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Background: At the end of June, Assemblyman Juan Arambula left the
Democratic Party and became a "Decline to State" voter - California's
equivalent of "independent". This followed two other recent breaks between
elected officials and their political parties and comes in the wake of the
California budget crisis.
This letter was published in twelve newspapers in California, including the
Oakland Tribune.
July 7, 2009
Dear Editor,
Congratulations to Assemblyman Juan Arambula who recently switched from
Democrat to independent in a strong stand against the partisanship and
special interest corruption that has wrecked California.
Assemblyman Arambula is the third California politician to break with his party,
along with Republican State Senator Abel Maldonado leveraging his budget
vote to put open primaries on the ballot and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa bucking the Democratic Party establishment to support the
initiative.
These politicians are waking up to a fact that independent voters have known
for a long time: The only way to get good public policy is by doing something
about our partisan political process. In California and nationally independents
are becoming more organized which creates the climate where political insiders
can see what the rest of us are seeing. It will take a lot of work to untangle
the partisanship that has made government so unresponsive. With 4.2 million
independent voters in California, there are many hands to help with the heavy
lifting.
Sincerely,
Jason Olson
IndependentVoice.Org
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