Search query: massachusetts

In the 2014 election cycle, Victoria Jackson and Scott Lively launched campaigns for public office in their respective states, Tennessee and Massachusetts, as independent candidates. Jackson ran for a seat on the Williamson County Commission but lost by a wide margin to the incumbent earlier this month. Scott Lively had more success. Recently, he officially qualified to appear on the ballot for Massachusetts governor.The problem is that Jackson and Lively are singled out by the Southern Poverty

1. Independent candidate Jeffrey McCormick will join Evan Falchuk on the 2014 Massachusetts gubernatorial ballot. "McCormick submitted nearly 12,300 signatures to qualify for the Nov. 4 gubernatorial ballot on Wednesday, arriving at Secretary of State William Galvin's election division office in Boston with running-mate Tracy Post to hand deliver the locally certified signatures. Candidates for governor must collect at least 10,000 certified signatures to have their name appear on the ballot."

Is a vote for an independent or third-party candidate a wasted vote? Is it fair to accuse a candidate not running with major party backing of being a “spoiler”? Is the potential for vote-splitting a compelling reason to adopt major reforms to our electoral system? These issues have been debated in America since the Founding Fathers cautioned against the two-party system. Some notable presidential elections in which third-party candidates have been criticized as spoilers include Teddy Roosevelt

How many times have we heard variations of the following soundbites from enterprising political candidates: “My business experience has prepared me to be an effective leader.” “Because of my business experience, I know how to balance a budget, not spend more money than I have, and create jobs.” “It’s time to apply good business practices to Washington.” Etcetera. Etcetera. Voters could recite them as thoughtlessly as a child singing an advertisement jingle. Yet, for all the repetition, these st

Getting on the ballot is a key milestone for any candidate, especially for a congressional seat in a hotly contested race. Chris Stockwell, the independent candidate in Massachusetts' 6th Congressional District, may soon clear this hurdle.Stockwell recently announced that he has submitted more than 3,500 signatures to town and city clerks across the district to qualify for the November ballot. An independent candidate for a congressional race in Massachusetts must file nomination papers with a

...measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.  --James Madison, The Federalist #10 Author's note: The purpose of this article is primarily to provide the historical basis for investigating systems of proportional representation, a democratic voting system designed to level the playing field and represent the maximum percentage of voters. When only 87 of the 471 (18

Despite consistently low approval ratings of Congress, candidates outside the Democratic and Republican parties have faced an uphill battle gaining enough exposure and credibility to get elected. Since 1877 (the end of Reconstruction), there have been 111 third party or independent candidates elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Since 1949 (the Modern Era), there have only been six. How many independents are sitting in the House today? Zero. That’s right, zero. All 432 current represe

During Clinton’s uphill re-election campaign in 1996, the president relied heavily on the aid of pollsters. With the help of strategists such as Doug Schoen, Dick Morris, and Mark Penn, the president identified the concerns and personalities of swing voters (such as whether they preferred the TV shows Friends or Home Improvement) and sampled slogans -- even entire paragraphs of speeches -- in order to discover how to appeal to them. In the midst of this re-branding of the president and the stra

In an already hotly contested race for the congressional seat in Massachusetts’ sixth district, an independent candidate has just thrown his hat into the ring. Chris Stockwell, an avowed centrist and political outsider, has launched his campaign to run as an independent candidate for the coveted seat in Massachusetts. More than just a sideshow to the Democratic primary campaign and a strong Republican challenger, Stockwell firmly believes he will win: “I want to be the first of many independen

Two hundred and thirty eight years ago, on July 2, John Adams led the Continental Congress to declare the independence of 13 American states. Two days later, representatives of the 13 colonies ratified the text of the Declaration of Independence, written by a committee headed by the 33-year-old Thomas Jefferson. What followed was revolutionary.When most people think of revolution, they think of wars. Yet, war is not what defines the term, nor is it what made our newly United States so remarkabl