Thursday, November 12, 2009

Independent & Third Party candidates for Governor share forum…

Independent & Third Party candidates for Governor will share a forum in Illinois. An article on THOnline.com says independent candidate Michael White and Constitution Party candidate Randall Stufflebeam will take part in a forum hosted by the Galena Youth Political Organization in Galena, Illinois. The forum will be Sunday, November 15th.

The forum will also feature candidates for Lieutenant Governor and U.S. Senate.

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Independent a strong second for Massachusetts Governor…

Independent Tim Cahill is polling a strong second for Massachusetts Governor. A new WHDH / Suffolk University poll shows State Treasurer Tim Cahill at 26%, putting him in second place for the race for Massachusetts top office. Polls with various Republicans have about 20% of the voters still undecided.

The big story of the poll is that 42% of people approve of Governor Duval Patrick’s job of Governor, but at best only 38% of respondents said they would vote for Governor Patrick’s re-election. That means four percent of people who like Patrick still will not vote for him.

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Independent Gubernatorial candidate says no thanks to major party invitation…

Independent Massachusetts Gubernatorial Tim Cahill says no thanks to major party invitation. Cahill said he rejected the offer to drop his campaign and become the running-mate of Republican Charles Baker.

Andrea Estes wriets on Boston.com Cahill had been contacted by multiple people connected to Baker. Cahill was quoted saying, “I feel like I have every bit as much right to run for the top job as (Baker) does… And I would hope people would respect that.’’

Estes later writes, “A spokesman for Baker said that no one from the campaign had made a formal offer to Cahill.”

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Senator Lieberman “more Republican” and doing better than worse…

Connecticut Independent Senator Joe Lieberman is “more Republican” and doing better than worse according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

The poll shows voters believed 51-25% that Senator Lieberman's views on issues are closer to the Republican Party than to the Democratic Party. But the big issue for re-election is his approval rating. Voters approve of Lieberman’s job performance 49-44%.

While being below the 50% threshold is not good, in a three-way race with a strong independent candidate 40% is likely a winning vote tally. Lieberman is not up for re-election until 2012 so there is some time for strange things to happen between now and 2012.

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NY23 special election is over, not so fast…

The New York 23rd Congressional District special election is over, not so fast according to Syracuse.com. Mark Weiner writes on Syracuse.com the two key pieces of information that Conservative Party Candidate Doug Hoffman used to concede may not have been true.

When Hoffman conceded he was down 5,335 votes. Weiner writes, “Now a recanvassing in the 11-county district shows that Owens’ lead has narrowed to 3,026 votes over Hoffman… The new vote totals mean the race will be decided by absentee ballots, of which about 10,200 were distributed...

Owens was still sworn-in to congress even through according to Weiner, “the state sent a letter to the House Clerk last week explaining that no winner had been determined in the 23rd District, and therefore the state had not certified the election.”

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Lou Dobbs for President?

Lou Dobbs for President? The CNN commentator left the cable broadcast network “to pursue new opportunities”. The Thirds wonders is that new “opportunity” a run for President as a Third Party candidate.

In saying goodbye to television the Dobbs message sure sounded like a speech that many people make when getting into a political race. He spoke of his accomplishments, “I'm the last of the original anchors here on CNN, and I'm proud to have had the privilege of helping to build the world's first news network.”

But then he talks of something bigger than himself, “Over the past six months, it's become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us.”

Then he follows by saying what he will do is not a personal call, but a call from others. Dobbs said, “…some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem-solving, as well as to contribute positively to a better understanding of the great issues of our day.”

He then sets-up the important issues of this time in American history and his possible campaign, “I truly believe that the major issues of our time include the growth of our middle class, the creation of more jobs, health care, immigration policy, the environment, climate change, and our military involvement, of course, in Afghanistan and Iraq…. our now weakened capitalist economy… the lack of true representation in Washington, D.C.”

He says what is wrong in Washington and why the issues previously mentioned need to be fixed, “these issues are now defined in the public arena by partisanship and ideology rather than by rigorous empirical thought and forthright analysis and discussion.

So what is he going to do next? Dobbs told the audience, “I'll be working diligently… the important work of restoring inspiration to our great free society and our market economy, I will strive as well to be a leader in that national conversation.”

Of course we are not making any ground breaking statements by saying that Dobbs could be a presidential contender. There are two websites “loudobbs4president.com” and “loudobbsforpresident.org” that have been encouraging a Dobbs run for President.

With the political landscape skewed to the Democrats and Republicans it might take three years to get ballot access in a number of states to make a Third Party presidential run truly viable. This ballot access issues has been mentioned a number of time by possible Third Party candidates such as Jesse Ventura. Dobbs can also start his run for President with a solid base from the websites asking him to run, plus many Tea Party members would support a fiscally conservative third party option.

Would Dobbs be interested to run on the Constitution Party or Libertarian Party party-line to get a jump start on ballot access or would he look to be more independent than that? We’ll have to wait and see.

Now to de-bunk the theory completely there has been some talk that Dobbs could bolt to Fox Business Channel. But, a spokesman for Fox Business says there has been no talks between Dobbs and Fox Business.

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