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On April 4, the governors of California and New York signed off on legislation raising their state’s minimum wages to $15 per hour. While the public may disagree about the merits of this measure and what the cumulative effects will be, there is little disagreement that states – as “laboratories of democracy” – are entitled to perform such economic experiments. After all, the first state minimum wage law was passed more than a century ago in Massachusetts in 1912, and a majority of states have mi

In a recent fundraising email, Ted Cruz's presidential campaign asks supporters to donate at least $35 to become an "official deputy delegate" for the Cruz Crew. This is not to be confused with being a real delegate, as in the ones who will participate in the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July. “You and I both have a lot riding on this election – the future of our country is at stake,” Cruz says in the email. “I know not everyone can come to Cleveland – but you can still become

After losing 7 of the last 8 contests (including Democrats Abroad), Clinton's got a big problem. It's not a problem that she's somehow likely to lose the whole thing; it would still take a minor miracle for Bernie Sanders to pull off the come-from-behind victory this late in the primary season. The problem is all about damage control, unity, and general election prospects of going home the winner. She has to campaign to win, but also do it in a manner that doesn't embitter the entire followin

The standoff in Oregon that began on January 2 appears to have reached its conclusion. On Tuesday, January 26, several occupiers of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge were arrested, and one occupier, Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, was killed in a confrontation with law enforcement. The leader of the occupiers, Ammon Bundy, has since called on the occupiers to return home. Only four occupiers remain, and a federal judge has denied the release of several apprehended individuals until the occupation ha

The spirit of America is strong; the state of our union is fragile. That is my conclusion after 100 days driving 14,128 miles through 34 states as an independent candidate for President of the United States. I met with over 1,000 people individually and in small groups. I mostly stayed away from big cities and college campuses. I had learned on two short campaign trips before this long one that very few Americans understand there are independent candidates running for office so I got in the ha

The primary system suppresses the democratic process and it’s important that we take a look at fixing this. Despite what we get from the media coverage, we must remember that the primary election functions as more than a selector for each party’s candidate for president. We qualify candidates for both chambers of the U.S. Congress, state Assembly, state Senate, and most city and state offices to the general election through our primary system. Our current system: * Makes some voters more impor

Historically, presidential races have come down to only a handful of toss-up states being the difference between victory and defeat -- the red/blue map has become fairly well-defined. Enter John Bel Edwards (D) who won the governorship of Louisiana on November 21 by a fairly resounding margin, capturing 54 percent of the vote. State governorships can give a glimpse into the 'at-large' intentions of a state, but this is hardly a sure thing in politics. Louisiana has a long history, since WWII,

Election Day 2015 has come and gone, and voters in cities in six states again found that they were not limited to marking only one candidate, but had the ability to rank the candidates in order of choice. Voters had the chance to vote with ranked choice voting in the following city elections: * San Francisco, CA * Telluride, CO * Saint Paul, MN * Takoma Park, MD * Portland, ME * Cambridge, MA That expansion of voter power is not a miracle cure-all for our democracy, but has clear positiv

On August 17, Air Force veteran Chris Keniston was formally declared the first official presidential candidate of the Veterans Party of America. However, few people have likely heard of Keniston or the Veterans Party, founded in 2013, since not a single major news outlet covered the event. Yet for Keniston, this wasn't unexpected. "I don't expect any assistance from the mainstream media at all," Keniston said in an interview for IVN. "I truly expect that if I'm ever mentioned on a mainstream m

WASHINGTON -- With the crowded presidential field, which features 22 Democratic and Republican candidates, not a great deal of attention has been paid to the 585 individuals officially registered on the FEC website as 2016 hopefuls. Among them is "Deez Nuts," who, according to the campaign's FEC form, lives in Iowa and is running as an independent. According to Public Policy Polling, Nuts is putting up decent numbers in North Carolina and Minnesota. COURTESY OF THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION