Independence Is a Fever, and Florida's Catching it!
The Ocala Star-Banner writes about a little-discussed phenomenon in advance of Tuesday's Florida primary vote:
Whether voting or waiting, however, the faithful within the major parties are a dwindling lot.
The overall percentage of voters identifying with the Democratic and Republican parties — in Marion County and the state as a whole — has ebbed to its lowest point at any time in recent memory. […]
Nearly one in four voters in Florida is registered as something other than a Democrat or a Republican, or not affiliated with any party at all, according to state Division of Elections records.
In Marion County, the rate is about one in every five.
Headed into Tuesday's Republican primary, the percentage of election-year voters in Florida who identify themselves with the GOP is at one of the lowest points since 1994, the last year of election-year voter registration data posted on the DOE's website.
I'll say it again–Republicans bleeding market share in this ridiculously favorable market is a bungle of truly historic proportions. And let's give it up for Paul Truesdell, chairman of the Florida Whig Party:
"Each day, more Americans are coming to the conclusion that duopolistic politics is more about profiteering through a spoils system disguised by a byzantine bureaucracy than maintaining government by the people rather than of the people," Truesdell said in an email.
"What we have are always-competing medusa-octopui that spin the media and general public opinion nonstop for the sole purpose of controlling the purse strings."
Read the whole article. Nick Gillespie and I on the duopoly metaphor here. Link to the pictured book here.