The Independent View: Independents and Structural Political Reform

Since 1965 I have registered to vote as an independent. When I moved back to NY in 2000 I registered as an Independence Party member with the thought that I would get evolved in the political process in the future. The following year I was asked to sign an Independence Party petition and this started my political career.

Besides the state and city work there was "CUIP", the Committee for a Unified Independent Party. Over time it morphed into IndependentVoting.org.

We are a national strategy, communications, and organizing center working to connect and empower Americans who identify themselves as independents. Our mission is to develop a movement of independent voters for progressive post-partisan reform of the American political process.

We do not aspire to be another special interest. Independents seek instead to diminish the regressive influence of parties and partisanship by opening up the democratic process. Independents in the CUIP networks are creating new electoral coalitions such as the Black and Independent Alliance, supporting new models of nonpartisan governance and striving for the broadest forms of “bottom-up” participation.

With the size of the independent voting bloc growing, the barriers that limit independent participation have become even more glaring.

I am in my 4th term as a member of the State Committee, County Committee, and New York City Executive Committee representing the Eastside of Manhattan. I also created many of the websites representing Independents nationwide.

Here is a video that represents who we are and where we are going as Independents. That's me in the middle right, on the steps of City Hall.

Open primaries allow for greater political participation, challenging partisan control over the electoral process.

Use the above link to find out more about this independent movement.