In the last couple of weeks, Jon Stewart has nailed in on a couple of issues, including how the media has treated the threat of ISIS and the United States' response to that threat. On Tuesday, Stewart had a segment about what congressional productivity (or lack thereof) actually means.

Abysmal congressional approval ratings have become the norm in our hyper-partisan political environment and government dysfunction is now cited as the most pressing issue facing our nation. Problem solving and compromise have been replaced by party politics and congressional gridlock, bringing our government to a halt in 2013.

Jim Jenkins, an independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska, passed a major hurdle recently by qualifying for the ballot in the November election. If successful, he would be the first independent senator from Nebraska in the state's history.

Nebraska is a big state. In square miles, it is the fifteenth largest state in the U.S. -- larger than New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Michigan. Politically, it takes on a lesser role than these high-profile states, and is often written off as a solid red state with little chance for movement.

Without issuing an actual opinion on the law itself, the Supreme Court of the United States on Monday granted an application to stay a district court's ruling that would have blocked controversial early voting legislation in Ohio. The law in question, passed by a Republican-controlled legislature and signed into law by Republican Governor John Kasich, cuts early voting by a week, from 35 days to 28 days.

With over a million dollars being spent and plenty of attacks from both sides, the race in California's 52nd Congressional District has only just started to heat up with less than 40 days left until Election Day. Democratic U.S. Representative Scott Peters, who is about to finish his first term in Congress, is defending his incumbency against Republican candidate Carl DeMaio.

In the study of history we ask the question, what are the catalysts? In other words, the motivators that make events happen? Depending on the topic and the framing one puts it in, many times the question is not what made something occur, but what prohibited it from doing so.

In an interview for IVN, Tony Strickland (R), candidate for Congressional District 25, discussed his views on the nonpartisan, top-two open primary and the race against fellow Republican, State Senator Steve Knight.

Do you support the Republicans or Democrats? Most likely you don’t support either. According to the Florida state department of election, there were, as of July 28, 2014, 4,144,186 Republicans and 4,599,326 Democrats. There were also 2,715,736 registered NPA (no party affiliation) voters, and 358,089 people registered with third parties (also known as minor parties) for a total of 3,073,825 voters not affiliated with either major party.

This article is the second in a series of articles on California judicial elections. The first one looked at the judicial election process for the Supreme Court and courts of appeal.

This article looks at the election process for Superior Court judges (i.e. trial court judges). Trial court judges preside over trials and hearings in all criminal and civil cases, including family, probate, mental health, juvenile, and traffic cases. During FY 2012–2013, nearly 8 million cases were filed in Superior Court.

This campaign has opened my eyes to the many and varied opinions that voters across Nebraska think about when they are deciding on their votes. Since I am working on an independent candidate’s campaign, I have been exposed to the hesitation that many voters show when faced with the alternative option of voting for an independent candidate.