Posted by Russell Daniels on January 07, 2019 at 1:08 PM
The 2020 presidential race has begun. Early speculation is that 20 Democrats may throw their hat in the ring and that John Kasich may challenge President Trump as an independent or in the GOP primary. The narrative will undoubtedly twist and turn between now and the New Hampshire primaries, just 12 months away.
Read morePosted by Russell Daniels on November 01, 2018 at 3:16 PM
President of Open Primaries, John Opdycke made an appearance on Fox and Friends to talk about what Independents are looking for in the 2018 midterms.
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Posted by Russell Daniels on October 09, 2018 at 2:47 PM
New Mexico’s two gubernatorial candidates aren’t closing the door on open primaries, and that’s good news given the high percentage of new voters who are registering as independents in our state.
Of the 43,434 newly registered voters from March 2017 through August of this year, 23,380 – or nearly 54 percent of those who registered – either declined to state a party affiliation or registered as a Libertarian or a minor party.
Overall, about 22 percent of the state’s voters are now declined-to-state voters, commonly referred to as independents.
Read morePosted by Russell Daniels on October 09, 2018 at 2:11 PM
America is experiencing a political crisis. The two major parties have moved so far from one another that neither is willing to work together anymore. Both are offering voters candidates who have no viable vision for our state or our country. These candidates focus their energies on misinformation, personal attacks, and extremist positions that only the most far-leaning supporters in each party demand.
Read morePosted by Jonathan Richter on June 19, 2018 at 10:02 AM
Throughout slavery, Reconstruction and the movement for civil rights, African Americans in the U.S. have faced racism, social disparities, and oppression. While things have advanced for us significantly, black Americans still encounter subtle and blatant social disenfranchisement.
For instance, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the people behind bars in the U.S. are disproportionately black. Chronic diseases like diabetes, arthritis, HIV, and cancer are more prevalent and diagnosed at later stages in the black community due to poverty and harmful social and environmental conditions.
Posted by Jonathan Richter on June 19, 2018 at 9:55 AM
Last month, leading up to California’s primary elections, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said “I hate the top-two” open primary system. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said California’s top-two system “is not a reform. It is terrible.” Their bipartisan response should tell you everything you need to know: Political parties hate top-two, so voters should love it.
We’re from different parties, we don’t agree on every issue, and we don’t bench-press the same amount — yet. But when it comes to California’s open primary system, where the two candidates who get the most votes advance to the general election, regardless of their political party, we see eye to eye: That current system, in place since 2012, works best because it puts the voters first.
Read morePosted by Jonathan Richter on June 08, 2018 at 9:59 AM
In Harrisburg, generally known as the Place Reform Goes to Die, there is now robust debate about two critical political reforms: 1) proposals to end gerrymandering by creating a more independent process by which to draw political maps, and 2) proposals to enact open primaries and allow the state’s 750,000 independent voters to participate in first-round elections.
Are these proposals a quick fix to all that ails our politics? Probably not. Are they worth doing? Absolutely. The status quo (closed primaries and gerrymandered districts) now go hand-in-glove to insulate politicians, reduce competition, and reinforce partisanship.
Read morePosted by Jonathan Richter on June 07, 2018 at 12:47 PM
After months of review, the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee concurred that Russia attempted to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.
Would it be that Russia was the only actor working to skew our elections? As Katherine Gehl and Michael Porter document in their recent Harvard Business School report, the modus operandi of both political parties is to restrict competition, manipulate voters and depress participation: “The politics industry is different from virtually all other industries in the economy because the participants, themselves, control the rules of competition.”
Read morePosted by Jonathan Richter on June 07, 2018 at 12:44 PM
Like many progressive New York Democrats, I welcomed Cynthia Nixon's entry into the primary race for governor. If there's one thing that has brought New Yorkers together in recent years, it is our collective disgust at the calcified machine brand of politics that dominates our state at every level and reduces progressive change to a marketing slogan. Nixon entered the Democratic Party primary promising a bold departure from the policies and practices that, in her words, have made New York "the single most unequal state in the country."
Bold and comprehensive political revitalization (nonpartisan redistricting, strong ethics laws, and nonpartisan primaries) is why California is innovating at every level of policy and New York is stuck in political amber. So it was with much disappointment that I read her recent prescription for electoral change, focusing on early voting, automatic voter registration and changing the deadlines on party registration. Worthwhile changes to be sure but woefully inadequate and uninspired.
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Posted by Jonathan Richter on June 05, 2018 at 11:16 AM
There isn’t much that unites Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy these days, but the two most powerful Californians in American politics agree wholeheartedly on this: They both despise their state’s “top two” primary, a system adopted by voters in 2010 that dispenses with party labels and has wreaked havoc for Democrats and Republicans alike.
“This is not a reform. It is terrible,” Pelosi, the House minority leader and former Democratic speaker, told reporters last month. She complained that the system costs too much money and shuts out smaller parties in the name of opening up the primary process to a broader population of voters.
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