We have a friend who's opinion we value. He is -deeply- immersed in local politics, including very down ballot issues. He is kind enough to write up his recomendations on elections, including all of his "insider" reasons to like or dislike a candidate. More than once we have been tempted to vote for a Board of Supervisor's candidate, and our friend's comments have been: great positions, but totally inflexible and frequently disrupts meetings and impeads -any- decision. That said, we also vote against this friend's recomendations if our research on the issue brings us to a different conclusion.
Here in San Francisco we frequently have many State down ballot issues, and as many as 10 to 30 -local- down ballot issues, so doing homework for an election is time consuming.
Oh, we pay a lot of attention to who is sponsoring and supporting issues.