This article in The Daily Beast, written by Linda Killian, profiles independent candidates Jeff McCormick, Jim Jenkins, Nick Troiano, Eliot Cutler, & David Catania, as well as United Independent Party candidate Evan Falchuk. An excerpt:
In 2014, a number of political entrepreneurs who want to change the system are running as independents around the country. From Maine to Nebraska to Washington, D.C., they are making the case arguethat voters need to look beyond the two parties and try something different to fix American politics.
Jeff McCormick, the founder of the high-tech investing firm Saturn Partners, says he’s applying the same principles that have allowed his company to thrive to an independent campaign for governor of Massachusetts.
In announcing his candidacy McCormick, who pledges a “seven figure commitment” of his own money to the race, said “we can no longer sit on the sidelines and hope the answer” will come from the two political parties.
“We have to bet on ourselves,” he says, “and become part of the solution.”
McCormick, 52, who is married with three young children, lives in Boston’s Back Bay. When explaining why he’s decided to run for governor, he talks like the entrepreneur and businessman he has always been.
It’s significant that these strong independent candidates are all running in states without a top-two system. California also has two very strong independent candidates this year, Marianne Williamson for US House, 33rd district (she spent over $1,000,000) and Dan Schnur for Secretary of State (he had more newspaper endorsements than any other candidate in his race, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on his campaign). But top-two wiped them both out of the race.
Don’t forget Alaska’s diverse political landscape this year…