So who is providing voter guides?
The Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance
During this election year, The Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance has focused on Prince William County’s local House of Delegates races. Their website both has Voter Guides and the results of detailed candidate questionnaires. See the following blog posts.
- GETTING THE CANDIDATES’ POSITIONS: THE 13TH DISTRICT OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES; applies to the race between challenger John Bell and Delegate Bob Marshall.
- GETTING THE CANDIDATES’ POSITIONS: THE 50TH DISTRICT OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES; applies to Delegate Jackson Miller and challenger Jeanette Rishell.
- GETTING THE CANDIDATES’ POSITIONS: THE 51ST DISTRICT OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES; applies to the race between challenger Rich Anderson and Delegate Paul Nichols.
- GETTING THE CANDIDATES’ POSITIONS: THE 52ND DISTRICT OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES; applies to the race between challengers Rafael Lopez and Luke Torian.
The Family Family Foundation Action
The Family Family Foundation Action is a Virginia statewide organization; it now has regional guides. Here is their guide for Prince William County. If you are unsure your district, click here.
Note also that The Family Family Foundation Action has a Voter Guides that include the statewide offices. See this website for a guide that reviews the positions of the following candidates.
Governor
- Creigh Deeds (D)
- Bob McDonnell (R)
Lieutenant Governor
- Jody Wagner (D)
- Bill Bolling (R)
Attorney General
- Stephen Shannon (D)
- Ken Cuccinelli (R)
The League of Women Voters of Virginia
The Prince William Area MAL Unit of the League of Women Voters of Virginia has their voter guide here. This is a guide where the questions are general and the candidates describe themselves.
The Virginia Catholic Conference
The Virginia Catholic Conference is providing Pre-Election Resources on its home page. Their Voter Guide for the Arlington Diocese is here.
Vote-VA.org
Vote-VA.org is a subsidiary organization to Vote-USA.org. Vote-VA.org has relatively detailed information on the candidate’s positions here. This site is well worth checking out.
A Little Voting Advice
When we vote, we want information on the candidates. That includes where they stand on the issues. Oddly, however, the candidates seem strangely reluctant to tell us where they stand on the issues. Why is that? Well, there are two basic problems.
- The first problem is what you might expect. Some candidates do take unpopular positions; they do not want us to know what they intend to do when they get elected.
- The other problem is a bit more subtle. It has to do with us, the electorate, not the candidates. As human beings, we tend to focus on problems, not solutions. When we see a candidate, we note our differences before we see those areas where we are in agreement. So the candidates, in order to get elected, tend to limit their talking points to popular positions on just a few issues.
Therefore, the folks who prepare voter guides have a problem. For both bad reasons and good reasons, the candidates cooperate reluctantly. That leaves us voters with insufficient information. When we vote, we can only guess what the guy we are voting for might do.
So what can we do? We can demand that the people we elect be honest with us, and we can give them reason to be honest. Instead of voting against candidates, we can vote for candidates. What do I mean by that? Stop and think for a moment what we really want from our elected officials. Do we not want honorable men and women determined to protect our Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness? Well, just who is that? Is it the politician/operator who knows how to work the system and “bring home the bacon,” or is it the principled leader determined to abide by his or her oath of office?
If we are not careful to elect honest and honorable people, then we will be led by sneaky and ambitious people. These people may for a time “bring home the bacon,” but the ugly truth is that such operators are swindlers. Too often this bacon they bring home consists pork barrel projects and welfare programs that rob Peter to pay Paul. Such swindlers are just as likely to swindle us as they are anyone else.
So when we look at voter guides, let’s make certain of our criteria. Let’s make our vote about what we are for, not what we are against.
