Perhaps someone will ask your question at one of the various candidate forums held by or co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters. You can count on hearing about those that are upcoming on this blog. I am already starting to think about questions I want to ask, and I hope you will as well.
There is going to be one very, very special candidate forum that is being sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Virginia and AARP. These two groups have come together to develop a forum for those individuals running for the position of Governor of Virginia. As my previous blog topic shows, my feelings are that while politics my be about parties, government is about people. This forum is going to be about government, not about parties. I believe it may well be the best forum of it’s type around. Issues, not party positions will form the core of the discussion and you will have a chance to see how these officials respond to unscripted questions. The forum is to be televised and available throughout the state. Heck, if they get me a copy, I’ll post it on my website:)
Throughout the state local League of Women Voters groups will be hosting forums for other elected officials. I will try to keep track of those so that any of you who are interested can have a chance to participate.
In the meantime, do a little thinking and a little looking to find out what your areas of interest are these days. Do you care about the environment? Land use? Health care? Transportation? Your local and state economy? Education? Social services? Or any of the other myriad of issues that our elected officials make decisions concernin? Have you checked to see what bills incumbents have sponsored and whether those bills help or hinder you? Have you checked the voting records of incumbents to find out how he/she has voted on issues that you feel to be critical?
There is plenty of time and plenty of information available. I will be putting information about those sources of information on this blog. (I will probably put a few of my observations as well.)
“All elections are local elections”. This is particularly true in a Dillon Rule state where it is the state government that chooses what the town, cities, and counties are allowed to do (or NOT do). It may well be that the greatest way to make changes locally is to make changes at the state level.
If any of you have ideas for questions to ask candidates, feel free to get them to me in blog comment or contact the author. I bet I can figure out a way to make use of them:)
