In general third party watchers still see a great opportunity for a surging independent movement in 2008. As Lou Dobbs wrote, it will take “nothing less than an independent voter rebellion” to wrest control of the two establishment parties from their corporate underwriters. But with the challenge of gathering petition signatures to make the ballot, deadlines are nearing and time is running short.

  With someone like Bloomberg heading a third party ticket, we envisioned fusing the various third parties to promote election reform measures that would have compelled various third parties to consider setting aside their ideological differences in the short term for a lasting fair electoral process. Without him groups like IndependentAmerica.org will continue to encourage citizens to run for congress and local office in 2008 and prepare for the 2009 races.

 Local grassroots activity is essential so that independent voters do not waste their vote on one of the two establishment parties. There is a wide range of issues that only independents would commit to solving as discussed in a new version of his 1972 book Citizen Power by former Senator Mike Gravel. Chief among them is election security and reform. But the key for Gravel as he pitched on his recent bid for the Democratic presidential nomination is a New Initiative for Democracy. In his words, “The only possibility of government reform is through empowerment of the people. People empowered will demand a balance of power between the citizen and their elected officials. Unfortunately the people haven’t come to realize that their empowerment must take the form of lawmaking – the central power of government.”

Instead of keeping their power, citizens give it up at the ballot box. Ceding power to the big two parties has generated more corruptible electronic voting machines with no verifiable backup system eight years after the election failure in Florida. Add that to the onerous procedures for independents and third parties to get on the ballot, and we are left with gerrymandered districts that yield 50% of all elections unchallenged. We the people need to fill this void and run for elective office not allowing anyone – regardless of whether you agree with him or her politically – to run unopposed. Here is where a rational public campaign-financing plan would attract concerned citizens into participating. It would cost much less to publicly finance campaigns than it currently costs our treasury when the winning political party rewards campaign donors with no-bid government contracts.

Other election reform measures needed now include creating fair ballot access, universal/election day registration, and instant runoff voting all intended to increase voter turnout.

Next we should insist on fair media coverage over the public airwaves and debate participation for all who make the ballot. In 2007 the party holding  the congressional majority excluded their own candidates from participating in the debates starting with former Senator Gravel just as they intend to keep Nader out again this fall. Extended to third party presidential candidates who mathematically qualify on enough state ballots to get elected, the number in the debates would never have exceeded four candidates.

  Advocates of election reform were pinning our hopes on Mayor Bloomberg to change the dynamic of politics-as-usual. 
The recent surge of interest in one of the two established parties is a positive development with the potential to deliver our message to a wider audience. More interest should lead to more candidates for public office. Independents welcome the interest in pushing our reform issues. We insist on fairness in the debate process, and demand secure voting machines. So while Mayor Bloomberg’s decision not to run has delayed our efforts, we shall fight on.

  Joseph Oddo was founding director of the Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg.
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Election Reform & A Billionaire for President

By Joseph Oddo

Springfield, VA -- April 26, 2007 -- With all the focus on the wide open presidential field for 2008, the down ticket congressional seats present a unique opportunity for Independents to demand Election Reform to include fair ballot access, secure voting machines and public campaign financing.

50% of all elections have only one name on the ballot. That makes it more important than ever to encourage citizens to run for office. Americans should no longer tolerate this phenomenon created by the Big Two political parties. Both parties actively engage in the politics of exclusion by refusing to debate Independents. We know why. They fear that voters would agree that elections are unfair and need fixed.

Presenting our case for public campaign financing, Independents ask voters to look beyond the rhetoric decrying the potential cost. The current system is far more costly to taxpayers. Political contributors are rewarded with government jobs and no-bid contracts that rob billions from our Treasury – no matter which political party is in charge.

Here is a summary of the main points of our National Election Reform Platform (NERP):

* Uniform Ballot Access

* Loosen Third Party Ballot Restrictions

* Universal Voter Registration

* Election Day Holiday

* Equal Media Access/Debate Inclusion

* Instant Runoff Voting (IRV)

* Secure Voting Machines

* Public Campaign Financing

* Direct Popular Vote Election of the President

* DC Congressional Representation 

Before the naysayer can say "this will never happen", we repeat the words of one 2008 presidential contender. "America is a can-do nation." That is the attitude we need to finally fix our electoral process. Competent Americans of diverse economic backgrounds and occupations will run for office once it doesn't require committing financial suicide, or becoming skilled at political begging.

Election Reform brings new voices, new choices, and new ideas to addressing the issues of war, immigration, health care, the environment, education, trade, net neutrality etc. Without it, these issues rotate through legislatures with feeble attempts at solutions.

Take health care for instance. Former Senator Mike Gravel wrote about the need to address health care back in 1971. Now as presidential candidate, his party is excluding him from the debates. It is time that Americans quit settling for the politics of exclusion. Most Americans have no idea just how articulate and fresh the ideas of those outside the Big Two were. Gravel and others considered B-tier candidates advocate for fixing the broken tax system – something the Big Two cannot attempt since they would be stepping on those who fund them.

Our campaign theme is "Action Against Apathy". It consists of these four main actions:

1. Run a self-financed independent for president;

2. Run 435 House and 33 Senate candidates to support the independent for president and generate grassroots get-out-the-vote activity;

3. Secure pledges from our candidates to enact our ten-point National Election Reform Platform.

4. Ask all independents, third parties and members of the Big Two to suspend their ideological differences long enough to establish fairness in elections and improve the process so that ordinary Americans will return to civic duty and run for office. 

We put out the call now for a full slate of independent congressional candidates to prepare to make the ballot in 2008. It is time to hold the Big Two accountable for continuing to raise the debt ceiling in order to earmark valuable brownie points for reelection.

The fourth point asking Independents, third-party loyalists, and swing voters to suspend their deepest ideological principles will only succeed if we secure pledges and hold those who get elected to honor them. We understand that supporting a true independent at the top of the ticket requires a stretch of faith. Most will not align squarely with our chosen nominee. But the trade-off will be worth it in exchange for Election Reform that will allow our candidates to compete.

As it stands today, our default candidate based on his ability to pay for an election without begging to the Big Box party financiers is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He brings credentials as a capable elected executive that Ross Perot did not. A draft committee (DraftMichael.com) has started recruiting Independent candidates for offices all over the U.S. in 2008. Building a grassroots network will turn out the crucial independent vote to finally elect an "Independent" chief executive to the White House in 2008. Supporting Bloomberg will be a challenge, but with a pledge to enact election reform measures in his first 100 days, he is the one we should support.

I appeal for the nearly 40% of the electorate who consider themselves independent to take up this challenge in order to fix the flawed election process. Commit to not wasting another vote on the Big Two candidates. Better yet run for office. Why should we as voters – and nonvoters – allow those who broke the system to continue in power? The Big Two simply write laws to legalize their misdeeds acting as though there is no problem.

Politics, government operations, and our electoral system can all be improved if we shake up the establishment, and introduce new ideas and invite new operators that are not bought and paid for by the highest bidders. No use trying to get money out of politics; our energy needs to be focused on getting people in. That is why we need a billionaire like Bloomberg to promote our platform.

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Washington, DC -- November 28, 2007 -- The movement to abandon the Big Two parties is picking up steam from several sources including two unlikely characters: Lou Dobbs and Scott McClellan. In Lou Dobbs words, “Both of our major political parties have become little more than well-funded marketing organizations, advertising brands that the corporate and special-interest elites manage for their own benefits, with almost no regard for the common good and the national interest.” That explains why the hypocrisy of career politicians like Trent Lott and Dennis Hastert has become the norm on Capitol Hill. They are not the first to resign congress in order to cash in to lobby their former colleagues. Their hand was forced by the upcoming restrictions on former congress member lobbying that starts early next year. Senator John McCain had one of best descriptions of the system when he described it as legalized bribery.

Add former White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s upcoming book “WHAT HAPPENED: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong With Washington” scheduled to be published in the spring as fodder for more defections from the Big Two parties. It boils down to lost trust in the whole political process. McClellan discloses when he lost trust in the president by first offering an alibi of why he trusted him to begin with. "The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I had unknowingly passed along false information.”

Later, McClellan admits that senior Administration officials including the president and vice-president were responsible for the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. This is getting little national headlines since these revelations come as no surprise to those who follow Washington politics. Speaking with Joe Wilson in 2004, I could sense his sincerity and conviction as he stood alone to accuse senior Bush Administration officials - he specifically named Karl Rove – as responsible for the leak that outed his wife’s CIA identity.

While campaigning for congress in 2004, I made a list of offenses that I could not believe this Administration was getting away with. They ranged from forged evidence for war to trampling our basic constitutional rights. Running for office provided a unique opportunity to question the legitimacy of Bush/Cheney decisions and my congressman’s vote for the war. At one point I was able to ask Congressman Tom Davis if he had read the PATRIOT Act before voting for it. To which he answered, “I didn’t have to read it, I knew what was in it.”

In 2008 American voters may only be offered the choice between an individual with fatally impaired judgment to give the Bush/Cheney Administration the power to invade Iraq, or a former New York mayor who failed to protect the lives of several hundred first responders on September 11, 2001 by locating his command post in the World Trade Center complex. These life and death mistakes cannot be taken back.

Still not convinced to abandon the Big Two? Consider what they have planned for 2008. Little attention was paid to the recent announcement of four debate sites selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates – the monopoly created by the Big Two political parties to offer meaningless sound bite debates between the nominees of only those two parties. Voters ought to know that once again there are no provisions for allowing legitimate candidates from outside the Big Two to participate.

During the 2004 race, there were only five candidates that had a mathematical chance to win the White House based on qualifying for enough state ballots to earn enough electoral votes for victory. Regardless of the long odds, what would have been so terrible about hearing from all five of these contenders in a nationally televised format? We are witnessing debates now with up to nine candidates, though as former Senator Mike Gravel proved they still practice the politics of exclusion. In 2004, candidates from the Libertarian and the Green party staged debates that featured empty chairs for the Big Two to appear. Of course they refused because as Libertarian nominee Michael Badnarik stated, they fear the voters may hear something they can relate to.

Debate exclusion continues the direct insult to the democratic process. It strengthens our argument for Independents to boycott not just the coming primaries, but all activities, words and actions of Big Two party candidates. I am repeating the call made a few weeks ago for one million people to abandon their membership in the Big Two political parties before the upcoming primaries. Voters and non-voters alike need to declare their independence, or register for a third party. This will send a message that we are tired of the politics-as-usual scripted infomercials that substitute for real debates and stifle legitimate voices in the political landscape.

To hear Lou Dobbs report about the record number of people registering independent, you get the impression that it was all his doing. In reality, before his book, there have been thousands of advocates suggesting abandonment of the Big Two parties. Promoters of the National Election Reform Platform have been attempting to secure pledges from each party’s nominees for federal office committed to repairing the broken elements of our electoral system: ballot access, voting machine security flaws, voter disenfranchisement and the influence of special interest money.

An example of why clean elections and campaign financing are so critical is clearly demonstrated in this LA Times description of Gov. Schwarzenegger, once considered “the champion of the people against the special interests, the man who was so rich he could say no to campaign donors seeking favors. [Yet the record haul of] $125 million that Schwarzenegger has pulled in comes from the same special interests he campaigned against and that have made the purchase of political access and influence a dark art.”

Workshops presented at the Claim Democracy conference in Washington in November, 2007 covered additional reform items such as universal voter registration, rank choice voting, Election Day holiday and voting rights for DC citizens.

Our growing election reform coalition – having secured an endorsement from independent presidential candidate Daniel Imperato – welcomes the infusion of Mr. Dobb’s voice in our cause. Now we hope that he will invite us on to his television program to explain why election reform is so critical.

- Joseph Oddo is the director of Independent America Political Committee based in Washington DC.

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