Primaries are Coming!

Just a heads up.. Elections are coming up. 7 days away!

 

I know that most of you know that I'm pretty hot on keeping myself educated politically these days.  There was a time when I a) didn't understand politics at all, or the issues and probably should not have been voting  and b) did not know the candidates at all, and frankly again, probably should not have been voting. and c) did not understand the issues I was voting on clearly... especially economic ones, which is one that I think is the last for people to understand.  Checking out candidates to see where they stand on issues (and that SHOULD include checking to see if they have actually VOTED according to your wishes if they've held public office already) only takes a few minutes and then the trouble of either writing down who you want to vote for or memorizing your list.  Understanding the economic factors is more complicated and it means that you have to invest some time and energy in actually understanding some of the underlying cause and effect of large financial decisions.  For example, very few people understand (and this has been proven over and over as economic fact, not economic theory as some other things are) that if you reduce taxes in an area, the revenues from that area increase after a short time.   The reason people don't understand that is because the economic theory involved is complicated, and it takes time and study (you have to go and look at the studies, and cross examine it and reach an understanding of the cause and effect of the cut and how it becomes in increase over time)... so anyway...

 

My point is, I would like to encourage you all to spend a little time at least learning something about your local candidates.  Since I can't obviously link to all the information in your localities, I'll start you off in Ohio. There is a great website for you to get a good look at your candidates.  The website itself gives a very brief blurb about the candidates... but most of them include a website for that candidate where you can take a look at what they have to say about themselves.. you at least get a promise list. ^_^

 

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/e4/address/?state=OH&view=cong  This link lets you type in your voting location, and it will show you all the candidates in your District for US Congressional seats that are up for votes.  I'm in the 7th district, which means I've got Dave Hobson to pry out of his seat. (why? because he is not representing me... he's representing pharmaceutical companies.  just take a look at the bills he's brought to the floor, and his voting record to see what an unproductive Congressman he's been for me.  He doesn't represent his people at all. how many of us actually want pharmaceutical companies to have more power? But you all will have to look at his record yourselves.  Looks like if your candidate has a history in his seat it will also show some of his voting record. "Key votes" it says, but it really isn't indicative of his record personally.. just shows how he voted on a handful of things that the congress feels were key issues.

 

Ok... Ohio...

 

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/e4/address/?state=OH&view=state same site, different engine. This one will give you the Ohio state candidates. Remember we have a Gubernatorial election this year.. We do NOT have an incumbent running (will wonders never cease, Taft is actually intelligent enough to step aside) so we have 4 new blood candidates... 2 democrats, 2 republicans and no libertarians listed.  Blackwell and Petro are busy arguing about who is more fiscally conservative and who is more earnest in their support of outlawing a woman's right to reproductive choice..  I haven't researched the Democrats yet.  I know about the Republicans because I hear their ads slamming each other on the radio.  I don't know why the Dems aren't advertising.. I haven't heard any.

 

anyway, these two sites ought to start you off pretty nicely.  Interesting that Ohio's tenth district Senate seat is up for reelection and it appears that NOBODY is running for it? what gives there?  maybe I should run.... I would like to know what that means.  What if I put my name on the ballot?  nobody runs against me people vote for me because I'm the only name there, and I'm a senator, ne?  O_O that can't be true...

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Ok.. I did some searching for a more complete list in Ohio (can't help you out of staters, you'll have to find your own toys):

 

http://www.politics1.com/oh.htm  No information about candidates that I can see.. .but a greater list of who is running for what in what district. You'll have to know what district you're in.

 

http://www.electionohio.com/ the Ohio board of elections will have some info too.

 

http://www.henrygeorge.org/bearings.htm An interesting class on Economics. I only checked it out briefly, but it seems pretty balanced... i.e. it looks at economics from various points of view and then demonstrates fact and fallacy.

I still didn't find out what was going on in the Ohio 10th district... An interesting notion... I could live on a Senator's salary I think. ^_~ 

(Ishte was after all the Anjiua of Tarekai Arena ^_~)