(no subject)

[rivka]

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.

Comments

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

The lower ballot stuff usually leaves me feeling pretty guilty and vowing I'll do more research next time...

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Me too. But when it comes right down to it, I don't tend to care who gets elected to some of our town offices. I feel like I ought to, but I generally just vote for whomever has the (D) next to their name, or the person whose name sounds least Yuppie.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

I admit, every time it comes up I vote against the woman running for town council who lives on our street and is always dumping great piles of rusting crap on her lawn for months. ;) I don't claim it's a *good* reason, but man, am I sick of looking at that.

[erbie.livejournal.com]

Same here. Though in my state, we have ballot initiatives that tend to get a lot of airplay. I usually see who supports and opposes them, talk to my mom and my aunt, who share my political views on most things, and read the stuff that comes in the sample ballot. They usually print supporting and opposing arguments and rebuttals to each, and it's pretty obvious from who writes those most of the time which way I want to go.

I tend not to vote in the judicial races and some other local ones, though I do generally vote in the city council and state office races. I'm lucky enough to live in state and federal districts that have incumbants who share my views, so I generally vote for them. City council around here is pretty touchy, so I do follow that closely and vote for city council members.