Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, who has always been a Democrat since he has been in public life, has rejected the Democratic Party. See this story. He favors the eventual existence of a new party. He had been elected Mayor in 1999, and had been re-elected in 2003.
Some journalists and political commentators believe that closed primaries produce “extremist” government officials, and that if only independent voters could participate in party primaries, primaries would then be won by “centrist” or “moderate” candidates. Therefore, it is worth noting that the rules of the Iowa Republican Straw Poll permit any Iowa resident who is at least age 16 and 1/2, vote. See this wikipedia article on the Iowa Republican straw poll.
There is a great deal more evidence than this that there is no correlation between type of primary system, and the type of office-holder who wins. Political scientist Boris Shor studied polarization and partisanship in state legislatures for the period 1995-2010. He analyzed hundreds of thousands of bits of data, specifically legislative roll-calls, and legislators’ responses to questionaires. He found no correlation between type of primary system and partisanship. Although he did find that California had the most polarized legislature during the years he studied, Washington state had the second-most polarized legislature, and most of that period, Washington state had either a blanket primary or a top-two primary. He also found that Wisconsin had one of the most polarized legislatures, and Wisconsin has always used a classic open primary.
California used blanket primaries for all special elections 1967-2010, but the state legislators and members of Congress elected in special elections in California in those years were just as partisan as legislators and congressmembers elected in regularly-elected elections. Both of California’s John Birch Society congressmen were elected initially in special elections. Also, the people elected in 2011 in California’s special elections, under the top-two system, has been the same kind of person who had been elected under the old semi-closed system.
Americans Elect leaders recently started a process by which the public can know more about the organization. First, various leaders of Americans Elect have spent two hours being interviewed by blogger Solomon Kleinsmith, of Rise of the Center. Kleinsmith has not yet posted the details of his interviews, but he describes the Americans Elect leaders he has interviewed here. Also, he confirms that Americans Elect has no ideological litmus test for candidates who wish to seek its presidential nomination. See here.
Also, Americans Elect has told Jim Cook, of Irregular Times, that the group will reveal more about its funding, and its leaders, by the end of August. See here.
Steve Kornacki, news editor of Salon, has this column in the August 14 New York Post. It says that the presidential election of 2012 has much in common with the past presidential elections of 1980 and 1992, two elections in which voters were unusually interested in a presidential campaign outside of the two major parties.
The results of the Iowa Republican straw poll of August 13 are: (1) Michelle Bachmann 4,823; (2) Ron Paul 4,671; (3) Tim Pawlenty 2,293; (4) Rick Santorum 1,657; (5) Herman Cain 1,456; (6) Rick Perry 718 (write-in); (7) Mitt Romney 567; (8) Newt Gingrich 385; (9) Jon Huntsman 69; (10) Thad McCotter 35. There were another 162 scattering votes.
Four years ago, Mitt Romney won the Iowa Republican straw poll.
