Independent politician

In politics, an independent or nonpartisan politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.

Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties. Sometimes they hold a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do not feel that any major party addresses.

Other independent politicians may be associated with a political party, be former members of it, or have views that align with it, but choose not to stand under its label. Others may belong to or support a political party but believe they should not formally represent it and thus be subject to its policies.

Some independents choose to form an alliance rather than a party and have formally registered their "independents" group.

In some countries (for example, Kuwait) political parties are illegal and all candidates effectively stand as independents.

Finally, some independent candidates may form a political party for the purposes of running for public office.

Australia

Independents have rarely been elected from the local resource group to the federal Parliament of Australia, although they are more commonly elected to state parliaments. A large number of independents are former members of one of Australia's main parties, the Australian Labor Party, the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Party of Australia.

This being said, a political party, the Australian Independents, composed of Independent politicians, is currently being registered with the Australian Electoral Commission.

Currently, five independents sit in the Australian House of Representatives. Andrew Wilkie from Tasmania is a former Greens candidate, while both Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor from New South Wales are both former members of the National Party. Bob Katter is from Queensland and a former member of the National Party, but ceased being an independent after forming his own party, Katter's Australian Party. Peter Slipper of the Liberal National Party of Queensland became an independent and Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives. Labor's Craig Thomson was forced to move to the crossbenches as an independent after a scandal involving corruption by way of misuse of union funds.

Independent Senators are quite rare. In modern politics, independent Brian Harradine served from 1975 to 2005 with considerable influence at times. Nick Xenophon has been the only independent Senator since his election to the Senate at the 2007 federal election. With Senators elected for 6-year terms, Xenophon will be required to recontest his South Australian seat at the 2013 federal election.

Canada

See also: Independent Liberal and Independent Conservative

Independent Members of Parliament were numerous in the last decades of the 19th century but diminished as the party system solidified. It remained common, however, to have a small number of Independent Liberal or Independent Conservative MPs into the 1950s.

Independent politicians have held considerable sway in the Canadian House of Commons in recent years as Canada has been governed by successive minority governments with independent Members of Parliament (MPs) sometimes sharing in the balance of power.

In the 2004 federal election, Chuck Cadman was elected to federal parliament as an independent MP representing the British Columbia riding of Surrey North. Cadman had previously represented that riding on behalf of the Reform Party of Canada and Canadian Alliance, but after the Canadian Alliance merged with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada to form the new Conservative Party of Canada in 2003, Cadman lost the nomination to represent the Conservative Party in that riding to Jasbir Singh Cheema. Cadman then stood in the subsequent election as an independent and defeated Cheema, as well as the candidates of other Canadian parties, by a significant margin.

In the spring of 2005, Cadman cast the tying vote in favour of a budget supported by the Liberal Party government of Paul Martin as well as the New Democratic Party (NDP), but opposed by the opposition Conservatives and Bloc Québécois. Two other independents also voted on that budget. Carolyn Parrish, independent MP for Mississauga—Erindale, had recently been kicked out of the Liberal Party for criticizing US president George W Bush, but nonetheless sided with the Liberals on the budget vote. David Kilgour independent MP for Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, had previously quit the Liberal caucus and voted with the opposition parties against the budget. The tie vote required the Speaker of the House Peter Milliken to cast the deciding vote, and he did so in favor of the budget, allowing the government to survive.

Cadman was terminally ill with cancer at the time he cast his crucial vote, and he died later in 2005. In the 2006 federal election, his riding was won by NDP candidate Penny Priddy. Neither Parrish nor Kilgour (nor Pat O'Brien, MP for London—Fanshawe, who quit the Liberal Party to sit as an independent after the 2005 budget vote) stood for re-election in 2006.

Another independent candidate, André Arthur, was elected in the Quebec riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier in 2006, and was the only independent to win a seat in that election. He was re-elected in the October 14, 2008 federal election. Former Progressive Conservative and Conservative MP Bill Casey, who was expelled from the Conservative Party for voting against the 2007 Federal Budget, also ran as an independent in the 2008 election, easily retaining his seat.

Candidates in federal elections who are not affiliated with a party have two options: independent or no affiliation. In the former case, they appear on the ballot with "Independent" following their name; in the second case, they appear with their name only. The two options are otherwise equivalent.

The territorial legislatures of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are consensus governments with no political parties, so that all members sit as independents. There are a few independent members of the other subnational legislatures, which are similar in principle to the federal House of Commons; for example, in the 2009 election in British Columbia, independent candidate Vicki Huntington narrowly defeated incumbent Attorney General Wally Oppal as MLA for Delta South.

True independents should not be confused with members of parties without official party status in a legislature. Most legislatures provide that a party must hold a certain number of seats to enjoy certain advantages in staffing, budget, ability to ask questions in Question Period, and the like. Although members whose parties do not hold this status may have no more privileges than independent members, they remain representatives of political parties.

Also, members who are expelled from or choose to leave their party caucus may sit as "Independent" with some designation, e.g. "Independent Liberal" or "Independent Conservative," to indicate their affiliation to that party even if it is not officially recognized.

Election as an independent is far more common at the municipal level. Many municipalities have no tradition of political parties.

Germany

Joachim Gauck, incumbent President of Germany since 2012 and first Federal President without party affiliation, currently is the most prominent Independent politician. In the German presidential election of 2010 he was the candidate of Social Democrats and Greens, in 2012 the candidate of all major parties except The Left. His presidency—though his powers are limited—constitutes an exception, as Independent politicians had rarely held high offices in German history, at least not since World War II. It nevertheless happened before that a presidential candidate without any chances to be elected by the Federal Convention was not a party member; for example, when in 1984 the Greens came up with the writer Luise Rinser.

In the Bundestag parliament nearly all deputies belong to a political party. The voting system of personalized proportional representation (since 1949) allows any individual holding passive right to vote to stand for a direct mandate in the electoral districts—half of the seats in parliament are distributed by districts according to a plurality voting system. Such a candidate has to present two hundred signatures in favor of his candidacy, the same as a candidate of a party that had no parliamentary presentation earlier. The first Bundestag election in 1949 saw three independents get elected; since then, no party-independent candidate has won a seat. On state level, the situation is more or less the same: only party members have a real chance to be elected to a Landtag legislature, and state ministers without party membership are even rare as on the federal level. However, in local elections it may occur that an independent politician is elected deputy to districts', cities' and municipalities' assemblies, as well as member of a city council or even mayor, especially in Northern Germany. In recent years, independents have formed Free Voters associations to enter Landtag parliaments, so far only successful in Bavaria.

An independent MP, who also is not a member of a voters' association, holds the status of a non-inscrit (German: fraktionsloser Abgeordneter) not affiliated with any parliamentary group. A representative who leaves his party (and his parliamentary group) and does not join another becomes an independent and non-inscrit. In 1989 the Bundestag MP Thomas Wüppesahl, who had left the Green Party in 1987 and was excluded from the Green parliamentary group the next year, as a non-inscrit obtained more rights, for example more talking time and representation in a subcommittee, when the Federal Constitutional Court decided partially in his favor.

After the German unification of 1871, the first Reich Chancellors (heads of government) de jure served as executive officers of the German Imperial states as non-partisans, usually recruited from the traditional bureaucratic, aristocratic and or military elites. In the fierce political conflicts during the Weimar period after World War I, several chancellors and Reich Ministers also had no party affiliaton, these chancellors were Wilhelm Cuno (1922–1923), Hans Luther (1925–1926), the former Centre politician Franz von Papen (1932), and Kurt von Schleicher (1932–1933). The last two cabinets appointed by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, a non-partisan (though strong Conservative) himself, were regarded as apolitical cabinets of experts with regard to the rise of the Nazi Party; many of the ministers were no party members.

Since World War II, only two ministers of (West) German cabinets were not party members, though "on the ticket" of the major party in the coalition, the Social Democrats: Education Minister Hans Leussink (1969–1972), and Minister of Economy Werner Müller (1998–2002). Minister of Justice Klaus Kinkel only shortly after his appointment joined the Free Democrats in 1991. A special case is the former Federal Minister and Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, whose affiliation with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has not been conclusively established: Although he has served as Minister of Economics from 1949 to 1963 and Federal Chancellor from 1963 to 1966, and although he was even elected CDU party chairman in 1966, it seems that he has never signed a member form or paid contributions. Researches by Der Stern magazine have revealed a record at the CDU party archives created only in 1968, with the faked date of entry as early of March 1949.

Hong Kong

More than half of Hong Kong's Legislative Council is made up of independents, or members whose political groups are represented by one sole member in the legislature. They are common in functional constituencies, and are not rare among geographical constituencies. All of them are nevertheless belonging either to the 'Pro-democracy' camp or the 'Pro-Beijing' camp.

Iceland

The current president of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, is independent. The 9th prime minister of Iceland, Björn Þórðarson, was also independent.

India

Independents are often criticized in India as being dummy candidates put forward by political parties to get around the spending ceiling imposed by the Election Commission. Independent candidates are sometimes also rebel candidates from a party contesting the election, who were unable to secure their party's nomination.

Dummy candidates running as independents who bear the same or a similar name to a party candidate have also been put forward by political parties to confuse voters. For example, in the 2009 general election an independent named Bhakti Adhikary contested the Tamluk constituency, allegedly to confuse voters; the eventually elected contestant was Suvendu Adhikary of the All India Trinamool Congress.

Ireland

After the Irish general election in 2011, there were 16 independent TDs (Members of Parliament) in the Dáil (the lower house of the Irish parliament), representing 10% of the total, excluding the three members of the United Left Alliance are also members of the Dáil Technical Group of Independent TDs. A further 3 TDs became Independent in the Dáil after Tommy Broughan TD and Willie Penrose TD left the Labour Party Parliamentary whip along with Denis Naughten TD who left the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party whip. Róisín Shortall TD and Colm Keaveney TD joined these three on the Independent benches when they left the Labour Party Parliamentary whip in 2012.

There are twelve independent senators in the 24th Seanad (the upper house of the Irish parliament), representing 20% of the total. Three of these are elected by the graduates of the National University of Ireland and two from Dublin University. There are also seven senators who are nominated by the Taoiseach who have also formed an independent technical grouping.

Italy

The Prime Ministers Carlo Azeglio Ciampi (1993 - 1994), Lamberto Dini (1995 - 1996), Giuliano Amato (2000 - 2001), and Mario Monti (2011 - 2013) were independent when they were in office. Ciampi was also the President of Italy between 1999 and 2006.

Kosovo

Kosovo^[a] president Atifete Jahjaga was elected the first female and Independent President not just for Kosovo but for the whole Balkans.

Malaysia

There are four independent Members of Parliament in the Dewan Rakyat as of March 2010. In the 2008 general election, Ibrahim Ali, Zahrain Mohamed Hashim, Tan Tee Beng and Mohsin Fadzli Samsuri were each elected on the tickets of parties in the Pakatan Rakyat opposition coalition. Each since left their parties to sit as independents.

New Zealand

Originally, there were no recognised parties in the New Zealand parliament, although loose groupings did exist informally (initially between supporters of central government versus provincial governments, and later between liberals and conservatives). The foundation of formal political parties around the beginning of the 20th Century considerably diminished the number of unaffiliated politicians, although a smaller number of independent candidates continued to be elected up until the 1940s. Since then, however, there have been relatively few independent politicians in Parliament. No independent candidate has won or held a seat in a general election since 1943, although two independent candidates have been successful in by-elections (in both cases after having held the seats in question as partisan candidates up until that point). Other politicians have become independents in the course of a parliamentary term, but not been voted into office as such.

The last person to be directly elected to Parliament as an independent in New Zealand was Winston Peters, who won the 1993 by-election in Tauranga electorate as an independent after having previously held it a member of the National Party. By the time of the next general election, he had formed his own party (New Zealand First), and thus was no longer standing as an independent. Since that time, the only independents in Parliament have been people who quit or were expelled from their original party but retained their seats without going through a by-election. Some have gone on to found or co-found their own parties, with varying levels of success — examples include Peter Dunne, Taito Phillip Field, Gordon Copeland, Tau Henare, and Alamein Kopu. Others have joined parties which were then outside Parliament, such as Frank Grover and Tuariki Delamere.

There were two independent MPs in the last Parliament; Chris Carter and Hone Harawira. Carter became an independent after his criticisms of the Labour Party's leadership resulted in his being expelled from the Labour caucus, while Harawira resigned from the Māori Party and, after a short period as an independent, also resigned as an MP in order to force the 2011 by-election when he was re-elected as representative of his new political party, Mana and retained the seat in the 2011 General Election. There are also two parties other which have only a single MP United Future with Peter Dunne and ACT with John Banks. Neither Dunne nor Banks are classed as independents — Dunne's presence in Parliament is due to personal votes in his home electorate, and Banks' presence is as the sole elected MP of ACT due to a collapse in their support in the 2011 election. At the present time there is one independent in the 50th New Zealand Parliament: Brendan Horan, a former New Zealand First MP who was expelled from his party due to allegations of misappropriation of family assets.

Peter Dunne effectively became an Independent MP after his United Future political party was deregistered on 25 June 2013 by the Electoral Commission, over concerns the party no longer had the required 500 members.

Niue

In Niue, there have been no political parties since 2003, and all politicians are de facto independents. The government depends on an informal coalition.

Poland

Polish Sejm election ordination in practice does not allow lone candidates to run. Tickets always have multiple candidates as every district is represented by multiple Sejm Members. Hence, almost all tickets are partisan. However, during a Sejm term many Sejm Members switch parties or become independents.

Tickets like Civic Platform during the 2001 election were formally non-partisan, Civic Platform was widely viewed as a de facto political party, as it is now.

The situation in the Senate is different, as the voting system allows independents to run as single candidates and some are elected in their own right. However, only Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is independent.

Three Presidents since 1990 have technically been independents. Lech Wałęsa was not an endorsed candidate of any party, but the chairman of the Solidarity and he was elected without full support of this union (Solidarity votes split between him and Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki). Aleksander Kwaśniewski was a leader of the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, but formally resigned from the party after he was elected, as did Lech Kaczyński, who was the first leader of Law and Justice, but also resigned from the party on getting elected.

Philippines

Noli de Castro, the Philippines' former vice president, ran as senator in 2001 with no political party affiliation. He was a guest candidate of the opposition Pwersa ng Masa coalition but he never joined their campaign rallies. He won in the senate race with the highest votes (then) in Philippine history. In 2004, he ran as vice president as a guest candidate of the administration K-4 coalition and won with just under majority of the vote.

Starting in 2001, senators had also resigned from their respective parties to become independents; currently there are more independent senators than any other single political party. However, in contesting elections, all elected independents had been members of either the administration or the opposition coalition, until in the 2007 Senate election when Gregorio Honasan (a former senator) was elected as an independent while not a being member of any coalition. Honasan was earlier elected in 1995 as an independent candidate and being adopted by the Nationalist People's Coalition-led coalition to become the first elected independent senator since Magnolia Antonino in 1967, although Antonino was a guest candidate of the Liberal Party then.

In the local level, former priest Eddie Panlilio was elected as governor of Pampanga in 2007, defeating two administration candidates. When Panlilio eventually transferred to the Liberal Party in time for the 2010 election, it was ruled that he was beaten in the 2007 election; in 2010, he was defeated.

In the 2010 House of Representatives elections, seven independents were elected, although all but two joined a political party after the elections.

In contesting elections, independent candidates are required by law to spend less than candidates nominated by a party.

Russia

All of Russia's Presidents have been independents. Former president Dmitry Medvedev was offered to join United Russia but politely declined, saying that he believes the President should be an independent so that he serves the interests of the country rather than his political party.

Vladimir Putin, the current president of Russia, is the head of the United Russia party, but is not its member, thus formally is independent.

United Kingdom

The Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 laid down the first specific rules in the United Kingdom relating to the use of the term 'independent' by election candidates. That Act was repealed with most of its contents covered by Part II of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. Candidates standing for United Kingdom local elections and United Kingdom parliamentary elections, including the devolved assemblies, can use the name of a registered political party, or the term 'Independent', or no term at all.

Some independents in the United Kingdom have registered locality-based political parties. English examples include the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern, the Epsom and Ewell Residents Association, the Devizes Guardians, the Derwentside Independents, and the East Yorkshire Independents. Many such local parties are effectively local residents' or ratepayers' associations which contest elections and are usually considered locally "independent", as they have no alignment in national politics.

House of Commons

Independent Members of Parliament were once frequently elected in the United Kingdom, but they have been much less successful in the last half-century. (See List of UK minor party and independent MPs elected.)

One independent MP was elected in the 2010 election:

• Sylvia Hermon (MP for North Down), having left the Ulster Unionist Party over its link with the Conservatives.

Two independent or local party MPs were elected in the 2005 election:

• Peter Law (MP for Blaenau Gwent). Law died on April 25, 2006, the resulting by-election elected Dai Davies of the local party Blaenau Gwent People's Voice.
• Dr. Richard Taylor, sole MP of the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern party (for the constituency of Wyre Forest). Taylor's election to Parliament was most notable for the fact that he was the only independent in recent times to have been re-elected for a second term.

There have also been several instances of MPs being elected under the auspices of a particular party, then resigning the party whip, or having it withdrawn: examples in the 2005-2010 parliament included Clare Short and Robert Wareing (formerly Labour) and Derek Conway (formerly Conservative).

News reporter Martin Bell was elected as an Independent MP for Tatton from 1997 to 2001 having stood on an anti-corruption platform.

Independent candidates frequently stand in parliamentary elections, often with platforms about specific local issues, but usually with little success. A typical example from the 2001 general election was when Aston Villa supporter Ian Robinson stood as an independent candidate in the Sutton Coldfield constituency, in protest at the way chairman Doug Ellis ran the club. Another example, in the Salisbury constituency, of an independent candidate is Arthur Uther Pendragon - British activist and self-declared reincarnation of King Arthur.

Other independent candidates are associated with a political party and may be former members of it, but are not able to stand under its label. For instance, after being expelled from the Labour Party but before joining the Respect Coalition, British Member of Parliament (MP) George Galloway described himself as "Independent Labour".

On 23 March 2005 the Independent Network was set up to support independent candidates in the General Election. The Independent Network still supports Independent candidates in local, regional, national and European elections. It has an organic set of principles known as the Bell Principles and are very closely related to Lord Nolan's Standards of Public Life. The Independent Network does not impose any ideology or political influence on their candidates.

In March 2009, Sir Paul Judge established the Jury Team, an umbrella organisation dedicated to increasing the number of Independent candidates standing in the UK, both in domestic and European elections.

House of Lords

Main articles: Crossbencher, Non-affiliated members of the House of Lords, and Lords Spiritual

The House of Lords includes a large number of peers independent from political parties. Some are simply not affiliated with any grouping, whilst another, larger, grouping are given the official designation of crossbenchers. The Lords Spiritual are considered a further separate grouping.

Devolved Assemblies

At the 2003 Scottish Parliamentary elections, three MSPs were elected as Independents: Dennis Canavan (Falkirk West), Dr Jean Turner (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) and Margo MacDonald (Lothians). In 2004 Campbell Martin (West of Scotland region) left the Scottish National Party to become an independent and in 2005 Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) left the Conservative Party to become an independent. At the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary elections Margo MacDonald was again returned as an independent MSP.

Local Elections

The introduction of directly elected mayors in several parts of England has witnessed the election of independents to run councils in Stoke-on-Trent, Middlesbrough, Bedford, Hartlepool and Mansfield. The first Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, was first elected as an independent, having run against the official Labour candidate Frank Dobson. He was subsequently re-admitted to the Labour Party in December 2003 before his first re-election campaign.

Independent candidates frequently stand and are elected to local councils. There is a special Independent group of the Local Government Association to cater for them. A number of local authorities have been entirely or almost entirely independent in their composition, such as the City of London Corporation, the Isles of Scilly Council, and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar in the Outer Hebrides.

United States

President

Historically, George Washington was the only president elected as an independent, as he was not formally affiliated with any party during his two terms. Both Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson professed to be independents as well, but were nevertheless figureheads for the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties respectively, which leads most historians to consider them as members of those parties.

John Tyler was expelled from the Whig Party in September 1841, and remained effectively an independent for the remainder of his presidency, later returning to the Democrats. He briefly sought re-election in 1844 as a National Democrat, but withdrew over fear he would split the Democratic vote.

Recent prominent independent candidates for president of the United States include John Anderson in 1980, Ross Perot in 1992, and Ralph Nader in the 2004 and 2008 elections. In 2008, Nader formed Independent Parties in New Mexico, Delaware, and elsewhere to gain ballot access in several states. This strategy has been pursued by several other candidates for Federal races, including Joe Lieberman (Connecticut for Lieberman), because in some states it is believed to be easier to gain ballot access by creating a new political party than to gather signatures for a nominating petition.

Governor

Illinois, Maine, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas and Minnesota are the only states to have elected formally independent candidates as governor: Illinois' first two governors, Shadrach Bond and Edward Coles; James B. Longley in 1974 as well as Angus King in 1994 and 1998 from Maine; Lincoln Chafee in 2010 from Rhode Island; Julius Meier in 1930 from Oregon; and Sam Houston in 1859 from Texas. Lowell P. Weicker, Jr. is sometimes mentioned as an independent governor, though this is not technically correct; he ran as A Connecticut Party candidate (which gave him better ballot placement than an unaffiliated candidate would receive), defeating the Democratic and Republican party nominees. Another former governor who is sometimes mentioned as an independent is Jesse Ventura, who actually ran as a member of the Reform Party's Minnesota affiliate, which later disaffiliated from the party and reverted to their original name the Independence Party of Minnesota.

In 1971, State Senator Henry Howell of Virginia, a former Democrat, was elected lieutenant governor as an independent. Two years later, he campaigned for governor as an independent, but lost by 15,000 votes.

There were several unsuccessful independent gubernatorial candidates in 2006 who impacted their electoral races. In Maine, state legislator Barbara Merrill (formerly a Democrat) received 21% of the vote in Maine. In Texas, country music singer and mystery novelist Kinky Friedman received 12.43% of the vote, and State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn received 18.13%. Strayhorn and Friedman's presence in the race resulted in a splitting of the ballot four ways between themselves and the two major parties.

In 2010, Florida governor Charlie Crist left the Republican party and became Independent rather than face former state house Speaker Marco Rubio in the Republican primary (Rubio won, though Crist came in ahead of Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek).

Congress

There have been several independents elected to the United States Senate throughout history. Notable examples include David Davis of Illinois (a former Republican) in the 19th century, and Harry F. Byrd, Jr. of Virginia (who had been elected to his first term as a Democrat) in the 20th century. Some officials have been elected as members of a party but became independent while in office (without being elected as such), such as Wayne Morse of Oregon or Virgil Goode of Virginia. Nebraska senator George W. Norris was elected for four terms as a Republican before changing to an independent after the Republicans lost their majority in Congress in 1930. Norris won re-election as an independent in 1936, but later lost his final re-election attempt to Republican Kenneth S. Wherry in 1942. Vermont senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party to become an independent in 2001. Jeffords's change of party status was especially significant because it shifted the Senate composition from 50-50 between the Republicans and Democrats (with a Republican Vice President, Dick Cheney, who would presumably break all ties in favor of the Republicans), to 49 Republicans, 50 Democrats, and one Independent. Jeffords agreed to vote for Democratic control of the Senate in exchange for being appointed chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and the Democrats held control of the Senate until the Congressional elections in 2002, when the Republicans regained their majority. Jeffords retired at the end of his term in 2007. Wayne Morse after two years as an independent became Democrat, while Goode switched to Republican.

Representative Bernie Sanders was an independent member of the United States House of Representatives for Vermont-at-large from 1991 to 2007. Sanders later won the open Senate seat of Jim Jeffords as an independent. Joe Lieberman a former Democrat who ran, like Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., under a third party (Connecticut for Lieberman Party) in the 2006 election. Though both representatives are technically independent politicians, they caucus with the Democrats. In 2006, Sanders and Lieberman were the only two victorious independent candidates for Congress. In 2012 Angus King was elected to the US Senate as an Independent from Maine. He has chosen to caucus with the Democrats at least until 2014.

State and local offices

In August 2008, there were twelve people who held offices as independents in state legislatures. There were four state senators, one from Kentucky, one from Oregon, one from Tennessee, and one from New Mexico. The representatives came from the states of Louisiana (two), Maine (two), Vermont (two), and Virginia (two). In the 2008 general elections, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Jeffrey Wood left the Republican Party and won reelection as an independent. After the 2008 primary election, New Mexico State Senator Joseph Carraro left the Republican Party and registered as an Independent. He did not run for reelection.

In November 2005 Manny Diaz was elected Mayor of Miami, Florida as an independent. On June 19, 2007, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent. Oscar Goodman, Mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada switched his affiliation to Independent from Democrat in December 2009.

The Nebraska Legislature is unique in that it is the only nonpartisan state legislature. In the Legislature (which is additionally unique in that it is also the only state legislature that is unicameral), there are no formal party alignments or groups and the members are nominated in nonpartisan primary elections. Members are allowed to register with political parties but choose not to reveal their affiliation while seated, as a professional courtesy. However, the political affiliation of party-affiliated members are considered open secrets and the parties exist in the legislature on an unofficial basis. Some members, such as Ernie Chambers of Omaha, are independent of party officially, while others have not publicly disclosed their affiliation.

See also

• Benjamin Franklin

Yugoslavia

On 15 June 1992, Dobrica Ćosić was elected Federal President as first non-partisan head of state in Yugoslav history. Ćosić held the position until 1 June 1993, when he was removed from the position.

See also

• Swing voter
• Independent (voter)

Notes and references

Notes:

a.	^ Template:Kosovo-note

References:

• "Clare Short resigns as Labour MP". BBC World News. October 20, 2006.
• "New York Times Online". New York Times Company. November 8, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-08.

External links

• Independent Political Candidate Directory