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In light of former Senator Rick Santorum's recent comments on ABC's This Week, it is clear GOP social conservatives are becoming increasingly worried about the presence, and power, of Dr. Ron Paul at the Republican National Convention. In the case of a divided Republican Party, if Governor Mitt Romney is going to have to choose between Dr. Paul and Sen. Santorum in Tampa, he has to go with Dr. Paul. In an earlier posting by IVN, we pointed out that at some point Gov. Romney was going to have to

Independents around the country are calling on Congress to hold hearings investigating the disenfranchisement of Independents from the political process. The campaign, launched by IndependentVoting.org, aims to bring much needed attention to the issue of structural discrimination against Independent voters and candidates for elected office. Though they are courted by politicians from the president on down, and receive a fair amount of attention in the mainstream media, Independents are prevente

Artur Davis, at one time a Democrat representing Alabama's 7th Congressional District from 2003 to 2010, has decided to leave the Democratic Party. Furthermore, while undecided about the possibility of running for office in the future, Davis said on his website,"If I were to run, it would be as a Republican." The question is, should such a departure be of any major concern to President Obama's reelection campaign? To answer that question, we need to look more closely at Davis and the type of Dem

The blogosphere is in a flurry today on the heels of the Ron Paul campaign announcement. Concerning its future in states yet to hold Republican primary elections, it looks like Dr. Paul will not be pouring money into these contests as he has continued to do. Is he done, completely? Or will he continue amassing what have been called "stealth delegates"? Even without an "official" campaign effort in states like Texas and California, can Dr. Paul continue to siphon a sizable chunk of Republican sup

Attempts to tackle comprehensive immigration reform at the state level has wounded agriculture and exposed an unavoidable issue for farm-state lawmakers seeking election in 2012. Because U.S. citizens, by and large, will not work in farm fields and because partisan gridlock over amnesty has kept comprehensive immigration reform off Congress' to-do list, agricultural stakeholders are pleading with lawmakers to reform the country's immigration policy to accommodate an ag-centric guest worker progr

continued his march this week to the Republican nomination in Tampa. However, as has been noted repeatedly throughout the process, he is a very weak nominee. There also continues to be a substantial amount of questions surrounding the legitimacy of mainstream accounts of delegates. This week, Gov. Romney won all delegates in Connecticut , Delaware , New York  and 12 out of 16 in Rhode Island – Governor RomneyDr. Paul won 4 in Rhode Island and may have led a major “stealth” operation in Pennsylv

It is possible – even likely – that the fracking process to extract natural gas and oil from underground rock formations causes earthquakes. The facts are clear: in the geographical part of the country where fracking (technically known as hydraulic fracturing) is active, earthquakes of level 3.0 and above have increased six times their 20th century average since 2009, according to a Reuters article. Nathan Alley, a staff attorney for the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) in Santa Barbara told

A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows President Obama has a solid lead among independent voters in key swing states over presumptive Republican presidential candidate former Gov. Mitt Romney. He now polling at a 48% to 39% advantage over Gov. Romney. In January, a same poll found the two were tied. President Obama's share of the vote has increased 8% among independent voters in crucial states since last year. The poll gauged independent voter interest in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, New Hamp

The US Supreme Court will hold hearings this week on a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Obama’s health care plan. The lawsuit was filed by twenty six states, four small business owners, and the proudly ferocious National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB.)  The lawsuit contends the federal government does not have the authority to order people and businesses to buy health insurance (and face fines if they don’t.)  The hearings will surely be closely watched. Indeed, the future

On Lawrence O’Donnell's MSNBC show last week, spokespersons for Gingrich's Super PAC, the Santorum Campaign, and MSNBC Analyst Steve Schmidt, most recently portrayed by Woody Harrelson in HBO's movie Game Change, all stated that other than possibly Dr. Ron Paul no campaign is in complete command of “its” delegates. One of the basic tenets of being a viable candidate for President is to have a competent delegate whip structure, which in turn leads to delegate vetting. In the Democratic Party, the