The July 21 issue of New Jersey Newsroom has this op-ed by Chris Daggett, a former state official of New Jersey who is an independent candidate for Governor this year. Daggett makes the case for his own candidacy, including the idea that major party nominees invariably serve their own party’s interest instead of the public interest. Thanks to The Hankster for the link. UPDATE: Daggett qualified for public funding earlier this month. See this story.

New Jersey Newsroom was founded earlier this year by 40 leading journalists, most of whom had been working for the Newark Star-Ledger. New Jersey Newsroom is strictly an on-line newspaper.

Filing for Minneapolis city elections closed on July 21. The city is using Instant-Runoff Voting for the first time this year. The election is November 3. There will be no September primary, as there always has been in the past. See this list of candidates and their party labels. Parties don’t nominate candidates in these elections, and the candidates choose their own labels. UPDATE: here is the city elections web page, which seems to show that anyone can get on the ballot for any city office by paying a fee of $20, with no petition needed. Thanks to Thomas Jones for the link.

Labels include Independence, Green, Libertarian, Socialist Workers, Socialist Action, Progressive, in addition to Democratic-Farmer-Labor and Republican.

On July 7, Jana Kemp declared that she will run for Governor of Idaho in 2010 as an independent candidate. She was a Republican state legislator after the 2004 election, but she had been defeated for re-election in 2006 by a Democrat. She needs 1,000 valid signatures and is already working on her petition.

She had formerly represented northwest Boise and Garden City. Her campaign is centered on education issues. She has written five books on management, meetings and consensus building. See this story. Here is her campaign webpage.