Comments on: Independent Voters Could Decide Congress
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- How refreshing it is to hear that more people are getting away from being called democrats or republicans and calling themselves AMERICANS, party politics is what is wrong with this country. Two years ago I ran for the New York State Assembly as an Independent (not to be confused as to being a Independence party member) The Dem party chair called and asked if I would like their endorsement I replied that would be nice with the funding and volunteers and all, but if there platforms didn't support the common man I wouldn't guarantee I would support their bills and they hung up the phone. Next day the Rep party chair called and we had the same conversation, I gave the same answer and once again got hung up on. Holding to my convictions I ran as an Independent and found out that all Americans are not created equal. To run for NY State Assembly as a Dem or Rep candidate you would need 500 signatures to get on the ballot but if you ran as an Independent you would need 1000 signatures, didn't sound fair to me but I went on. Next came the dates for collecting your signatures, if you were a Dem or Rep candidate you can start collecting signatures in July but if you were an Independent you couldn't start collecting until the Party candidates were done 30 days later. Didn't sound fair to me but I went on, then I found out that if someone had already signed for a Dem or Rep candidate they couldn't sign your petition because if they did their signature wouldn't count, so imagine the difficulty of finding someone to sign your petition after all the party volunteers had already been door to door a month ahead of you, didn?t seem fair to me but I went on. I personally went out and got 1000 signatures on my own, volunteers went out and got me another 500. With a comfortable safety margin of signatures I headed to Albany, New York, to the New York State Board of Elections to turn in my petitions, they looked at my petitions and said that every thing was in order and that I was on the ballot. I felt relieved at being told that everything was in order and that I would be on the ballot. I went back home to Massena, New York, to start advertising my campaign, the next day I got a call from the Board of Elections and they said I had a problem because I hadn't submitted a Letter of Acceptance (which came as a surprise to me because the day before they had reviewed it and told me everything was in order)and that I would need to get it to them within 48 hrs. or I wouldn?t be on the ballot. I live 5 hrs away so I wrote a Letter of Acceptance, it stated that I was running for Member of the Assembly, 118th District, and to be an identifier I chose to call my party line the River District, and then signed it. I paid $16.00 to have it delivered over night and with a tracking no. The next day I called the Board of Elections and found that it had been delivered. I was told that every thing was in order and that I would be on the ballot. The next day I got a notice that my signatures had been challenged by one of the opposing parties, so I called the legal council at the Board of Elections the attorney asked me my party affiliation and I told him I was an Independent and he said he wouldn't answer my questions because he was a Democrat. I told that I respected his right to choose his party affiliation but that I was a taxpayer and I needed a answer to my question and he hung up the phone. I called back and told the head of the Board of Elections what had happened and she said that she would connect me with the other attorney. He told me that he couldn't answer my question because he was a Republican, my response was the same that I gave the Dem attorney and he hung up the phone on me. I called back the same head of elections and asked her who would be there to give legal advise to an Independent and she said that I would have to hire my own council but that wouldn't be necessary because my name was being taken off the ballot because in the Letter of Acceptance I hadn't had my signature notarized. I hired an election law attorney and he said he didn't think that I would win my case if I made an appeal and that I should run as a write-in candidate, which I did. It went from bad to worse on election day, elections inspectors, when asked by voters how to do a write-in couldn't figure it out correctly, so they told those that asked to just open one of the doors on the voting machine and write in my name. Sometime later in the day the inspectors figured out that it was the 4th door down from the top, but by then it was to late, unfortunately most people had opened the first door to write in my name for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES and as you probably know I didn?t win........I ask you " ARE ALL MEN CREATED EQUAL "........................Donald J. Lucas "AN INDEPENDENT AMERICAN" Massena, New York......................315-769-7683
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- The 'Independent' voices you hear are not advocating another party,
just the party of our forefathers.
The two party system was created to propose bills that are good for America and need to be discussed by both parties and either passed or rejected on the merits of the bill, not by which party brought it to the table. Our government is broken by partisanship which leads to
power and greed not what's good for the country. Instead of hardheads, we need people that can calmly sit down and discuss the bills for their merit for the country. - Reply to this comment
- Katie, as a journalist you must know that handpicking your "independent" voters such that they will say what you want them to say is unethical. That is why I am so disappointed in the "main stream" press. Did you "independents" match the independent voters of Pennsylvania? Nope. Did they repeat the Democratic party line that the Tea Party are too extreme? Yes they did. Why doesn't the Democratic party have to pay for your time slot? They should. Look at demographics of the independents not all 6 will agree 100% that the Tea Party is extreme. I am very disappointed in you. You should be better than that, but you are not.
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- After seeing your show tonight with the voters for the next election, I agree with their frustrations. I am a registered Republican, but I will be voting independently. I voted for Obama in 08. I think the only way we will ever see progress is if we have a third independent party that cannot receive funds from any corporation or behind the scenes funders that will put presure on the elected official. Lobbyists need to be pull back from the political arena.
Yours truly,
Bob - Reply to this comment
- Independents may determine the outcome of some elections but they aren't necessarily the people who fund political races. Those who are loyal to a political party are more likely to contribute money to fund a party's candidates. Of course it is a catch 22. Those who donate often expect something in return. In other words, the expection is that one hand washes the other. When those who contribute expect something in return, those of us who don't contribute feel it is unfar when our expectations aren't met. Perhaps it is simply a no-win situation.
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- Katie: I agree with the people you interviewed but I do want to give you some additional information. My husband and I had to move from one state to another reason: after over 34 years at Moto, my husband was laid off and his job sent overseas. We moved for a job. We had to move to an area that was a much higher cost of living but the new job used his last place of employment as the starting salary. We needed a place to live but couldn't sell our old home. We moved, looked for a year to buy a condo rather than pay rent (aka:someone elses mortgage) We kept missing out because mortgages were forclosed or short saled and people "with cash" were getting the bids on everything. We found a place, put in for a 30 year fixed mortgage and came up with 15% down. We couldn't buy a place of our own with 15% down. We had to come up with 20% or pay the bank an exorbatant amount of fees including "mortgage insurance". We had a very good credit rating, no other debt beyond one other mortgage and yet could not get the loan in a timely basis. The reason (and this is key:) The Bank was utilizing outsourced mortgage underwriters. Those mortgage underwriting companies had, as part of their goals & training: "stall, look for reasons to not approve loans, if the bank has 50 criteria it wants met, you find 100". In other words we do not want the liability of approval on a loan to someone who winds up in forclosure. Cash sale, good! Mortgage sale, we want money! Now FDA backed loans are good except you must pay mortgage insurance. Most people fold it into the cost of the loan. If you paid it up front it would be, in our case, $26,000.00. Just for mortgage insurance. That, of course, does not take into consideration the "interest", other fees and in this state the "escrow" and "Bank" fees as well as title fees etc. We did not want to pay for all these fees but "escrow" is required by law in CA and we couldn't use just an attorney. We were already up to $10,000.00 out of pocket total fees without the mortgage ins. But then again, if you ask for too much money in a loan, you will be denied. The mortgage underwriter we had used an age old trick in the insurance industry. They opened a file, they sent a letter stating they needed one thing. Our mortgage loan officer gave them the paper immediately after we supplied it to him. They came back with: we need proof of ----. We supplied it to our mortgage broker up front. He sent that to them. Then they came back with well now we need ---. I sent an e-mail to the banks manager and complained that I was well aware this was a stalling game, I had seen it used many a time in the insurance industry. The bank "liaison" between the mortgage broker and the underwriter contacted the outsourced company. Their underwriter continued the game. This game playing cost us money because our closing date was extended, our seller was angry and ready to pull the contract, our realtor was stressed, our mortgage loan officer/broker was working overtime to save the deal and it became abundantly clear why the banks are not loaning. Since than I have asked many questions. This is how is comes down. The banks are angry with Democrats. They do not want to have to give up the free money they were getting. They do not want to give up the huge salaries that only a few of them are receiving from their salaries, bonuses, benefits and benefits packages and they don't want anyone telling them how to do business. So they are getting money from the government but they are hanging on to that money guaranteeing a failure by the present administration. If they can get the status quo back from the Bush Administration they can continue to make lots of money, no matter who else has to suffer for their practices. And, of course, not many people can stand up to the scrutiny that Banks and these contracted underwriters are putting the ordinary person through. My husband and I could live up to that scrutiny and yet we still lost much! And almost lost our deposit as well as an entire contract because an unfulfilled agreement that we had no control over and couldn't do anything about but complain. And yet we still lost more money because the seller was being hard nosed and wanted us to pay rent on her place even though we were still paying rent because we couldn't move into our own place, because it didn't belong to us, because the Banks contracted underwriters (outsourced underwriting company) played it's game of stall until the transaction failed.
Frankly I would have your people investigate this! This is quite a game, and guaranteed failure of the housing market and guarantee the failure of the governments attempts to encourage the proper use of the stimulus package. by: JAC C CAM - Reply to this comment
- It is important for us to remember that it is our future and our children's future at stake in elections. It's my family, not my party. We always stand and fight for the things that make us Americans- compromise, compassion, being resourceful, looking for ways to overcome challenges. We make tough choices, we might sacrifice for a time but we alwaysmove forward. It is part of being an American. So why don't our elected leaders follow our example? Why must they continue their pettiness? I want President Obama to succeed. He is mostly on the right track. His actions to-date are much what he promised. No one is perfect. I will be patient. I will vote to leave Dems in charge of the house as I can't stomach letting Republicans feel as if their scare and stall tactics worked. After the election I will be more active, engaged. My message to the people I elect? If you don't work together, you will not be working at all. We will fire you. I have hope for my country. I have hope for my President. And like the hearty and faithful Chilean miners, I have love for us all.
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- The people that answered here with their comments are idiots talking about CBS. What about FOX, they did the same. And, with straight BS they did the same. If we could all stop pointing fingers for ONE moment. We could be creating jobs with infrastructure projects, like President Roosevelt did, putting the work force of America back on pace. It's all falling apart. People take what we have this America for granted, to be called a communist because you think differently, is a bit much. And, they have forgotten that they have the freedom to say it. Remember when you point a finger, you have three pointing back at you.
Because of production WE (not I or you) were able to fight back in WW1&2. We have more problems than you can shake a stick at, and the republicans and the Tea Party are being subversive. Let's not forget it was a democrat that left us in the black as a country. http://www.businessinsider.com/of-course-obama-is-still-kicking-bushs-ass-when-it-comes-to-jobs-2010-10#comment-4caf67cf7f8b9a6f40560500 just to remember what?s really going on. 8 years later, no weapons of mass destruction.
Like the man that said he was staying with the democrats, I am that way too. Everything I have read and seen tells me that the republican are still pushing race. And, they look to serve their own agenda with no regard to the big picture which is America. And why is it so hard to believe tha a black child can?t be a A student. People please! - Reply to this comment
- The people that answered here with their comments are idiots talking about CBS. What about FOX, they did the same. And, with straight BS they did the same. If we could we all stop pointing fingers for ONE moment. We could be creating jobs with infrastructure projects, like President Roosevelt did, putting the work force of America back on pace. People take what we have this America for granted, to be called a communist because you think differently, is a bit much. And, they have forgotten that they have the freedom to say it. Remember when you point a finger, you have three pointing back at you.
Because of production WE (not I or you) were able to fight back in WW1&2. We have more problems than you can shake a stick at, and the republicans and the Tea Party are being subversive. Let's not forget it was a democrat that left us in the black as a country. http://www.businessinsider.com/of-course-obama-is-still-kicking-bushs-ass-when-it-comes-to-jobs-2010-10#comment-4caf67cf7f8b9a6f40560500 just to remember what?s really going on.
Like the man that said he was staying with the democrats, I am that way too. Everything I have read and seen tells me that the republican are still pushing race. And, they look to serve their own agenda with no regard to the big picture which is America. And why is it so hard to believe tha a black child can?t be a A student. People please! - Reply to this comment
- Dear CSB,
The USA is in the mess it is because of the Democrats and Republicans merely shift power back and forth between parties, leaving no incentive to do what is best for the American voters.
Will CBS ever broadcast National and State political debates that include candidates who are neither Democrat and Republican? Why do you continue to only televise two-party candidate debates?
The only time I can recall CBS broadcasting a debate that included a candidate outside the Democratic and Republican parties was when Mr. Perot ran for President. That was a long, long time ago. In two years Americans will go to the polls to elect a President. Before that can CBS organize a debate of ALL Presidential candidates. If a person has gotten themselves on the ballot they DESERVE to be in a debate. Who knows, someone who is neither a Republican or Democrat may have an 'idea or two' how to clean up the mess the Democrats and Republicans have gotten this County into.
It's time for a current Teddy Roosevelt to arise to the situation and get our Country back on course. Be a leader, CBS; catch those viewers by offering Americans the opportunity to see and hear ALL candidates. Sound like good TV to a lot of us Independents.
Thank you for reading this. - Reply to this comment
