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(no subject)
Maryland's primary elections[1] are today, so I voted on my way to work. We've got an open Senate seat this fall - Paul Sarbanes is retiring, and a grand total of twelve different candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination - and so the primary holds more interest than it ordinarily might. (In contrast, my Congressman is running unoposed - not just in the primary, but in the general election.)
I care about the Senate nomination. I care about the Congressional and Gubernatorial races, but those are uncontested primaries. To a lesser extent, I care about the races for state comptroller (because the incumbent is a truly horrible man) and attorney general. I care slightly about the Maryland House of Delegates and the State Senate. And then, of course, there were a number of down-ballot races on the ballot that I knew nothing about at all. Judges, the sheriff, the county clerk, the city attorney, et cetera.
I did a little independent reading about the Senate and attorney general candidates. I went with the local alternative newsweekly's endorsement in the comptroller's race, given that my only real preference, based on general newspaper reading, was "NOT the incumbent." For the State Senate and House of Delegates, I went with Equality Maryland's endorsements. And for the races lower on the ballot, I mostly left the ballot lines blank.
It made me curious: how do you all make decisions about the minor races on the ballot? Do you research everything? Do you follow someone's advice? Do you pick people at random? For the purposes of the following poll, use your own definition of "down-ballot races" - I'm not going to try to stipulate where the cut-off lies between major and minor races. And, as always, feel free to elaborate in comments.
[Poll #819245]
[1] For non-U.S. readers, primary elections are how the members of U.S. political parties decide which candidates will represent their party in the general election. Different states have different systems, but typically, when a person registers to vote they are given the option of affiliating with a political party, and if they do so they are then eligible to vote in the primary election for that party.
I care about the Senate nomination. I care about the Congressional and Gubernatorial races, but those are uncontested primaries. To a lesser extent, I care about the races for state comptroller (because the incumbent is a truly horrible man) and attorney general. I care slightly about the Maryland House of Delegates and the State Senate. And then, of course, there were a number of down-ballot races on the ballot that I knew nothing about at all. Judges, the sheriff, the county clerk, the city attorney, et cetera.
I did a little independent reading about the Senate and attorney general candidates. I went with the local alternative newsweekly's endorsement in the comptroller's race, given that my only real preference, based on general newspaper reading, was "NOT the incumbent." For the State Senate and House of Delegates, I went with Equality Maryland's endorsements. And for the races lower on the ballot, I mostly left the ballot lines blank.
It made me curious: how do you all make decisions about the minor races on the ballot? Do you research everything? Do you follow someone's advice? Do you pick people at random? For the purposes of the following poll, use your own definition of "down-ballot races" - I'm not going to try to stipulate where the cut-off lies between major and minor races. And, as always, feel free to elaborate in comments.
[Poll #819245]
[1] For non-U.S. readers, primary elections are how the members of U.S. political parties decide which candidates will represent their party in the general election. Different states have different systems, but typically, when a person registers to vote they are given the option of affiliating with a political party, and if they do so they are then eligible to vote in the primary election for that party.
no subject
Note that my "down-ballot races" are judges (some of our lower courts are elected) and the internal to the political party stuff, including "male district leader" and "female district leader" (and yes, those are the official names of the positions, and there's one of each for each district).
My paternal grandmother's approach, for a long time, was to call my father and ask for advice; he knew about the races in her district as well as the borough-, city-, and state-wide races. (I'm not sure how much of that was being involved in local politics, and how much was making a point of checking into it for his mother.)