News Headlines for Independent Voters 10/4/09
By Nancy Hanks | Related entries in NewsOpen Primaries
California’s independent-minded gov Arnold Schwarzenegger still fighting for open primaries–Repubs officially reject his reform leadership
- A Report from California’s GOP Convention (Jon Fleischman, National Review Online) The delegates to the convention overwhelmingly opposed an open-primary measure that will appear on next June’s ballot. This measure is expected to be championed by the lame-duck Schwarzenegger — his final attempt to knife conservatives before returning to Hollywood.
- Calif GOP looks to 2010 races for gov., US Senate (By JULIET WILLIAMS (AP)
- Gush of reform proposals hit state (By LISA VORDERBRUEGGEN, Daily Democrat-Woodland CA)
Independent Gov Races
According to local media, Chris Daggett is “serious enough about his independent campaign for governor to travel to Maine to get tips from Angus King, that state’s former two-term independent governor. And patient enough to wait more than four years.” The question is whether he’s independent enough to talk to independent voters in New Jersey. We hear he has been more interested in top down rather than bottom up…
- Daggett: Time’s right for independent (By MICHAEL SYMONS, Cherry Hill Courier Post)
- N.J. Debate Reveals Weaknesses Of Incumbent, Main Challenger (By Dan Balz, Washington Post) The wild card in the race is Daggett, the independent candidate, whom Corzine’s team sees as a possible lifeline in the final weeks. With sharp critiques of his rivals and a sense of humor, Daggett turned in the most entertaining performance on Thursday night.
- Taxes, jobs, health care dominate first gubernatorial debate (By DEREK HARPER, Press of Atlantic City) With a link to videos of the debate and expert reaction.
Bloomberg 09
Mike Bloomberg, a registered indy, is running for mayor of NYC on the Independence Party line and on the Republican Party line. (NY is one of the few states that allows candidates to appear on the ballot on more than one line, and the vote totals are aggregated; it’s called “fusion.”) His Democratic opponent, William Thompson, is a career politician who currently serves as the city’s little known comptroller.
Mike’s expected to win; the real question is whether he’ll pull a a big enough vote on the IP line to make the statement that New Yorkers aren’t voting for Republican-ism but for nonpartisan governance. Proponents of partisanship — including the so-called liberal intellegentsia (which, it’s been pointed out, is neither) — are doing whatever they can to prevent such an outcome. See:
- Bloomberg’s Term Limits Scheme – How Mayor Mike gamed the system (By Tom Robbins, Village Voice) He cut the same insiders’ pact with the cultish local chapter of the Independence Party. The party’s nominating convention this spring featured all the democracy of a Chinese Politburo meeting, including a ruling clique that fawned over the visiting mayor.
- Liu, de Blasio Win Democratic Nods for NYC Controller, Advocate (By Henry Goldman, Bloomberg.com) “Let’s get serious; there are a couple of Republican candidates, but they have no chance whatsoever,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said during a City Hall news conference yesterday. “You have one party that so dominates that it’s very unlikely that anybody will win but whoever wins the runoff.”… The current city comptroller, William Thompson, 56, is the Democratic candidate opposing Bloomberg’s bid for re-election on the Republican and Independence party ballot lines.
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October 4th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
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October 5th, 2009 at 6:18 am
There is probably nothing more irrelevant to politics than the Republican Party in California. It is a party had will soon be redistricted out of existence and will have zero say in governance (See the Republican Party in Mass.)
Why 600 people would waste their time worrying about candidates who will never win and policies that will never be passed should be beyond any body.
If the Republicans in California were smart, they fold and start voting in the Democratic primaries so that they could have some influence.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
The problem is that it doesn’t matter how much they lose, they still get veto-power over everything that happens in Sacramento. They can’t be redistricted out of existence because the Dems don’t have 2/3 of both houses of the legislature.
Which means in practical terms nobody is responsible for the mess there. The Dems keep control (because it isn’t their fault the budget sucks), the GOP keeps it’s minority (because it isn’t their fault either), and whenever the economy hiccups California goes crazy.
This is one reason I’m very, very, very skeptical of checks and balances at the State Level.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:54 am
This is why Californians, like increasing numbers of Americans in every state, are becoming independents, and why there is so much support for open primaries.
There’s more under the sun than the Dems and Repubs!
October 29th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Independent candidate JOHN PISTONE will win the 5th congressional district of Connecticut. MR PISTONE does not hold allegiance to any
major political party. JOHN PISTONE representing the people,Not the party. MR PISTONE will do what is right for the people!
http://www.pistoneforcongress.org
” With out hope,There will be no change ”
PISTONE FOR CONGRESS 2010