Out of the 28 states that record party affiliation upon registering to vote, Massachusetts, Alaska, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have the highest percentage of independent or no party preference voters in the country.

As part of our effort to report on social media trends, tools, and technology, we will be periodically recognizing politicians, candidates, and political organizations who are utilizing social media in effective and creative ways. 

Sen. Mark Warner

Mark Warner Social Media

Name: Senator Mark Warner

Facebook: 21,182

Washington State has held nonpartisan top 2 open primaries since 2008 following the US Supreme Court decision (7 – 2) declaring that Washington’s Initiative 872 was constitutional. With three major election cycles complete, we can draw some conclusions based on primary and general election results.

When Kiera Wilmot and the ACLU claimed she was just exercising her scientific curiosity when she made a bottle bomb, a kind of improvised explosive, which got her expelled from school and nearly resulted in her being prosecuted for a felony, was what she did fairly excused as a science project?

According to the Ledger:

Credit: Chicago Tribune

Illinois pension reform

After the Illinois legislative session ended with relatively few gains, Governor Pat Quinn quickly called a special session which is set to meet on Wednesday. At the top of the agenda is the public pension reform that failed.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) // Credit: skepticmoney.com

skepticmoney.com

If you’ve seen Leonidas and his Spartans in the movie 300, then you have a pretty decent idea of how the ancient Greek phalanx worked. Line after line of men holding up their shields and pointing their spears forward to form a shield wall bristling with spear points.