Following the presidential election of 2008, the term “independent” became much more familiar in the political realm. Credited with helping to seal the victory for President Obama, media outlets and politicians began to take notice of the growing group of individuals who identified themselves as independents.

This is the second installment in a series profiling 3rd party candidates for Governor of California.

Laura Wells is no stranger to the demands of leadership. During her tenure in numerous county and state-level leadership positions, and her 2002 and 2006 State Controller campaign bids, she personally experienced the state's bipartisan machinations. From these experiences, she has composed a list of priorities to get California out of debt and protect taxpayer-funded services.

The independent and nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) in Sacramento says there will be some economic disruption and higher energy costs if the 2006 climate change law is implemented.  Senator Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto), an opponent of the law, requested the analysis and accurately sums up its key findings.

More jobs will be likely lost in the near term.

Overall job impact in the long term is unknown.

Certain individual businesses and households would be seriously affected.

In a Larry King Live interview, Jesse Ventura, the former Independent Governor from Minnesota, warned that the two major parties were "leading us down the road to ruin".  In classic Ventura style, the Navy veteran urged Americans to wake up and stop voting for Democrats and Republicans since they have repeatedly demonstrated that party politics comes before the best interests of the people.  And when asked about the Tea Party, Ventura challenged their silence on critical constitutional issues in years past, and identified it as more of a right-wing movement.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, the California Green Party is suffering from a shrinking membership.  Currently, it’s downsizing from an enrollment of 158,000 registered Greens (0.95 percent of California voters) to 111,000 (0.66 percent).

New America Foundation, an American based think tank, has claimed that nearly 33% of those killed by drones in Pakistan have been civilians.  This report corroborates claims made by Pakistani aut

Jerry Brown has a long, varied, and colorful history in California politics. Most anyone, friend or foe, would say he’s a maverick.  He definitely does things in his own way and doesn’t much care what the crowd is doing. How many politicians would go from being governor of a state to mayor of a city in that state? Very few would, because they’d see it as a step down, but not Jerry Brown.  Also, he gets pegged as a liberal but his policies are often a mixture from all sides of the political spectrum.

It is generally agreed upon, even by the staunchest proponents of progressive taxation, that expecting people to pay more than they can is an injustice which ought to be remedied in whatever manner possible. Yet, it is precisely this vision of progressivity which gave rise to one of the most steeply regressive policies in the country – a policy which afflicts states just as deleteriously as it does individuals, and sometimes with even more regressive effects.

“The reality is, we have to live within our means.” Which fiscally conservative luminary would you guess made that statement this week? The answer is Gavin Newsom. Yes, the very same Gavin Newsom who currently serves as the Democratic mayor of the liberal bastion known as San Francisco.

The California School Employees Association has filed a lawsuit to amend Proposition 14's language, and legislators, who voted for the initiative last year as part of a budget compromise, have directed their attorneys not to fight the legal challenge.  If the lawsuit is successful, critical elements of the Top Two Open Primary initiative will be stripped.  Proponents of the open primary measure are incensed and vow to mount a robust legal and public relation