For years, conventional wisdom has held that as independent voters go, so goes an election. Win these coveted swing voters – the moderate middle – and you win the election. Recent high profile elections, however, have undermined this long-held aphorism. Romney carried independent voters and lost both the popular vote and the electoral college. In Virginia, a quintessential swing state, Republican Ken Cuccinelli carried independents by double-digits and still lost the 2013 gubernatorial election.
So, are independent voters no longer so independent? Or have we been mislabeling them all along? CONT.
Amy Walter, Cook Political Report