Before thinking about the best candidate, do yourself a favor and review what is essential to you. For instance, write down your priorities if you are looking at a local race for your county, city, or school board. They may include services your community provides, a review of your tax allocation, roads, and economic development. Remember, most local taxes are decided at the county or municipality and by your school boards.
If you are looking at a district race for your state, what is it about your district that your representative must understand to represent you? For example, is it the job market, the natural resources, and access to healthcare, education, and services?
You need to know your priorities to evaluate who will best meet your needs adequately. Avoid voting on one issue because you will be disappointed if you do.
Campaigns will use a variety of methods to reach voters. Depending on the office, the process may include direct Mail, flyers, a website, or social media. Most often, politicians will use TV ads and radio in a federal race.
Let's talk about how a candidate can reach out to you and how you can use their method to help you judge candidates.
Direct Mail is most often to ask for money and your vote. It's easy today to send letters or postcards that appear it is personalized just for you. What did you learn about the candidate when reading their letter? Have they shared clearly defined initiatives with you? Will you be able to go back and measure their success or ability to meet their campaign promise?
TV and radio for the state and federal candidates are widespread. When you see a TV ad, ask yourself what you learned about the candidate. Did the candidate provide details on what they intend to do or will do? Did you know about their qualifications for the office they are seeking? Take a moment to see if the ad was targeting your emotions. If it was, maybe you should delve further.
Local elections often use flyers or pamphlets. It may be handed to you if you answer your door, or they may leave it at your door. Were the promises made measurable? Is the information they are sharing truthful or half-truth? I watch to see if it accuses the opponent of something. Is there enough time for you to verify the claim?
Be careful of emotions. As you listen to the candidate, are they speaking about critical issues vital to you, or are they trying to tap into your feelings?
Polls can give some insight; however, be careful. First, you need to understand who paid for the survey. More importantly, you need to know the questions, how many were polled, and if something like an event may have triggered a response to get the desired results. For example, rarely will a candidate share the poll results of the undecided. Why? Because once the undecided make their decision on a candidate, the poll results may differ. The timing of a poll, such as how long ago the poll was, is also something to consider because we know people will change their minds. Finally, we all dislike poll phone calls. However, if you take a few minutes to listen to their poll, you will better understand the poll results.
Endorsements can be helpful, but they can just as often be misleading. So be careful in weighing endorsements as a top priority for your vote.
Look at the candidates' campaign and how it is managed. Does the candidate answer questions? The candidate should have clearly defined what they will do once elected. Does the campaign manage events properly? Is the candidate on time? Do they have clearly defined initiatives? Initiatives that you can read and state facts about how they will accomplish their goal.
Consider the issues they discuss to verify if they align with your priorities. Do you know what their campaign priorities are? Do you know their background? If you understand their preferences, have they shared their plans to resolve the issue or take action? Or are they resorting to pointing fingers at their opponents? One we often hear is "wasteful spending." That doesn't tell us much. Look to the candidate to identify areas they want to cut spending. They should be specific. Doe
If you hear a lot of fluff words – ones that are targeted to your emotions, beware. Always check out what you hear or see. For example, if a candidate is pointing out another candidate's inequities, use your resources to verify the information is the whole truth.
Campaign finances are very telling. Are they receiving money in small amounts? Are they receiving money from a PAC or groups? Are they using their own money? Is it a few donors who contributed a significant amount?
Be realistic; candidates need a variety of money resources.
Here is a resource to check out campaign finances.
Federal Election Commission: www.fec.gov or call 800-424-9530
Most importantly, talk to your family and friends. Discuss the candidates. Pay attention to your local news, including the local paper, radio, and TV.
Here are things to consider when evaluating the office and the candidate:
List the things that are important to you. I recommend you separate candidates' priorities by the office they are running seeking.
Federal: These are areas the federal government oversees: Immigration, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Passports and Custom Border Patrol, National Security, and Health Care. Think about how these agencies may affect you.
State: How Medicaid benefits are determined, education, gas taxes, PP taxes, economic development (bringing in new business), Judicial (Supreme Court and Attorney General), highways, natural resources of the state, tourism, federal funds and how they are used, crime.
Local: in local races, you will have your town/city/county boards and your school boards. Tax rates for your property are set at the local level, and your sales tax may be specific to the county you reside.
Your school boards determine curriculum, and your county board or city council determines fees, ordinances, etc.
One may think that Wisconsinites would have difficulty re-electing a governor whose administration directly hurt hard-working constituents. Let's take a review of the current administration's performance.
Failure one: improperly scheduling a special election for the 7th Congressional District. The state Legislature had to go to WI Supreme Court to force Gov Evers to hold a special election according to state election laws.
Failure two: the improper use of the governor's executive powers used to extend shutdowns due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Executive orders #82, #90, and #105 were unlawful.
Failure three: His Administration's inability to process unemployment checks promptly put Wisconsin families at risk. Constituents waited months, in some cases six to nine months, to receive their unemployment checks due to his shutdown.
Failure Four: the administration failed to process license applications for the healthcare industry to ensure the healthcare industry had the staff needed.
Daily calls are going into the legislative offices throughout the State of Wisconsin seeking assistance for their licenses. These health care workers cannot work if their renewal or a new application is not processed.
In addition to the four issues mentioned above, the US Supreme Court ruled that the legislative maps drawn by Governor Evers were race-based.
A knowledgeable constituent may want to reconsider sending a sitting Lt. Governor to Washington as their next US Senator. He lied about his college education, believed his opponent is Senator Scott Walker, had an expired driver's license for failure to pay his parking tickets, and failed to pay property taxes because he was too busy.
Unfortunately, like every other state, Wisconsin has many misinformed and uninformed constituents. Constituents who don't correctly research candidates or vote for candidates because of party affiliation and tv ads.
Don't believe the lies. I hope you vote, and I hope you do your research. Here is one tool to help go through the information floating out there. www.wifacts.com.
I hope you vote and vote wisely.
Are you aware a current Assembly Bill changing our voting process is making its way through the legislature to be considered for the State of Wisconsin. You should be! This bill, if it would pass, would change how we select candidates. Make sure you are doing your research, and make sure you understand how the process works. If you don't understand it, you should take time to learn it and how it would impact the future of our elections. This is a big step and not one you want to depend on others to make for you.
There are plenty of resources and examples of how RCV work. Understand the difference between RCV and Final Five Voting. Educate yourself, educate others. This is too important to ignore.
I often get questions about candidates running for office. This year I have paid close attention to the type of questions asked and realized that as new candidates join a particular race, the questions seem to increase. Of course, it would make sense because when we have multiple candidates to select from, we can and should invest more time into vetting all candidates.
Properly vetting a candidate is much more work than some might want to take on. It requires research, verification, and identifying the candidate most aligned with your ideals.
I also see a shift happen when a new candidate enters the race. Sadly, it also appears the change occurs due to a TV ad or statement about the new candidate. Even sadder is that “truth in advertising” in political campaigns is not well-practiced.
Then we have the one-issue voter who fixes on an issue and doesn’t look deeper into the candidate beyond that particular issue. A prime example is what happened in Wisconsin four years ago in the Walker vs. Evers gubernatorial race. In five counties in Wisconsin, marijuana was on the ballot. New voters came out in these five counties and tipped the election.
Those voters did not take the time to review the qualifications or experience of candidate Evers properly. Had they done so, they would have concluded he failed miserably as Superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction.
Now, in the Governor’s seat, we saw his lack of experience explode in various ways. Including not understanding how to set up a special election, his lack of understanding of our state Constitution, and his failure to select cabinet officials. Can we forget the debacle of Unemployment compensation for those who were forced out of their jobs when he shut down our state?
We can all agree that no candidate or politician gets everything right. We can also agree that there is no perfect politician. The candidate you select may not always “get it” right. It’s like buying a home. You walk in, and you think, I like this. Then after moving in, you find things that you wish were different. I know this even happens when you build a house.
It would help you to do your research. However, the study does not mean watching television ads or reading the flyers that arrive in your mailbox. By all means, if you have an opportunity to meet the candidates, do so and ask questions.
With technology today, you have resources available to learn so much more. Take the time. It is incredible what you may uncover.
Some individuals believe Governors make the best presidents because of their executive experience. Others may say the businessman is best. And I bet many of you who read this will agree that senators probably are the least qualified. Well, Jimmy Carter was Governor of GA. We can’t forget how well that turned out. Reagon was Governor of CA. But, on the other hand, Donald Trump, a businessman, accomplished many things and probably could have done more had he had some background in the political world.
Just because one is a Governor doesn’t necessarily mean he would succeed as a President, nor does it mean if you are a businessman, you will flourish as President.
Do your homework—research candidates. Confirm what your read, see and hear. The information about candidates, their experience, and what associations or PACs they support are available for your finding.
Votes matter. They always did and always will. So don’t let the media, special interests, or PACs determine who the best candidate is for the job. Make your own decision.
Never in my life would I have expected to see such bribery to get individuals vaccinated. I just read today on Oct 9, 2021, in Baton Rouge LA, if you come in to get vaccinated, your record will be expunged, you will receive free food and a chance to win a VISA Card. Seriously?
I understand there are reasons one may want to get vaccinated. I also understand why an individual may be hesitant to get this vaccine.
I don't agree with vaccine passports. I don't believe city, county, or the state or federal government should mandate the vaccine, nor should an employer.
If we have elected officials who disagree with voter ID, then these same officials should not want vaccine passports.
Why? I personally know of four individuals who died within 4 days of their 1st shot. Their organs quickly started shutting down. I understand as of Sept 11, 2021 over 14,000 deaths have been attributed to the vaccine.
We were told herd immunity. We were told two weeks of social distancing, staying home, wearing a mask would stop this from spreading. It didn't. Then came the school closings, small business closings and the mask mandates.
Parents are fighting and they are fighting hard to get their children back to normal, attending school without a mask.
In some states, legislation is being proposed to allow vaccinating children without parental consent.
If what is happening now is not making you angry, not making you fearful of what is happening to our country. then all I can say is I hope when you finally realize what is happening I hope it is before we have lost all of our freedoms and our middle class.
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