A legal challenge, filed by Level the Playing Field, and joined by the Green Party of the United States and the Libertarian National Committee, to the Commission on Presidential Debate's rulemaking and tax-exempt status will be heard by a federal judge in the DC Circuit on February 24th.

By: Mark Schmitt (The Fulcrum Op-Ed)

A presidential campaign is a contest of ideas, not just personalities. As candidates set out policy priorities and develop proposals, we learn more about what they care about, but we also see in their reflection what voters and party activists want to hear. The proposals that even the failed candidates embrace, and the priority they give them, can foreshadow ideas that will take hold in the future.

The beginning of the 2020 presidential election was an unmitigated disaster. Results that should have been reported the night-of in Iowa instead took days as a result of technical issues with an app and inconsistent numbers being reported. Politicos were baffled while accusations of a rigged process arose after the candidate with the most votes didn’t leave with the most delegates.

Brace yourselves voters!

Donald Trump's third State of the Union Address was-- exactly like every other SOTU address any of us has ever seen in our lifetimes.

Okay, maybe not exactly like every other State of the Union. The president is still-- well-- Donald Trump. And this address was to a Congress that just impeached him. So there was a little bit of nervous energy. All eyes were on Nancy Pelosi, as she sat behind Trump during the address.

Cities and counties in Florida that want to limit dark money or foreign donors in their own elections would be stopped under a surprise proposal now moving through the Legislature.

Curbing money in politics at the local level has become the cause of choice for advocates of tougher campaign finance rules, who find themselves blocked from any chance at nationwide success in the partisan gridlocked Congress.

The effort launched this week by Republicans in charge in Tallahassee looks to be the most prominent move yet by a state to preempt such local statutes.

First published at Real Clear Politics

The national discussion on whether America is ready for a female president provides both insight and context to the challenges that face independent candidates.

Columnist Rebecca Traister offered the insight that the question itself, and not the sex of the candidate, is the real barrier to the electability of a woman:

The impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump is underway!

And it is... intensely predictable.

This is why more and more voters are becoming independent.

The most basic right in a healthy democracy is the right to vote. Without this right, governments can turn into the worst of autocracies and dictatorships, ignoring the needs of citizens and abusing the power of the state. Voter discrimination is not a new phenomenon and has been around since the very beginning of the United States.

When we talk about voter discrimination in the U.S., many obvious examples come to mind. 

What are some of the benefits surrounding adopting a top-four primary using Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in San Diego? What are some potential concerns voters have?

It was nearly four years ago that voters did the unthinkable.

They rejected the party establishments’ favored candidates. And they did so to pick literally Donald Trump as America’s next president. That decision by the electorate completely blindsided Washington political operatives and the mainstream media analysts.

How could Donald Trump have beat Jeb Bush for the Republican nomination in the first place? And then Hillary Clinton for the Oval Office?

Trump was a total political outsider.