Veteran political ad-maker Bill Hillsman — the man behind “hilarious and highly effective ads” for Paul Wellstone, Jesse Ventura, Ross Perot and others — has launched Independent Voters of America, Tech President reports.

Said Hillsman: “We are building the largest online community of self-identified independent voters, with the goals of bringing fresh voices and more choices into our politics, acting as a counterweight to the two major political parties, and to reduce gridlock, force progress and bring a new accountability to Washington.”

Unlike the failed Americans Elect, the new project seeks “to give self-identified independent voters a gathering place” and then “see where people want to take this.”

California’s filing deadline passed for November elections and Richard Winger reports “there are only fifteen minor party candidates running for U.S. House of Representatives and state legislature. This is the lowest number of California minor party candidates for those offices since 1966, when there were no parties on the ballot in California except for the Democratic and Republican Parties.”

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) predicted a third political party will emerge in response to Americans’ economic frustrations and said it might as well be called “the Fed-Up Party,” Reuters reports.

Said McCain: “Unless both parties change, then I think that it’s an inevitability. We aren’t doing anything for the people.”