HIGH POINT, N.C. — A year ago, Donna Moser co-founded the North Carolina Independents with Omar Ali, a University of North Carolina-Greensboro professor who also serves on the board of directors of IndependentVoting.org, which is run by the Committee for a Unified Independent Party. For Moser, a High Point resident and self-described “progressive,” neither the Republican nor Democrat parties seems willing to advocate for the voters’ best interests.
“I have a deep dissatisfaction with the way both parties control the political process,” she said, adding that both parties seem only intent on “pursuing control.”
The North Carolina Independents has been a way for unaffiliated voters to rally for what Moser called “nonpartisan” government, in which politicians adhere less to strict party lines and focus more on the individual concerns of their constituents.
Moser’s group has a strong voice in the Tar Heel State, a place that now finds itself positioned as a key swing state heading into November’s general election.
After becoming the first Democratic candidate to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976, President Barack Obama faces a tough battle in North Carolina, where a June Rasmussen Reports poll found him trailing his Republican opponent Mitt Romney by 3 percentage points. A more recent study from Public Policy Polling found the president leading the former Massachusetts governor by only 1 percentage point. What all of this means is that North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes are clearly up for grabs.
