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The New Jersey primaries produced gubernatorial candidates that are speaking only to two ideological extremes. Politico reported Tuesday that in the 2017 governor's race in New Jersey, neither Democrat Phil Murphy nor Republican Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno appear to be reaching out to voters outside their party's base. "Together, in one of the first statewide races of the Trump era, Democrat Phil Murphy and Republican Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno are demolishing the conventional wisdom that centrists wi

One of the most interesting and important legal fights going on right now centers around the scope of the First Amendment rights of political parties. In a variety of contexts, the parties have asserted their rights over the rights of the people. How can it be, however, that the rights of parties formed by the people can trump the rights of the people, through their elected government or otherwise, to determine how their elections for their public officials can be organized? What are the right

On Sunday evening, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) told MSNBC's Kasie Hunt that Donald Trump may not run for reelection in 2020, and that if he does, he may face a 2020 GOP primary challenge. During the interview, Paul said it may be a year or two before Americans will know for sure whether Donald Trump will even be seeking reelection to the presidency: "Is President Trump running for reelection? I think you won’t know that until you get into sort of – second, third year of his presidency." Should T

Chad Peace, attorney for the Independent Voter Project, as well as 6 high-profile signatories, filed an amicus brief on September 22, 2017, in support of a legal challenge brought by Level the Playing Field (LPF). On October 13, Peace spoke about the brief and its significance to changing the exclusionary presidential debate rules on NBC7 in San Diego. "The brief argues that the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates' (CPD) 15 percent rule exacerbates the political divide in the US, lea

The San Diego City Council has a lot on its plate. From the debate over Short-Term vacation rentals, to the Hepatitis A outbreak and homeless crisis, several critical civic issues are coming to the surface for the city council to consider. Council President Pro Tem Mark Kersey joined the IVN San Diego Podcast this week to discuss a few of the pressing matters impacting the City. Kersey answered questions on a variety of subjects including the push to legalize short-term vacation rentals, the

Arguably, academia is as guilty as the media, the politicians, and the two major parties themselves, of promoting partisanship. This is, in large part, because political scientists analyze elections as a contest between Democrats and Republicans. Polls are designed and analyzed to explain or forecast red or blue victories. And even voting rights are scrutinized based on which of two political teams is advantaged or disadvantaged by a given law. But how can we continue to credibly analyze the c

The statement "all politicians are corrupt" has as much truth to it as "all Muslims are terrorists" and "all Christians are ignorant bigots." But here’s the trap in American politics: there’s one political party that makes nearly no attempt to disguise its duplicity. Many of them lie so badly and so often most of us are numb to it. The other political party does only a slightly better job representing the people. The trouble is, the average voter can no longer tell which is which. As a result

The bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debate’s (CPD) 15 percent rule exacerbates the political divide in the US, leaves millions of voters unrepresented in presidential elections, and undermines fundamental democratic principles in order to protect the two-party duopoly. That is the argument the Independent Voter Project and 6 individual signatories make in an amicus curiae brief filed Friday in support of a legal challenge brought by Level the Playing Field (LPF) against the debate commiss

Dr. Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, and a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, recently had some sobering words for the two major political parties in the United States. On a Washington Post podcast, Dean said, "The most reliable demographic of our voters are the young people across the board, across racial and ethnic lines," but added that this is a major problem for the DNC, because: "These people are not Democrats." Dean went on to explain: "Th

The Department of Labor’s May 2016 Final Rule, which would have more than doubled the minimum salary necessary to satisfy the “executive, administrative or professional” (the “EAP” or “white collar”) overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act, is invalid, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has held. State of Nevada v. U.S. Dep’t of Labor, No. 4:16-CV-731, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140522 (E.D. Tex. Aug. 31, 2017). This cements the position the court took in granti