For the record, Tim Cahill doesn't -- and won't -- count as the first tremor in the anti-major party earthquake.
Just like John Anderson, Joe Lieberman, or, shoot, Christy Mihos, major party exiles who simply leave their party because they don't or won't get nominated and then try to run down between the two flanks don't count to me as real, organic Independents (as I just saw in a Kad Barma comment on RSOL, that gets filed under the 'Bald Gamesmanship' category).
I still don't know about celebrities, either, whether it's a big name outside the state (Jesse Ventura) or a big name inside the state (Angus King). They still get credit because they can step outside of traditional lines and owe fewer favors, though.
Greg
ReplyDeleteSo, I am thinking about independents (I must admit that the first thing I thought about when I read the Tim Cahill rumor in The Globe was "Please, don't say he is becoming a Republican."
Let us assume that in the 2010 election we elect 200 true independents to the Great and General Court. In electing a Senate President and a Speaker of the House, do they divide up into groups pushing their favorite candidates. As 2011 fades into 2012 how do they divide up to help each other raise money? That is to say, will they have found that there are differences of opinion and that to achieve their aims some of them will have to elect more like-minded people and if so, will they band together to get such people elected in districts different from those held by their "like-minded" fellow legislators?
In a six words, when do the factions become "parties"?
Regards — Cliff
Cliff,
ReplyDeleteNot long thereafter, and especially when you consider the Committee system in the House and Senate. I will confess that electing an Indy to either body might be a loss for the home district, because you wouldn't have a committee chair (or potential committee chair, that is).
The best places it would work is an executive position (i.e. a Governor, Mayor, or President) as opposed to someone in a legislative body.
Plus, I recognize and accept the argument that there are not really two parties in America, there are 100. And what it means to be a Republican in Massachusetts is often very different from what it would mean in, say, Alabama.
best,
gp
re Alabama.
ReplyDeleteIn my lifetime it meant to be a Democrat.
Regards — Cliff