Letter: 'Independent' Candidates Confuse Labels

Letter to the editor as submitted by Toms River resident Joseph Lypowy:

Recently I heard a representative of one of the major polling companies on a talk show state that the independent segment of the electorate is not as significant as many believe it to be. Even though nearly 40% consider themselves to be independent, of those, about 15% lean towards each major party leaving only 10%. Of that 10% Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party is expected to take 6%, The Constitution Party 2%, and the remaining 2% amongst the other fringe parties and write in’s.

Even though occasionally, you will find a legitimate good independent candidate, I have found out from experience, many times the so-called “independent” turns out to be a shill for one of the other major parties, or have some kind of hidden agenda. One example was the first Toms River Mayoral race where Democrat Paul Brush ran as an independent, and immediately after being elected, rejoined the Democrats. Later on, I found out, this so-called “independent” campaign was mostly funded and managed by Democrats, including dirty money from the imprisoned Wayne Bryant sleaze machine.

Many times the electorate gets coned thinking they are voting for a reformer or someone who is not controlled by party politics, but behind the scenes are. Sometimes these independents are encouraged to run as spoilers and take voters away from their opponent. An example of this is the last 3rd District Congressional race, where the late John Adler was caught red handed running an operative as a fake “Tea Party” candidate in an attempt to steal votes from his Republican opponent.

Even though I believe most Libertarian Party activists are sincerely dedicated, I sense this year, that many Democrat operatives are boosting that party in order to draw votes away from the GOP candidates. In turn, some of these operatives have infiltrated Tea Party groups throughout the state and are encouraging members to vote for their preferred spoiler. One method to spot some of these is that they are many times sympathetic towards the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

Joseph A. Lypowy