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.

Democrats have been uniform in their condemnation of President Donald Trump after the targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani on Jan 3rd. Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the airstrike on Iran’s top general “provocative and disproportionate,” and a “dangerous escalation.” 

Pelosi warned:

As 2019 comes to a close we want to wrap up the year with a review of our most popular stories on nonpartisan reform and unfiltered political news. Unfortunately, many top stories are rife with fine examples of how parties rig the election process -- from denying Bernie the Democratic nomination to Donald Trump’s impeachment. 

But there’s good news! Major reform initiatives took shape shape in 2019, and we’re expecting the momentum to continue heading into 2020.

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” -English Historian Henry Thomas Buckle

In the never ending swirl of fake news media controversy, is anyone else wondering what happened to real political news about actual public policy?

A new type of third party is racking up wins against the two-party duopoly in New York. However, state officials have authorized an unelected commission to squash any competition that challenges the political establishment.

Here’s what you need to know:

A Rising Political Party

The SAM (Save America Movement) Party is not your typical political party. While most parties are founded on an ideology — catering only to specific blocs of voters — SAM states that its party is founded on a process that starts with: