Cara McCormick, principal at Smart Campaigns, advises on strategy and research. With 10+ years in major races, she led Maine’s historic move to ranked choice voting. Her work focuses on election reforms that improve representation and voter choice.
Election Reform
The Alaska Supreme Court is considering whether opponents of open primaries and ranked-choice voting broke state law when they funneled money through a Washington-based church to support a repeal campaign.
Public Safety
A new set of interactive data tools is providing Californians with an unprecedented look inside the state’s prison system. Developed by the California Policy Lab in partnership with the state’s Committee on the Revision of the Penal Code, the California Prison Population Data Dashboards make ten yea
Campaigns
Across the country, both parties are weighing whether to redraw congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Texas, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Utah, Indiana, Colorado, Illinois, and Virginia are all in various stages of the action. Here are five politicians who have declined to
Podcast
The latest Independent Voter Podcast episode takes listeners through the messy intersections of politics, reform, and public perception. Chad and Cara open with the irony of partisan outrage over trivial issues like a White House ballroom while overlooking the deeper dysfunctions in our democracy. F
Economy
Should we be comfortable with the surge of hedge funds and real estate investment trusts buying up single-family homes and turning them into rentals? What happens to families who just want to buy one house and build a life there? The question is more than theoretical. It is reshaping the foundation
Cannabis
When Missouri voters legalized cannabis, it became one of the fastest-growing regulated industries in the country. But in just a few short years, that success is being threatened by a shadow market — products made from “intoxicating hemp” and sold at gas stations and smoke shops without testing, regulation, or taxes.
Campaigns
On Day 16 of the government shutdown, President Donald Trump held a special “Legacy Dinner” at the White House to thank donors who helped fund his new ballroom project, which costs around $200-$250 million.
Public Safety
California is calling it a milestone for fairness, dignity, and labor rights. When Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of bills last week raising pay for incarcerated firefighters, the announcement made headlines across the state and drew praise as a historic step toward justice reform.
Campaigns
From California, where independent redistricting commissioner J. Ray Kennedy, a Democrat, describes how state leaders effectively sidelined the nonpartisan commission, to Texas, where the Republican Party is suing to close one of the nation’s oldest open primary systems, the hosts trace a pattern of
Election Reform
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking the extraordinary step of refusing to defend the state’s election laws and the Texas secretary of state in a federal lawsuit filed by his own political party, even as he runs in the very election those laws govern.
Cannabis
A recent Fox News segment about 106 drivers with THC in their systems who died in car crashes shows how media networks package limited research findings into sensationalized news that seeks to influence political debate. At a key moment when President Donald J. Trump is weighing a decision to use hi
Campaigns
In this episode, Chad Peace and Cara McCormick unpack the viral exchange between CBS’s Julie Watts and gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter - a clip that sparked headlines but also exposes how California’s limiting election rules shape campaign incentives. What did the interview actually show, and w