Fierce opposition to the Ron Paul campaign is just one example of the intense partisan pressure for conformity.
The organization approached the problem from the wrong direction, namely, from the top down. Another inherent weakness in the Americans Elect strategy is its implicit assumption that the ideal alternative presidential ticket would be bipartisan, consisting of one individual from each of the two legacy parties.
Three seasoned, experienced politicians are running for SD-5 and a Democratic win could determine a Senate supermajority.
In previous years, registered party members received a ballot that listed only the names of candidates from their party. Independent voters received a ‘non-partisan’ ballot, which was limited to the initiatives and non-partisan candidates.
At 11am PST, the Independent Voter Project and the Independent Voter Network went live from San Diego to announce the details of the unprecedented Independent Voter Survey.
Proposition 14 and Open Primaries represent the spirit of democracy and our republican form of government, which makes the partisan motivations of those in opposition to the change in rules, suspect.
In SD-19, we have the spectacle of two liberal Democrat candidates increasingly targeting the other while mostly ignoring the Republican.
It’s no secret the decision to run for Sen. Olympia Snowe’s seat by the well-regarded former Gov. Angus King caught many off-guard. No more so than the Democrats who expected to pick up a super important Senate seat.
Though the public’s confidence in the federal government has plummeted to record lows over the course of the last decade, the same cannot be said for state and local government.
Increasingly, we live in an age of all-or-nothing politics. Too often, lines are drawn in the sand as rigid ideological positions deny real opportunities for practical solutions to complex problems.
