Being a Candidate Without a Party Is a Hard Way to Win: There’s always a hunger for having more than two choices. According to Gallup, 43 percent of Americans identify as independents, which is 15 percentage points higher than either Democrats or the GOP. Despite the desire for alternatives, however, actually electing independent candidates remains a rare event.
Adams’ move likely only delays the inevitable, however. His fundraising and poll numbers remain abysmal. “It gives his campaign new life because I think there was zero life in running in the Democratic primary,” said John Mollenkopf, who directs the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center.
Another big-city Democrat is also hoping to find success as an independent. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan announced late last year that he would run for governor as an independent. “It’s clear to me that there are a lot of people in this country who are tired of both parties and tired of the system,” Duggan said. “And so I want to offer people a choice.”
Michigan Democrats fear that Duggan’s campaign will serve only to split the anti-GOP vote, increasing the odds that a Republican will be elected to run the purple state. (Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will be term-limited next year.) And this perhaps points to the main reason independent candidates tend to struggle to gain traction, or fade away by Election Day. Voters may not like the Democratic or Republican choices on offer, but they tend to fear the “wrong” party winning most of all.
That’s true even in places that have had a long tradition of supporting independent or third-party candidates. Independent Angus King of Maine won two terms as governor and now serves as an independent in the U.S. Senate, caucusing with Democrats. But King is an exception. Maine voters elected the abrasive Republican Paul LePage twice, defeating the Democratic nominee both times because an independent named Eliot Cutler split the non-LePage vote. Some voters put “61 percent” bumper stickers on their cars, referring to the share of the vote LePage did not get during his successful 2010 campaign.
Political scientists have shown time and again that people who identify as independents vote as partisans. They may not like identifying with either party, but there’s usually one party they really don’t want to see win. Which is why their flirtation with independent candidates is almost always short-lived.
Jim Lowney | For/TNS
When Single-Party Control Leads to Gridlock: Partisanship is not the only divide in politics. Most states these days are firmly controlled by one party or the other. That’s certainly the case in Mississippi, where Republicans hold all the statewide offices and legislative supermajorities, while Democrats are essentially irrelevant.
Nevertheless, Mississippi Republicans have found ways to fight among themselves. Last week, the Legislature adjourned without approving a budget for the first time in 16 years. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who oversees the state Senate, and House Speaker Jason White each blamed the other for the failure. “They have ignored the deadlines, failed to show up repeatedly, taken their marbles home at least twice, and given us conflicting statements every other time,” Hosemann complained.
Failed negotiations over the budget were informed by tensions that had built up between the chambers throughout the session — and in fact over the last couple of years. The Senate decided more or less to ignore priority bills passed by the House this year regarding issues such as private school choice and mobile sports betting.
Even the session’s major achievement involved some spite. The Legislature passed a bill that set the state on a course to eliminate the income tax over a number of years. After the Senate passed its version, which included a typo that accelerated elimination of the tax, the House decided to go with it, failing to inform the Senate of its mistake or even letting the other chamber know the mistake was suddenly bound for the governor’s desk.
Separately, an early-voting bill drew criticism from GOP Gov. Tate Reeves, who accused its Republican sponsor of the sin of siding with Democrats. This in turn led Republican state Sen. Joel Carter to complain Reeves was being unnecessarily divisive. “This is so petty and unbecoming of the Office of Governor,” he wrote on social media. “This divides us all. Republicans have all Statewide offices and supermajorities in both chambers. The fighting needs to stop. Where is the adult in the room?”
When one party controls everything, divisions can open up among factions or anger can grow simply out of personality differences. But Mississippi this year demonstrated one of the old legislative adages: The other party is my opponent, but the other chamber is my enemy.
