through for an independent in the Year of the Donkey was nearly Mission Impossible.

That said, the Independence Party took a shot.  We chose not to run a fusion campaign.  We supported Adolfo Carrion, a political leader who is a man of color who had held public office, and served in the Obama administration, but who left the Democratic Party to become an independent.  He is a reformer who came up against huge resistance from all corners of the political marketplace.  The systemic change of nonpartisan elections that we sought during the Bloomberg years would have leveled the playing field in this election.  But, that hasn't been achieved yet.  So the election was tilted from the outset in favor of the major party candidates.

Independence Party members protest exclusion of Carrion from ABC debate

Carrion was excluded from the debates, marginalized by much of the media, and didn't have the financial wealth that Bloomberg had to overcome the differential of being an independent in a town in which the Democratic Party runs the show.  Many of his donors were afraid to support him as an independent, afraid of retribution from the Democrats. 





The fact that de Blasio refused to debate Carrion meant that the Democrats wanted to give the public no opportunity to consider another progressive option.  All of that meant the odds were severely stacked against Adolfo.  We knew that going in.  But we felt it was important to support a Latino independent looking to shake up the system and to carve out a new option.  Don't make the mistake of underestimating the 8,200 people who voted for Carrion this year.  Those who did made a very forward-looking statement about resisting the Democratic Party monopoly on progressive politics.  They are the nucleus or the core of a bottom-up independent movement.  All the independent votes we got for Mike Bloomberg were hugely important, they gave him a mandate for nonpartisan leadership, but they were votes for a winner. Everyone who voted for Carrion knew he couldn't win, but they voted for him to build something.

Won't the low vote total make people look askance at the Independence Party?

People have always looked askance at the IP, whether we got 150,000 votes, as we did for Bloomberg in 2009, or under 10,000 votes, so that isn't an issue for me.  I'm used to the political class looking askance at us.  Actually, I like it when they do.  

Does this vote total mean that the Independence Party's message is invalid? 

No. First of all, most New Yorkers didn't know Adolfo Carrion was running, they never got the message. But more than that, the main way that voters displayed their dislike with the system and their major party options this year was by staying home.  This year's voter turnout was the lowest it's been in 97 years.  That's shocking!  Everybody should look askance at that!  

IP is part of a very young movement that is in its infancy.  The Working Families Party, now being touted as having eclipsed the IP as the major minor party in New York City, is not an independent party.  It's an arm of the Democratic Party.  The Democratic Party has had a 200-year head start over the independents.  We are playing a long game, and this campaign was one moment in that long game.

We shouldn't forget that New York isn't even a bipartisan town, it's a one-party town.  The Republican Party did poorly because it has no message and no soul.  The Independence Party has both, but it's young, it's under-funded, it's considered illegitimate and it's operating in a city that is run by one party.

###

 

A note from The Hankster:

In a one-party town, what do you do? You organize, and build build build. It was a pleasure working with all of you on the campaign. Onward!

NH

NYC Mayor Race Count Down: Day 6 - Jackie Salit Independence Party Rally for Adolfo Carrion - What's Lou Reed Got to Do With It?

[UPDATED due to uploading 'glitches'....] In this video, from the October Adolfo Carrion Independence Party Rally, Jackie Salit, President of IndependentVoting.org, the national center for independent nonpartisan political reform, notes that rock n roll legend, American music innovator, Lou Reed's seminal Velvet Underground album sold 30,000 copies (puny by today's standards, no doubt), but that everyone who bought a copy formed a band.

We're forming bands. It's 1776 in New York City. Take a walk on the wild side!
Get your band together!

NH

[Video by Coco Cheung]

Pride. Power. Independence.

NYC Independence Party video shown at last night's rally for Adolfo Carrion's reform campaign for mayor -- shakin' it up!



[video producer: Sarah Lyons]

NYC Mayor Race Count Down: Day 7 - Cathy Stewart Introduction Independence Party Rally for Adolfo Carrion Transforming the Political Game

NYC Independence Party Chief Organizer and NY County Chair Cathy L. Stewart: "We're not concerned with winning the game. We're concerned with transforming it!"

Join the independent movement.

[video by Coco Cheung]

Independence Day is TODAY in NYC: Disrupt the Partisan Status Quo

Hey hey Hanksteristas!

Tomorrow Tonight, the NYC Independence Party is having a meeting and rally at the Scholastic Auditorium in Soho. 

See a new short documentary film, hear from independent leaders and activists, and most importantly, get the "big picture" about how independents are becoming organized to disrupt the partisan status quo that holds back innovation and creativity in our city and country.  

There are more independents than Republicans in NYC, but our candidate Adolfo Carrion was excluded from the debates.  We are prevented from voting in primaries.  The message from the partisan powers that be to independent voters is loud and clear:  Shut Up and Go Away!

But we are not waiting.  We're building.  

See you tomorrow night.  all the details are listed below.  Invite your friends and family, and lease click here to RSVP by Monday at 11:00 AM.  

Pride. Power. Independence.

An Independence Party Rally  

With Special Guest Adolfo Carrion, Candidate for Mayor

Monday, October 28 ~ 6:30 PM ~ Scholastic Auditorium ~ 557 Broadway, Manhattan (between Prince/Spring). N/R to Prince, 6 to Spring or B/D to Broadway/Lafayette ~ RSVP to (212) 962-1699 or click here

[UPDATED 10/28]

Let's do this!

-NH

Media, Media, On the Wall, Who Is the Most Independent of Them All?

Adolfo Carrion, the Independence Party candidate for NYC Mayor, was a guest last weekend on PIX11 (one of my favorite channels for news). See this sharp and intelligent roundtable interview below.

Next up: 

Tune in to NY1 The Call at 9:00pm tonight! Get Adolfo's take on the most recent debate as he answers questions from New Yorkers. Drop them a line at thecall@ny1.com or call in 212-ny1-talk if you have a question for Adolfo.

What: Adolfo on NY1 The Call
When: 9:00pm-10:00pm Tonight
Where: Tune in on NY1, Channel 1 or watch online here.

Contact NY1 The Call through email, thecall@ny1.com,  tweet to @NY1thecall or call in 212-ny1-talk. 


Most media covering this mayoral race are connecting phrases in like "Carrion has 2% support in the polls" and "is not permitted to join the three official mayoral debates"

Ex. "Independent mayoral candidate Adolfo Carrion Jr. was left out of the recent mayoral debates for not meeting the polling requirement. He only received two percent in the polls."

PIX11 says: "For many years Adolfo Carrion was viewed as the Latino community's best hope for winning city office. Running as the nominee of the Independence Party, Carrion has 2% support in the polls and is not permitted to join the three official mayoral debates."

Translation: "Adolfo Carrion should have stayed a Democrat and helped the Democratic Party corral the Latino vote to put the Democratic candidate in office. Since he became an independent, he is excommunicated from NYC politics!"

And yet, as David Chen so eloquently put it in his prescient February New York Times article Adolfo Carrion is not deterred.

We're In with the Out Crowd, We Go Where the Out Crowd Goes...

Yeah, baby! Adolfo Carrion and the Independence Party rocks!