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Supporters of a 2018 ballot initiative to legalize psychedelic mushrooms in California were given the green light by the state attorney general's office earlier this month to circulate petitions and gather signatures. They now have until April 30 to gather and submit 365,880 valid signatures from registered voters in the first state to ever legalize medical marijuana under Proposition 215 in 1996. That ballot proposition, as well as Prop. 64 -- the 2016 voter initiative titled "The Adult Use o

Voter distaste for both the Democratic Party and GOP seems to be at an all-time high. But candidate success outside the major parties remains elusive in Washington.

On the surface, it often seems like our existing two-party dominated system is somehow the way our country is “meant to be” and nothing could change that regardless of how dysfunctional things become. But in poll after poll and in countless other ways, the American people are saying loudly and clearly that the major political parties and their leaders are failing the country and the state. That is why more and more people today identify as independents rather than as Republicans or Democrats.

The point of electing Centrist Independents is to empower the political center, to build a bridge between Republicans and Democrats, and to get things done. As I’ve written before in our Finding Common Ground series, there are a host of issues on which Centrist Independents could be the catalyst for productive legislation: infrastructure, health care reform, even gun policy. But there are also times when a handful of Centrist Independents might play a crucial role in stopping a legislative tra

Colorado voters are tired of the Republican and Democratic Parties and the gridlock they have created in the state legislature. Now, one of the leading states for independents may have an opportunity to break up the two-party power structure. These are the findings of a recent Centrist Project survey of over 2,000 likely Colorado voters. According to the survey: * 53 percent of Colorado voters believe the two parties are not working together in the state legislature to solve problems facing c

DENVER, COLO. –– The Centrist Project announced today its endorsement of incumbent independent Governor Bill Walker of Alaska, who is running for re-election in the 2018 election. “Governor Walker represents the very best of what it means to be an independent by consistently putting the long-term interests of his state ahead of any partisan or special interest,” said Nick Troiano, Executive Director of the Centrist Project. Governor Walker, a former Republican, was first elected in 2014 on a “

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 Republicans are now saying that tax reform is their next legislative priority. Is tax reform likely to happen? Almost certainly not, as I wrote recently in my column for U.S. News & World Report. We need tax and fiscal reform; unfortunately the current political environment makes it nearly impossible. Tax reform is the kind of issue that has to be tackled from the center, with reasonable compromises gradually attracting more support on the left and right. The two parties cannot do that by t

Washington, D.C. – Against the backdrop of dysfunctional government, widespread economic uncertainty, and a general failure of the two-party system to solve many of the nation’s most pressing challenges, a crop of Independent elected officeholders Wednesday came together to make the case that independent candidates for public office can get elected and bridge the political divide between Republicans and Democrats. “The two major parties don’t agree on much except to make it very difficult for a

Like a lot of Missouri voters, I’m beyond angry at our recent divisive presidential election and scandal-plagued state legislature. It’s time to vent that anger at the real culprit: an election system rigged against the voters. If you’re like me, you have deeply held political principles, but right now you’d prefer if news about politics just went away. For the media and political parties, politics is just about putting people in boxes and keeping them there. As an African-American woman who