Tag: candidates

Wayne County 2012 election candidate information

Tim Russert's Office

(This blog post has been updated since the original publishing - see details below.)

This coming Wednesday at the Wayne County Area Chamber of Commerce candidate debates I'll be participating in some post-debate analysis with my colleagues on the Palladium-Item Editorial Board.

As a part of researching for that and for my own voting, I went in search of information that state and county candidates have made available online about themselves and their views, especially in contested races.

What I found was disappointing: state and local candidates are barely making any information at all about themselves and their views, plans and credentials available to voters.

Continue reading "Wayne County 2012 election candidate information" →

Political parties and the "So What?" test

Partisan FailAs complex human beings, it can be hard to communicate all that we stand for and all that we've experienced in casual social interactions.  "Hi, I'm Chris, let me tell you about the past 34 years of my life in the next 2 minutes...."  When it goes beyond communicating to trying to persuade someone of something - that they should vote for you, for example - it can be even harder to efficiently sum up what you're about in meaningful, authentic ways.

This is surely part of the utility, then, of having political parties: "Democrat," "Republican" and "Libertarian" (to name a few) are labels that help us identify a set of beliefs and values that a particular candidate might stand for and bring to their approach to governance.

But in recent years, the wordsmiths of the political machine have diluted many of these labels, and candidates and politicians who say they stand for one thing and then do other things have further made those labels less meaningful to voters. And just because we have labels to help us, we can't forfeit our responsibility to truly understand what a candidate stands for and how they would represent us.

This is where the "So What?" test comes in.

Continue reading "Political parties and the "So What?" test" →

Chris supports local challenge to ballot law

There are all sorts of ways the electoral process isn't optimized, either in making it more difficult than is necessary for voters to conveniently and clearly express their vote, or in making it more difficult than is necessary for some kinds of candidates to have a fair and equitable chance of receiving those votes.

We certainly don't need to be adding new ways to complicate the process or confuse voters, which is why Chris Hardie supports a recent legal challenge, initiated locally in Richmond by a number candidates and voters, to the recently amended Indiana Code 3-10-6-7.5 which says that you can't hold an election for an office when a candidate is unopposed.  As noted in recent articles in the Palladium-Item and in today's article, the challenge hopes to undo this bit of legislative hand-tying before the ballots are printed for upcoming Richmond city election.

Here's the full statement Chris's campaign released to the media earlier this week:

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Post-primary analysis

Now that we're a few days out from the primary election win, I thought I would share some reflections and analysis of the election.  Some of these may be obvious, especially to political veterans, but it's helpful for me to put them out there and see what other comments and analysis comes up.

On the election day results themselves:

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Scenes from Primary Season

Scraps of paper floating around my car with addresses scrawled on them for delivering yard signs and brochures.

Notes and programs from "must attend" (for a candidate, anyway) governmental and organizational meetings that seem to happen daily now, scattered across my desk.

People giving me warm "congratulations!" and me still not being sure if it's because I'm running for office or getting married or hired a new staff member at work or because I just did a nice parking job.  "Thank you, I'm very excited!" is a genuine initial response for all four cases, and context clues help from there.

Surreal experiences of driving down random streets and seeing my name on a sign up ahead, still a bit jolting each time, I hope it always will be.

Continue reading "Scenes from Primary Season" →

Put another white man in office?

As someone campaigning under the banner of bringing a fresh perspective and new voice to Richmond's City Council, it feels important to acknowledge one key way in which I would not be bringing anything voters haven't seen before: I'd be yet another privileged white male in a position of influence.
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The Don Bates Jr. campaign for U.S. Senate

Council MeetingRichmond, Indiana businessman Don Bates Jr. is running for election to the U.S. Senate.  It seems somewhat rare that a local person runs for national office, and as a participant in the local political blogging culture, I think that makes me obligated to comment, right?  🙂

Bates has a campaign website, a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, and a YouTube channel, so he can check the "modern candidate" requirements off the list.  The content of the website is at times confusing in its construction and full of typos and grammatical errors, and generally seems a notch below what one might expect from a national candidate.  But then again, if that's the worst you can say about a campaign, we're doing pretty well, and at least Bates is putting his views out there for examination and discussion.

On "the issues," the theme of Bates` positions seem to be (A) fight against whatever Barack Obama and other Democrats wants to do,  and (B) try to resurrect the politics, if not the physical incarnation, of former President Ronald Reagan.  I'm almost not kidding about the resurrection part: Continue reading "The Don Bates Jr. campaign for U.S. Senate" →

I.C. 36-4-5 (Or, a Wanted Ad for Richmond's Next Mayor)

Before developing any thoughts on the suitability of the candidates currently running for the office of Mayor of Richmond, I thought it would be worth clarifying just what our mayor is supposed to be able to do for us, and what one has to do to run. Starting out at the Palladium-Item website by searching for the keyword "Mayor" was discouraging, as it lists former mayor and current Chamber of Commerce president Dennis Andrews as the person currently occupying the Mayor's office. Hmmm.

I popped on over to the City of Richmond website to see what it said. Quote, "The Mayor is the City executive and head of the executive branch. He or she shall faithfully perform the duties and responsibilities contained in I.C. 36-4-5."

I.C. 36-4-5? Oh wait, I think I know what that means...it's Indiana Code section 36 subsection 4 paragraph 5. According to it, here's what the Mayor is supposed to do:
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A matter of some debate

IMG_1521Tonight I had the opportunity to serve as a moderator for the Richmond-Wayne County Legislative debates for contested seats in Wayne County. I did so under the label of a young adult professional, but also thoroughly enjoyed participating in the process as someone interested in local politics, policy and community-building. It was rewarding to see some of the questions I had helped to craft posed to the current and future leaders in our government, and while there are so many parts of local governing and elections that need improvement or replacement, I am energized by the commitment to service demonstrated by so many of the candidates in one form or another. Thanks to them for that.

Did you watch or attend the debates (or listen to them)? What did you think?