Dissatisfied voters in deep-blue cities are looking for alternatives to the Democrats in power. Republicans aren't providing many viable options, perhaps independents should give it a shot.
Maybe it’s because the middle class folks who would vote against urban Democrats have already been using their feet to vote against them for years, leaving the cities to left-leaning young college graduates and the clients of social service agencies run by Democratic politicians and their GOTV organizers.
Where middle class flight has been stopped (Staten Island for instance, where cops and firefighters live because they are legally required to live within the city) Republicans get elected regularly.
Looking at Massachusetts, more independents will not run, not with current ballot access laws, though they are worse for Republicans and Democrats than for independents. Petitioners have in the past few years become far more expensive. Especially in large cities with highly mobile voters, large numbers of students and non-residents,... and people living in apartments rather than houses, getting on the ballot in, say, Boston is extremely challenging.
We already have Libertarians, Greens, Constitutionalists, and now Forward Party and Liberal Party USA, the last of these being classical liberals, not American progressive liberals.
I fault the Republican party. There are millions of gettable votes in big cities that the Republicans don’t even try to compete for. When they run a quality candidate (as Lee Zeldin) they can do well, but the green or freak-show candidates who are actually presented do nothing to provide even theoretical opposition and cast the party in contempt. They could also challenge anti-democratic practices such as closed primaries on the national level. It would be a longer term project with compensation for strong candidates willing to lose once for the party, but they have money and are far from powerless.
Maybe it’s because the middle class folks who would vote against urban Democrats have already been using their feet to vote against them for years, leaving the cities to left-leaning young college graduates and the clients of social service agencies run by Democratic politicians and their GOTV organizers.
Where middle class flight has been stopped (Staten Island for instance, where cops and firefighters live because they are legally required to live within the city) Republicans get elected regularly.
Looking at Massachusetts, more independents will not run, not with current ballot access laws, though they are worse for Republicans and Democrats than for independents. Petitioners have in the past few years become far more expensive. Especially in large cities with highly mobile voters, large numbers of students and non-residents,... and people living in apartments rather than houses, getting on the ballot in, say, Boston is extremely challenging.
Require runoffs if no candidate achieves 50%. Like LA and a number of southern states do.
We need a third party. It is time for that.
We already have Libertarians, Greens, Constitutionalists, and now Forward Party and Liberal Party USA, the last of these being classical liberals, not American progressive liberals.
I fault the Republican party. There are millions of gettable votes in big cities that the Republicans don’t even try to compete for. When they run a quality candidate (as Lee Zeldin) they can do well, but the green or freak-show candidates who are actually presented do nothing to provide even theoretical opposition and cast the party in contempt. They could also challenge anti-democratic practices such as closed primaries on the national level. It would be a longer term project with compensation for strong candidates willing to lose once for the party, but they have money and are far from powerless.
Spencer Pratt and mail in ballots
Yes, the top-two primary in L.A. required a lot of strategic coordination by non-Democratic outsiders.