[guest post by Dana]

From the Orange County Register:

It makes sense, then, that an aspiring new political party – launched by independent former lawmakers, with an aim to appeal to voters and candidates across the political spectrum who are interested in finding middle ground to get things done – would call itself the Common Sense Party.

A coalition of moderate politicians and like-minded activists have been discussing this idea for more than five years. Now, within the next two weeks, they expect to hear from the Secretary of State whether enough Californians have come on board with their mission to qualify them as an official political party, so they can get Common Sense Party candidates on the ballot in the June 7 primary election.

The party’s tagline is “fiscally responsible and socially inclusive.” A set of principles CSP leaders have developed touts support for lower taxes and local governance, for example, while also backing environmental stewardship and acceptance for all sexual orientations.

The nub of the problem in California politics:

The consensus among CSP leaders is that Republicans have become increasingly extreme and irrelevant in California, while Democrats haven’t been making great policy decisions since they no longer need to listen to diverse viewpoints now that they have a supermajority in the legislature.

Breaking up that partisan divide with a competitive third party is a concept most Californians and Americans of all stripes, in survey after survey, say they support.

Does the Common Sense Party stand a chance in their uphill battle given that 46% of California voters are Democrats and 24% are Republicans? The state is so politically lopsided, there is no real need to negotiate or compromise or find the middle ground on an issue. Clearly, those on the right side of the aisle aren’t being represented. Yet surely there are moderate Democrats who are also concerned about how far to the left the state has swung. As a result, residents on both sides of the aisle are being directly impacted by the decisions being made in Sacramento, and at the local level. (See: homeless crisis, violent crime, taxes, etc.)

–Dana