Alliance For Self-Governance

Alliance For Self-Governance Our objective is to reverse the accumulation of power in DC and to restore that power to the people, where it rightfully belongs.

Our voices echo those of our forebears whose belief in Self-Governance created this country. Our founders understood that the concentration of power in a central government not only excludes the people from the decisions that affect their lives; it also results in bad policy. By 1815, only 40 years after he had written the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson had come to agree with Benjamin Rush

who said that in the United States, people possessed power "only on the day of their elections. After that, it is the property of their rulers." The steady transfer of authority from the local government to the state and from the states to Washington turned the challenges of self government into problems of administration, decided by a professional class of unelected federal bureaucrats. The success of the American experiment in Self-Governance, Jefferson wrote, requires the active participation of well-informed citizens meeting as neighbors so policies could be decided "by the common reason" of the citizens themselves. Jefferson's believed that power should be exercised by the citizens meeting in small units to enable each citizen to be "a participant in the government of affairs, not merely at an election one day in the year, but every day."

We're proud of the activists in Kansas who broke major records this past week by ousting 20 state legislators in their p...
09/25/2012

We're proud of the activists in Kansas who broke major records this past week by ousting 20 state legislators in their primaries!

As motivated voters in Kansas have proven, citizen engagement can trump the natural advantages of incumbency.

Polling shows that there's a major disconnect between the views of voters and the actions of politicians on a bipartisan...
09/25/2012

Polling shows that there's a major disconnect between the views of voters and the actions of politicians on a bipartisan basis when it comes to military spending. Is self-governance threatened when alleged representatives aren't actually REPRESENTING the people?

08/13/2012

Primaries this week include: Florida, Connecticut, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Get out and vote!

"At the congressional level Tuesday, it was business as usual in the four states that went to the polls. All but two Hou...
08/09/2012

"At the congressional level Tuesday, it was business as usual in the four states that went to the polls. All but two House and Senate incumbents on the ballot won — and the two, Democratic Reps. Hansen Clarke of Michigan and Russ Carnahan of Missouri, were involved in member vs. member races where an incumbent was certain to lose.

At the state legislative level, however, it was a different story. Thirty-one state legislators lost their primaries, led by an incumbent bloodbath in Kansas."

Kansas voters sent an overwhelming message to incumbents last night, knocking off 18 current sitting members of the state legislature in primaries.

There are primaries in Washington, Missouri, Kansas, and Michigan today. We'll be tweeting about the results over at . W...
08/07/2012

There are primaries in Washington, Missouri, Kansas, and Michigan today. We'll be tweeting about the results over at . We hope you'll join us for the conversation.

Follow the Alliance For Self-Governance on Twitter.

At 10:30 AM on Monday (August 6th), Ballotpedia's Geoff Pallay will be on Talk 1300 in Albany discussing Ballotpedia's r...
08/06/2012

At 10:30 AM on Monday (August 6th), Ballotpedia's Geoff Pallay will be on Talk 1300 in Albany discussing Ballotpedia's recent study about the rising rates of incumbents being defeated in state legislative primaries.

This corresponds with the op-ed by Mark Meckler and Eric O'Keefe in the Albany Times Union published this weekend that draws from the Ballotpedia research that will be discussed in this segment.

We hope you'll tune in! If you miss it, we'll post the archived version as soon as we can obtain it.

The Capital District's Talk Radio.

Albany Times Union: "New York's legislative primaries might not be the cakewalk for incumbents this September that they ...
08/05/2012

Albany Times Union: "New York's legislative primaries might not be the cakewalk for incumbents this September that they have been in years past. Primary voters across the country are rejecting incumbent members of state legislatures in higher numbers this year than in previous cycles."

Not only are most districts one-party districts, but far fewer citizens vote in primaries. So each voter has much more clout in the election that actually decides the winner.

8 Tennessee legislators fell in primaries on August 2nd, bringing the cumulative total above 2010 figures regarding defe...
08/03/2012

8 Tennessee legislators fell in primaries on August 2nd, bringing the cumulative total above 2010 figures regarding defeated incumbents.

On July 26, 2012, Ballotpedia released an analysis of the rate at which incumbents are being defeated by challengers in state legislative primaries.

Tonight, we'll find out the results of the Tennessee primary elections. In their piece at The Tennessean, Mark Meckler a...
08/02/2012

Tonight, we'll find out the results of the Tennessee primary elections. In their piece at The Tennessean, Mark Meckler and Eric O'Keefe explain why incumbents may be in trouble.

State legislative primaries give voters the chance to pick candidate with likelihood of winning election.

After 40 years, the voters of Charlie Rangel's district are entitled to new representation.
06/26/2012

After 40 years, the voters of Charlie Rangel's district are entitled to new representation.

Alan Pell Crawford [email protected] Alan Pell Crawford is the author, most recently, of Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson, a Book of the Month Club selection and Washington Post Best Seller. A journalist and political analyst, a former U.S. Sena...

Presidential conventions are taxpayer-funded Super Bowl half-time shows. The party's over--or should be.
06/23/2012

Presidential conventions are taxpayer-funded Super Bowl half-time shows. The party's over--or should be.

Alan Pell Crawford [email protected] Alan Pell Crawford is the author, most recently, of Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson, a Book of the Month Club selection and Washington Post Best Seller. A journalist and political analyst, a former U.S. Sena...

Why won't Rangel talk about his Dominican connections?
06/20/2012

Why won't Rangel talk about his Dominican connections?

Alan Pell Crawford [email protected] Alan Pell Crawford is the author, most recently, of Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson, a Book of the Month Club selection and Washington Post Best Seller. A journalist and political analyst, a former U.S. Sena...

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