September 08, 2008

Primary Tomorrow

If you don't live in Minneapolis, skip the rest of this post. This is my sample ballot for the local DFL primary.

I put one together every election for me, my husband (who's busy doing his homework), and anyone else who wants to trust my political judgment. I read the candidates' statements, look at endorsements, and Google for red flags. This isn't so important for the statewide elections, but it's critical for positions like school board and open judges' seats, which don't get much coverage.

Here are my votes for tomorrow.

U.S. Senate: Al Franken

Supreme Court Associate Justice, Seat 3: Paul H. Anderson

Supreme Court Associate Justice, Seat 4: Lorie Skjerven Gildea

U.S. House, District 5: Keith Ellison

District Court Judge, 4th District Court, Seat 53: Jane Ranum

Minneapolis School Board (3): Carla Bates, Jill Davis, Lydia Lee

I was all set to provide my reasoning for each pick, but while Googling the District Court candidates, I came across my friend Naomi's sample ballot. I look at school board position statements before endorsements, using the endorsements only to break a tie, while Naomi looked at endorsements first before confirming her choices using the position statements. Otherwise, she says everything I was going to say. Our ballots are identical.

By the way, if you're voting Republican, you can use the same sample ballot, although there's no contest for the House seat. Just substitute Jack Shepard for Al Franken for Senate, and you're done.

Update: Find out where to vote.

3 comments:

Kevin C said...

Since you would say exactly what Naomi has said - why did you ignore the other two issues that Mary Buss stated on her website: -school disparity - improving volunteerism

I also like what Jill Clark, who stated this about incumbent Lorie "Gildea votes overwhelmingly with Justice Barry Anderson. Justice Anderson is a well-developed jurist, but aligning so often with him indicates that Gildea is not." And I just liked her statements overall on MinnLaw.

It appears your "sample ballot" is really a partisan DFL ballot. All your school-board members are DFL endorsed, which is a bit scary when they endorse conservatives like Chris Stewart and Paul Ostrow. Sorry to not agree but I just never vote straight ticket for ANY party.

Stephanie Zvan said...

Kevin, those issues, as addressed by Buss on her website, are outside the scope of the school board's powers. I agree that she has some good ideas, but if she wants to see them implemented, she's running for the wrong job.

Gildea may frequently vote with Anderson, but suggesting that this means he's a well-developed jurist and she isn't smacks of misogyny.

And this year is unusual in that my picks for school board match the DFL endorsements. We usually differ by at least one choice because I find that one of their candidates is running on being a good Democrat instead of running for the board. That's my first criteria, whatever a candidate's political affiliation.

Anonymous said...

Kevin: With all due respect, why would you have a policy that says "never vote party line, ever" ...? Does this mean that, as has happened here wtih Ms. Diamonds, you happen to like only, say, DFL candidates, that you must then vote for a candidate you otherwise would not? Then, how do you pick which one to apply the rule to?