Five on Friday

Election 2006

1. What will be on the ballot in your area? Did you know that off the top of your head or did you have to look it up?

We'll be voting for governor and a lot of local stuff. I'm not sure what-all. I usually read the replies to the questionnaires the papers send out very carefully the week before I vote. I just checked; although I can go vote today (early voting is allowed), there is no place where the ballot is posted online. That's kind of annoying.

2. Is there any particular issue or candidate that will drive you to the polls this year?

Not really. I don't think we have any federal offices up for grabs. There was just an article in the Big City paper saying that over half the voters in the state don't want either candidate elected for governor. I don't mind our current governor, though he's not exactly a barn-burner. And listening to non-locals try to pronounce his name is VERY entertaining!

3. How may political ads do you see/hear on a daily basis? How have they effected [sic] your outlook on the issues and candidates?

We've been getting stacks of mailed ads for a few weeks now. They ALL go directly into recycling; we read NONE of them. NONE! People: stop sending them, ok? It's a waste of money. I don't watch them on TV (switch channels, or mute) and I almost never listen to the radio anymore. There are some billboards around, I think, but I don't pay a lot of attention to those either. The only ads that I can't avoid are the little signs in people's yards. I do pay attention to those.

4. How much mud slinging is too much in a political campaign?

I don't have any tolerance for it. If your method of campaigning is to cast aspersions, I don't really want anything to do with you. You lost my vote before you said anything about what you stand for. Which is the point: you don't seem to have anything to stand for if all you can find time for is calling people names. In school, you'd get detention. I think that should continue into the political arena.

5. Tell us a little about your political affiliation or leaning.

In the state where I live, you have to declare party affiliation to get a ballot in the primaries; I've only taken Republican once, and that was to vote for Dole because I knew Clinton could beat him. Otherwise, I am way more interested in seeing what each candidate can do for me, whether I think his/her policies sound more like what I want than not. Because our county is still pretty solidly Republican, there are not a lot of chances for me to actually vote along party lines which has been good for me; I have to think. What it all comes back to is that I don't trust any life-time politicians of any stripe. I don't think term limits are the way to go, either, but someone whose life is politics really needs to sell themselves to me to get my vote. I can't stand the current platform of the Republican Party. There's NOT ONE PLANK I agree with; I used to say I backed their fiscal policies but not anymore, not since the current administration--and Congress--has sent our national deficit back into the hole Clinton (and the Congresses of the 90s) dug us out of--thanks to Reagan and Bush 1.

OK, I could go on and on. In fact, I probably have. But I'll stop now.