Voter anger a media creation?

From a POLITICO article by SEUNG MIN KIM, use the above link to read the entire article, "Political pundits and Democratic politicians scoffed Wednesday at the notion of an anti-incumbent wave hitting campaigns this midterm season, blaming the media for spreading the story line that they insist is not real."

Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, pointed out that factoring for current primaries' incumbent losses translated into a 98.3 percent win rate for incumbents so far in 2010. These statistics are about "normal on a 40-year average,” Sabato said, arguing that the idea of an anti-incumbency wave is a “press-manufactured phenomenon.”

If you read the voters comments for these types of articles, they want to "Throw Out the Bums". At last nights New York City Charter Revision Commission, it was discussed that even though the voters were mad about the change in term limits by the mayor and city council, most were reelected.

But this misses the point. You have to give the voters better choices to make a change. This was one of our major reasons for nonpartisan elections or Top Too. Not only would it turn out more voters but give more people the opportunity to run.

The other reason for the primary results is the growth of groups like the Tea Party. These types of far left and right groups is splitting the anti-incumbent and anti-establishment voters.

What do you think is the reason incumbents are still winning?

Michael H. Drucker
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NYC Mayor Bloomberg Endorsing Bing

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Democrat, then a Republican, and now an independent (called a Blank in NY) is also a constituent and will not be able to vote for current Democratic State Assemblyman Jonathan Bing in his September’s primary. But he is doing everything he can to make sure others do, endorsing the East Side Assemblyman in what will be the beginning of an effort to help beat back a challenge from a United Federation of Teachers-backed primary challenger, high school government teacher Gregg Lundahl.

Bing, who has worked closely with the mayor on charter schools and transportation, expressed deep excitement over receiving the support from the mayor. “The mayor has a great deal of support in his home Assembly district, and his endorsement will carry significant weight in both my primary and my general election campaign,” Bing said.

The winner of the Assembly primary will face Republican and Independence Party candidate Paul Niehaus, a commercial litigator making his first run for office.

I have worked with Bing who lives near me on local issues. But I also interviewed Paul as part of the NYC Independence Party selection committee. We decided to bypass partitioning for him and he used state members for his partitioning. As I was running for my 4th term on the state committee for this AD, the 73rd, he did not carry opposing partitions and I will run unopposed and will serve another two years. This primary will be interesting as I can also not vote.

Here is a perfect example of the need for Non Partisan Municipal Elections or Top Two.


Michael H. Drucker
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