Voting in downticket races -- a shortcut for doing research

[lpetrich]

Why You Should Vote in Downticket Races - and a Neat Trick For Doing It - Greta Christina's Blog

She lists these reasons:

• Local elections profoundly affect your everyday life. ...
• Local elections profoundly affect other people’s everyday lives. ...
• Local and state elections are how national candidates are born. ...
• Local elections move the national party. ...

She then tells us how she does research on the numerous candidates at state and local levels.

Endorsements.

In a few more words: Find some organizations you trust, whose values and positions are more or less in line with yours — and see who they endorse.

You know all that time it takes to research candidates and ballot initiatives, the time you don’t have? For many organizations, that is literally their job. They do have the time. And they have the knowledge. In many cases, they’ve actually worked with these people.

...
Here’s my trick. I look at the endorsements of three or four endorsing organizations.

...
I compare them. If they all agree, and I don’t personally know enough about the candidate or initiative to disagree, I do what they recommend. If they don’t agree, I look at the arguments they make for why they’re endorsing the way they are, and see who I agree with.

Even if you aren't on her side on a lot of issues, you might still find that a useful shortcut.

 

[Keith&Co.]

In a few more words: Find some organizations you trust, whose values and positions are more or less in line with yours — and see who they endorse.

I'm not sure if there are any that I align with all that closely.
But this reminds me of when i used to have a lot of free time and disposable income. I could never find a movie reviewer who always steered me right on movies. Each had different blind spots that had the optential to negatively impact my viewing pleasure.

On the other hand, there WAS one reviewer in the local paper who i ALWAYS disagreed with. If he liked the movie, i'd probably walk out on it. Stuff he hated would be listed in loving detail, but not so much as to ruin my viewing. So i used him as a sort of negative dowsing rod. I'll probably find better success by finding endorsements from people or organizations i mistrust and voting against them...

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Bernie's organization, "Our Revolution" and the related "Brand New Congress" project are both long term projects to elect Progressive candidates. Both should in the future be a good source of info about politicians running for office. If you are a Sanders supporter, these efforts will be worth keeping up with.

 

[Blahface]

This is what I think political parties should be doing, but unfortunately FPTP makes it really hard for them to act this way.

This is why I like approval voting. It allows there to be a many to many relationship between parties and candidates. A candidate can be endorsed by many parties and a party can endorse many candidates. If you only care about legalizing pot, you can just vote for all the candidates endorsed by the “Legalize Pot Party.” If you also care about net neutrality, you can also vote for all the candidates mutually endorsed by the “Legalize Pot Party” and the “Protect the Internet Party.”

You wouldn't have to worry about who is more viable or what order to rank candidates. Every candidate would get an a boost from an endorsement and candidates would have to start paying attention to the issues that voters care about to stay competitive.

Under FPTP, you have to vote strategically and organizations have to give their endorsement strategically. Even in the primary, you have to worry about whether the candidate you like will be competitive in the general election.