Political Parties & Candidates

Political parties and open primaries are the electoral equivalent of oil and water.

After serving three terms as a Republican, former state Rep. Jim Thompson says he is looking at running for his old House seat as an Independent.

With potentially hundreds of thousands of California voters under the mistaken belief that they are registered as independent from partisan affiliation, newly drafted state legislation could end the confusion by forcing one minor political party to change its name.

Non-affiliated Oregon voters requested 97 percent fewer ballots for the Independent Party of Oregon's primary election this year compared with 2016. Source: Far fewer non-affiliated Oregon voters participating in Independent primary

In one key way, Oregon lags other states in making voting easy. Its closed primary system locks out hundreds of thousands of non-affiliated voters who now make up one-third of Oregon's registrants. Oregonians should keep up the pressure on the parties to open their primaries and on the secretary of state candidates to also make this a central part of their platform.

Oregon led the pack for a time in terms of innovations to help people participate in elections, write David Ellis and Jeremy Gruber. its refusal to open the Democratic and Republican primaries to non-affiliated voters, however, lags far behind other states that have embraced open primaries.

An unusually large number of voters have disavowed their Republican party identities over the past 2 months, particularly in Washington County, where the number of Republicans fell by nearly 1,900, or 2.3%

Heard is one of three current or former Republican state senators who swept into party leadership after a vote Saturday.

Nancy Jacobson, No Labels CEO, has an L.A. Times opinion piece attacking two-party “duopoly” and defending its plans for a potential third-party presidential bid. One bit of news in the column: it goes further than Ben Chavis said yesterday in … Continue reading No Labels defends its plans →

Jonathan Chait in the Intelligencer, discussing the twin threats to Biden from Cornel West and No Labels. Interesting comparison at the end of the piece to Truman in 1948, who also faced splintering from two different sides: Strom Thurmond as … Continue reading “Joe Biden May Face Two Spoiler Candidates in 2024” →

POLITICO: “The centrist group consists of a constellation of entities, some of which disclose donor names. But the main one is a nonprofit which, unlike political parties, does not have to reveal the names of its funders. And in an … Continue reading “No Labels declines to reveal just who is funding its third party bid” →

Julie Bykowicz for WSJ: The 13-year-old nonprofit group, which has a $70 million budget, has qualified for the ballot in Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Utah and is pursuing access elsewhere. Arizona Democrats are suing to kick No Labels off the … Continue reading “A Mysteriously Financed Group That Could Upend a Biden-Trump Rematch” →

In a political landscape dominated by two major parties, many people often overlook the choice to vote for a third party. However, third-party voting offers a valuable opportunity to challenge the status quo and bring fresh perspectives.

City governments are not just where Americans feel the most impact of government on their daily lives – they’re the last line of defense against hyper-partisanship. A recent piece in The New York Times revealed a sign of increasing tensions to come: Swing state legislatures this session have passed increasingly partisan agendas without mandates. Local governments, generally non-partisan, are where we can reverse this trend and govern by consensus.

Biden allies seek to undermine an effort they see as a threat to the president’s reelection.

Drutman thinks fusion will best usher in "party-centered reform" that the two-party system so badly needs -- and maybe even proportional representation

Prosecutors are scrutinizing a series of campaign contributions made by right-wing operatives who were part of a political spying operation based in Wyoming.

Donors wanted “long-term progressive infrastructure” in the Sunshine State. It killed the Democratic party.

Conservative candidates vying for a seat on the McMinnville school board did not prevail in the May 16, 2023 special election.

Justices concluded that the Alaska Division of Elections mishandled the withdrawal of the independent who sought to replace Don Young

Former State Sen. Betsy Johnson is running for governor and Aumsville Mayor Derek Clevenger is running for state representative without a party.

At unpublicized meetings in May, June and July, members of the party’s steering committee nominated candidates for Congress, governor and the Legislature

Betsy Johnson paid a Washington-based signature gathering firm more than $200,000 to collect signatures for her campaign.

Betsy Johnson, the unaffiliated candidate for Oregon governor, spent two decades as a Democrat in the Legislature and even longer as a powerful presence in local politics.