Third Party Longings, Independent Candidates, and Political Reform

Buddy Roemer Eyes Presidency - NPR interview on his main focus - campaign finance and the corrupting power of money in politics. Roemer is seeking the Americans Elect line.

The Atlantic: America has not seen a long-lasting national third-party movement in its history, and it won't be seeing one now. [Hey guys, what about the Republican Party?]

Rapid City MI: She said people she encountered on the campaign trail told her they were “sick of party politics,” leading her to switch to an independent run.

Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher announced today that he is dropping his Republican party preference and running as an independent for Mayor in San Diego.

The Proposition 14 experiment in political engineering is debuting this election season. The constitutional amendment, approved by voters in 2010, transforms June primaries, traditionally partisan affairs of the heart, into brainy contests that tap the top two contestants, regardless of party, to square off in November.

Occupy Wall Street Gathering, Losing Support

OCCUPY WALL STREET

• Fascination and Fear (Rick McGahey, an economic policy adviser to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, is a professor of professional practice in the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at the New School, NY Times/ Room for Debate) Democrats want to tap Occupy’s energy, but there's a risk of losing independent voters.
• Poll: Occupy Wall Street movement losing America’s support (Matthew Borghese, Gant Daily) Where the movement begins to lose support most dramatically, is among independent voters. A month ago, independent voters supported the movement (39 percent) but now a majority (42 percent) oppose the protests.
• Poll: Tea party trumps OWS (by Kyle Wingfield, Atlanta Journal Constitution) If a recent opinion survey by Public Policy Polling is any indication, the end of the full Occupation of Wall Street might have been the best thing that could have happened to the movement. Not because it will earn them public sympathy, but because the occupation itself had become the least sympathetic thing about the group.
• Buddy Roemer Slams Mike Bloomberg for Cops Clearing Occupy Wall Street (Kevin Derby's blog, Sunshine State News) "The mayor of New York City is standing on the wrong side of history. His actions in the midnight hours against the Occupy Wall Street protestors are unjust, uncalled for, and unconstitutional," said Roemer in a statement on Tuesday. “The First Amendment right of assembly and speech exists to protect America from this kind of government power abuse.

Buddy Roemer Reaches out to Occupy Wall Street

OCCUPY WALL STREET

• Rabble in Arms (By Keith Kreitman, Daily Journal - San Mateo CA) Meanwhile, as I have written before, the candidates for the Republican nomination for the presidency march along from debate to debate, not recognizing and addressing the growing middle class dissent in the land they wish to rule, ignoring the Occupy movement and clueless that, with their ever more extreme programs that gain them love and kisses from their slivers of extreme right admirers, they are alienating more and more of the moderate middle class and independent voters and the Occupy movement will eventually rule. 
• Mulling Third Party Bid, Buddy Roemer Reaches Out to Occupy Wall Street (By: Kevin Derby, Sunshine State News) As their candidate’s path to the Republican nomination becomes increasingly difficult, this week the Roemer camp threw out signs that he is considering launching a third party or independent bid for the White House.