LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Nonpartisan League
built 634 days ago
After wearing a Republican label for 40 years while thinking and acting more like a Democratic organization, North Dakota's Nonpartisan League last week officially took itself into the Democratic fold. Most active members of the N.P.L., closely aligned with the left-of-center National Farmers Union, will be more comfortable as Democrats. But the shift will cause real trouble for some of the league's leading lights who were elected to the office when the N.P.L. controlled North Dakota's G.O.P. organization. Most trou bled : North Dakota's cantankerous, caterwauling U.S. Senator William Langer, 69, a longtime (40 years) member of the N.P.L., who was elected as a Republican but often votes like a Democrat.
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The Nonpartisan League was founded in North Dakota by socialist A. C. Townley in 1915 at the height of the Progressive movement in the Northwest. Among its aim was to initiate state-owned mills, grain elevators, bank, and hail insurance company in order to protect the farmers from grain speculators and other business interests. The league won the governor's seat in 1916 and controlled the state legislature in 1919. By 1921, internal and external problems robbed the League of its true political power. By 1932, it was a political machine, and in 1956 it affiliated with the Democratic Party.
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Open Debates has criticized the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates as a tool of the campaigns and wishes to return to the pre-1988 era when the nonpartisan League of Women Voters organized the debates. They complain that the commission illegally works on both candidates' behalf and shields them from the true public accountability a debate would provide.
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The nonpartisan League served the public interest well, and it's precisely because the League served the public interest so well that the CPD was created. The major parties didn't want a debate sponsor to include popular third party candidates and employ challenging formats. The major parties wanted presidential debates under their control. The major parties wanted their candidates to exclude whoever they want and to choose any panelists they want.
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Saunders said she registers as an independent to avoid the appearance of partisanship as president of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Arizona. She votes based on a candidate’s merits, not political party, so she often votes a split ticket.
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Nonpartisan League