Declaration of Independents (North Carolina to Arizona and All Points In Between)

INDEPENDENTVOTING.ORG NETWORKS

• DECLARATION OF THE INDEPENDENTS (By Omar H. Ali and Donna Moser, News Observer) The widely-discussed yet continually misunderstood "independent voter" is neither ideologically driven nor a closet partisan (be it Democrat nor Republican). We are not "swing voters,"' nor are we "moderates." Rather, we come from across the political spectrum and the one thing we agree upon is the need to minimize partisan control over the political process.
• The Impact of Independent Voters (WUNC) Host Frank Stasio talks with three of the event’s participants: Omar Ali, associate professor of African-American Studies and History at UNC-Greensboro; Donna Moser, co-founder of North Carolina Independents; and Brittany Rodman, a young, registered independent voter.
• Will Open Primaries Shake Up Politics in Arizona? (Pamela Powers Hannley, Huffington Post) Open primaries -- where all candidates regardless of party affiliation are listed on one ballot -- would give voters, rather than political parties, a greater voice in government, says Ted Downing, Ph.D., research professor of social development in the Arizona Research Laboratories at the University of Arizona and one of the initiative's architects.
• Will Arizona's GOP Self-Destruct? (By Terry Greene Sterling, Daily Beast) The Arizona GOP already has a set of challenges that it hasn’t faced before. Herstam notes that an energetic petition drive for open primaries is underway. If it gathers enough signatures in the next five months, it will show up on the November ballot. If passed, the open primary system will likely unseat extremists now in the Arizona legislature. Expect both parties to oppose it.
• Arizona Top-Two Initiative Has Collected 100,000 Signatures So Far (Ballot Access News) It is believed that California multi-millionaire Charles Munger, Jr., is providing much of the financial backing for the initiative, so there seems little doubt that it will qualify.

Independents and the Iowa Caucus

From WFMY News, CBS in Greensboro NC




In recent days, lots of attention has been directed towards the Iowa caucus. At nearly 1,000 miles away, North Carolinians may be wondering why this is important to them. WFMY News 2 spoke with Dr. Omar Ali, Independent Political Analyst and Historian at UNC Greensboro to bring you more information.

WFMY: Why do we, here in the Triad and across the country, need to care about the Iowa Caucus?

Dr. Ali: In 2008, 13% of GOP voters self-identified as independent which translated into about 16,000 Iowa voters participating in the GOP caucuses as independents. On the Democratic side, about 20% self-identified as independent which translated into about 50,000 voters. What this means is that In 2008, independents made a very strong statement in Iowa when 75% of them chose to vote in the Democratic caucuses. Given that there isn't a competitive Democratic caucus this year, the voter turnout among independents will give some indication of how compelling voters find the GOP case against Obama and his administration.

WFMY: How does money factor into early primaries (especially this year when so many states moved their caucuses/primaries so early)?

Dr. Ali: Money is always a factor. Having more money has helped candidates such as Romney who had a relatively late start in Iowa this go-around make a strong showing in the polls. Money can buy organizations, but what money doesn't do is necessarily win the caucuses. Iowans are independent-thinking and are looking for candidates who will meaningfully address the state of our economy, part of which means having a president who can equally address the partisan gridlock of Congress. Each state legislature will offer its own explanation as to why they moved things up. What we do know is that moving things up certainly favors those with cash in hand.

WFMY: Is Iowa (or any early states) really a good representation of voters in the US?

Dr. Ali: Obama and his team will be watching closely, not just to see who wins and places but to see what, if anything, they can learn about the movement of independents. There are strong progressive voices and leaders in the independent movement - like Jackie Salit, leader of IndependentVoting.org - and the Obama people may find that they want to make an alliance with that wing of the independent movement so that it can influence the direction of independents in the general election. And, yes, Iowa is overwhelmingly white (and largely evangelical) but it's also the case that in terms of the "independent vote" (which is the most undecided group of voters) Iowa could project more broadly. The undecideds, as you know, are what the Republican candidates are most concerned with.

HANKSTER SPECIAL REPORT: Dr. Omar Ali, Professor at UNC Greensboro Speaks Out About Occupy Wall Street and Need for Political Reform

SPECIAL REPORT: Omar H. Ali Speaks Out About Occupy Wall Street and Need for Political Reform

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Representative Darrell Issa Leads List Of Wealthiest Member Of Congress (Written by USA Today) VIDEO: Ali on CBS discussing money and politics, emphasizing the need to increase the political participation of the 99% through structural reforms as opposed to trying to regulate the 1% (which has not worked since McCain-Feingold).
NC Occupy movement takes stock - Occupy movement in NC takes stock after 2 months (WAVY NBC Channel 10 - Portsmouth VA) NOTE: Above AP article also picked up by Boston Herald
Race and Occupy Wall Street (by Frank Stasio and Ginny Mueller, WUNC North Carolina Public Radio) AUDIO The Occupy Wall Street movement has spread across the country and captured the attention of millions of Americans. The movement deals with national issues, but it doesn't necessarily represent all factions of society. Are minorities being well represented in the revolution of the 99 percent? Host Frank Stasio talks about Occupy Wall Street and race with Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP; Omar Ali, an African-American studies professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and Marcella Robinson, an Occupy Raleigh protester and member of the group Mortgage Fraud in North Carolina.
A New Poll Reveals Only 17% of Americans Are Happy With The Direction Our Country Is Headed (Written by Rosemary Plybon, CBS Good Morning Show, WFMY News 2)
Occupy Greensboro Movement discusses social equality (by Yasmine Regester, Carolina Peacemaker) The Occupy Greensboro Movement stemmed from the Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York in early September directed against economic and social equality. The protests have since spread across the U.S. The slogan for the movement has been "We are the 99%" which according to Dr. Omar Ali, University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG) Associate Professor of African American and Diaspora Studies and panelist, it refers to the 99 percent that are not wealthy and have been hit hard with the downturn in the economy.

Occupy Greensboro

Dr. Ali, a long-time activist in the independent political movement in the US and a founder of  is an Associate Professor of the African American Studies Program & Department of History at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author of In the Lion's Mouth: Black Populism in the New South, 1886-1900 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2010), foreword by Robin D. G. Kelly and In the Balance of Power: Independent Black Politics and Third Party Movements in the United States (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2008), foreword by Eric Foner, among other books.



OCCUPY WALL STREET
'The New Tammany Hall' (By MATTHEW KAMINSKI, Wall Street Journal) Fred Siegel: The institutional barriers to change have grown, too. The Working Families Party, founded in 1998, is the political arm of government unions and a driver of turnout in local elections. Though little known outside New York, the influence of this third party can be seen on the City Council, which has come to tilt heavily left. So far, says Mr. Siegel, the party has a better political track record than Tammany. "With the exception of Giuliani, they've never lost an election. No matter who wins, they're OK."

Independent Redistricting: Create American Nonpartisanship

REDISTRICTING

• Editorial: Independent redistricting commission is the ticket (By: Winston Salem Journal) There's a better way to do this: an independent redistricting commission created by constitutional amendment.
• EDITORIAL: Gov. Brewer’s Overreach (NY Times) The court decision was a ringing defense of state voters, who approved creation of the independent commission in 2000 after decades of gerrymandering.

NC Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform Wants Iowa-Style Redistricting

INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING

• Letter: Look to Iowa for redistricting reform (Daily Reflector - Greenville NC) The N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform strongly agrees that it is time to change the way North Carolina does redistricting… N.C. House Bill 824, co-sponsored by Rep. Edith Warren, passed the N.C. House by a vote of 88 to 27, with support from Warren and Rep. Marian McLawhorn. H.B. 824 is based upon this Iowa model and crafted to fit North Carolina — both its people and its political culture.
• Ouster of Arizona redistrict chair provokes backlash (by Mary K. Reinhart, The Arizona Republic) "The initiative was designed to prevent exactly what the governor and the Senate seek to accomplish with the removal of the chair," attorney Tim Hogan of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest wrote in a filing Thursday on behalf of Dennis Burke, Ann Eschinger and Bart Turner. "It was intended to create a commission beyond the reach of raw political power of the sort exercised in this case."

Independent Redistricting: Needed Now More Than Ever

REDISTRICTING

• Eyes on Ariz. as redistricting panel shaken up (By Gregory Korte, USA TODAY) Brewer, a Republican, accused commission Chairwoman Colleen Mathis of putting a priority on making congressional districts competitive at the expense of a "grid-like" map required by the law… Mathis has sued to keep her post, but her removal as the panel's only independent brings a 2-2 deadlock between Democrats and Republicans, who likely won't be agree to enact a map.
• Independent panel needed for redistricting - Despite Justice Department OK, Republican plan still partisan. (Charlotte Observer) Regardless of the outcome, there's a better way to do redistricting. A nonpartisan, independent commission drawing the lines seems the best way to get a voting map that's fair and designed with the voters, not the politicians, in mind.
• New York and Utah (Salt Lake Tribune) Substitute Utah for New York and Gov. Gary Herbert for Gov. Andrew Cuomo and note how this Oct. 26 New York Times editorial applies… Such [independent] commissions exist in Idaho, Montana and Arizona. When will our citizens insist on this?

Independent Analyst Dr. Omar H. Ali Speaks on Recent Obama Visit to North Carolina

NORTH CAROLINA INDEPENDENTS

• Independent Voters Want President's Attention (NPR, WFDD FM 88.5, North Carolina) On Tuesday, October 18, he heard President Obama speak in Jamestown. According to Dr. Ali, while the President and other politicians talk about how they plan to create new jobs, unaffiliated voters are frustrated with bipartisan politics. He tells WFDD's Kathryn Mobley there are about 1.5 million unaffiliated voters in North Carolina. But he says he believes that number would be higher if there were open primaries.
  Ali speaks to WFMY about Obama visit (UNC Greensboro University News, Posted by Dan Nonte)  SEE VIDEO BELOW
• NEW: North Carolina Independents website 

North Carolina Repubs Fight Open Primary

OPEN PRIMARIES

• GOP suit seeks closed primary - Questions linger about who can vote, who will get bill (By Eric Connor, Greenville Online) U.S. District Judge Michelle Childs has given the state Republican Party and the State Attorney General until Dec. 15 to file arguments over whether the state’s open-primary laws are constitutional.
• Editorial: Invite All N.M. Voters (By Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board) Nearly one in five registered New Mexico voters doesn’t declare a major party allegiance — a number that has grown significantly. And while that status as an independent voter keeps them from having to swallow the so-called dogma of the D and R extremists in partisan primary elections, it also keeps them out of the voting booth until the general election rolls around.
• What’s wrong with Washington? Two perspectives  (By Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post) Interviews with Mickey Edwards [How to turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans] and David Walker [president and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative] Walker: But how are we going to get it done because we have a dysfunctional democracy? Our politics have been taken over by the wingnuts — on both ends. And they are dominated by career politicians who may or may not have had a real job in their life but once they get elected they don’t have one and they want to keep it for life. And so the fact is is that we’re going to need political reforms, too. We’re going to need redistricting reform. We’re going to need integrated, open primaries. We’re going to need campaign finance reform. And we’re going to need reasonable term limits, 12 to 18 year term limits. And we better do it sooner rather than later.
• A biting look at D.C. in 'Patriocracy' - 'Patriocracy' will have its 'world premiere' on November 5. (By PATRICK GAVIN, Politico) Seventy minutes into the 90-minute film, some daylight appears in the form of former Rep. Mickey Edwards, whose “insider’s six-step plan to fix Congress” published in the Atlantic earlier this year, serves as the basis for a way out of the wilderness. The plan involves greater civic participation, reform of the campaign finance laws, increased transparency, open primaries, non-partisan congressional districting, a reform of committee appointments and a forfeiture of party allegiance.
• La. Gov. Bobby Jindal wins re-election (USA Today) The 40-year-old Republican overwhelmed nine competitors in the open primary, where a candidate wins the race outright if he or she receives more than 50 percent of the vote. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Jindal had received about 66 percent of the total vote.

North Carolina Gives Structural Advantage to Unpopular Party

NORTH CAROLINA
Dismal numbers for NC GOP...but a structural advantage (Public Policy Polling) The Republican legislators are extremely unpopular- but one of their unpopular actions could leave them in power for years to come.