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While at Unrig the System this weekend (more on that later but a great meeting). I got to meet Pat Caddell, who has worked in presidential offices and campaigns since the Carter administration. He also developed many of the modern polling techniques widely used today. (By the way, he thinks micropolling is part of the equation, as we discuss in Wedged.) He has done a combination of personal interviews, polling, and soul-searching to get a sense of why Trump won the election when, in his words,

Seventy years ago today, April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Jackie Robinson was a baseball player and four-sports star at UCLA – football, basketball, baseball, and NCAA record holder in the broad jump – but if you think of him only as an athlete, you do not understand Jackie or his story. But as an athlete, the argument can be made that Jackie was America’s greatest; that while he made baseball’s Hall of Fame, there are those who say base

North Carolina may be jumping on the “Top-Two” train. A house bill introduced this week, H.B. 737, would reform the current partisan open primary system to a nonpartisan, top-two primary similar to the systems already in place in California and Washington state. H.B. 737 was introduced by state Reps. Ken Goodman (D-Rockingham) and Pricey Harrison (D-Greensboro). It would put all state and congressional elections on a single primary ballot where all voters and candidates, regardless of party aff

On HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver tackled an issue that many consider the most pressing threat to our democracy: gerrymandering. As he often does, Oliver explained the intricacies of this complex policy issue with wit and humor, much to the alarm of voters everywhere. After explaining how politicians help their own party win seats by “packing and cracking” voters into districts, Oliver left viewers with a glimmer of hope by introducing the idea of independent redistricting commissions. T

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t67ezWp7Zao&feature=youtu.be President Trump has actively utilized executive orders to bypass the unpredictability of Congress. Now, Represent.us has authored an executive order that has Trump’s “drain the swamp” mantra embedded into its very core. Represent.Us explains: “Represent.Us' strategy is to go around Congress and pass anti-corruption laws ourselves. The American Anti-Corruption Executive Order is another way we can go around Congress without getting b

State Representative Gabrielle LeDoux (R-Anchorage) is the latest legislator to introduce legislation that would open state elections to all voters. Rep. LeDoux’s HB200 would establish a top-two style nonpartisan open primary election system, similar to Washington and California’s models. Alaska’s current primary elections are semi-closed, meaning voters are allowed to participate only if a political party lets them. While the Democratic congressional and state primaries are open, allowing any

Five years ago, outside of the public eye, a conflict flared inside the inner circle of Democratic Party power. Simply put, it was this: should the Obama re-election campaign find a way to make an explicit appeal to independent voters? Five years ago, the answer was no. I know this because I was part of the discussion, though an outsider to it, whose counsel was firmly rejected. And though Obama won reelection in 2012 while losing independents to the GOP, the strategic decision to double down w

In his weekly column on the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity's website, Dr. Ron Paul praised recent comments from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the White House that regime change in Syria may no longer be a priority for the US. https://twitter.com/RonPaul/status/848878352593190912 Paul made the point that while the media did cover Tillerson's remarks, the Washington elite rarely "blinks an eye when Washington declares that one or another foreign leader 'must go.'" His son, Se

Readers who have been following IVN's ongoing coverage of the debate commission and the lawsuits brought against it are acquainted with the Commission on Presidential Debate's criterium that requires presidential candidates to poll at 15% or more in 5 polls hand-picked by the debate commission to appear on the presidential debate stage. The 15% rule is the main criterium being challenged by groups like Level the Playing Field, who successfully sued the FEC over administrative complaints against

The people at Mediaite interviewed comedian and talk show host Joe Piscopo about all the news coverage on Russia and Russia's alleged ties to the Trump administration. Piscopo, who is reportedly considering an independent run for governor in New Jersey, called the whole thing "comical" and "ridiculous." It’s a ruse. It’s a joke. They got nothing. The Russia thing is comical because it won’t go away … and I ask this, I ask this with respect, with respect to the Russian theorists — you talk about