Political courage test
Arkansas legislative candidates, and candidates everywhere, are poor examples of the system in which they participate when they won't answer legitimate questions on public policy issues.
And they get away with it.
So here's a plug for candidates to demonstrate a little courage and answer the questionnaire prepared by the voter information effort, Project Vote Smart. It develops surveys for all states and has distributed them to Arkansas legislative and congressional candidates since 1996. Typically, only about one in five candidates responds.
So far this year, a measly four Arkansas legislative candidates have responded to the Vote Smart survey for Arkansas. They still have two weeks to submit answers. So if your candidate isn't Yancey Kyle, Barbara Nix, Tom Raley or Brandon Woodrome, the only respondents so far, tell them to get with it. It's a non-partisan effort. You'll see if you click the link that it covers topics ranging from abortion to taxes.
Comments
Theres no incentive for any candidate to ever fill one of these out. Ever. All it will be used for is used against them by their opponent (s), present and future.
It a great idea in theory, just not in todays political atmosphere.
Posted by: Vincent Vega![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 18, 2008 08:51 AM
I found that being honest with the voters was incentive enough and most of them appreciated that. The non-partisan VoteSmart questionnaire was usually the only candidate survey I filled out when I ran for office. Most, if not all, of the other candidate questionnaires have overt agendas and are worded so that your answers either had to agree with their positions or you were confronted with a "are you still beating your spouse" situation.
The worst of those are from so-called "family values" groups, which hand out the results in churches just prior to elections. Unless you answer their loaded questions to their satisfaction, you are portrayed as a baby-killing, child molesting, crime-loving, unpatriotic anti-business tax-and-spender.
VoteSmart has restrictions on the use of the answers on their questionnaire. I found that voters were happy to see, in computer-print, my positions on issues and be able to compare them to other candidates. They want to see candidates compared to each other on an even basis, without having to wade through the obfuscating rhetoric in the campaign literature. Though politicians who are cowardly and want to mislead voters usually avoid the VoteSmart questionnaire, there is enough flexibility in the questions to avoid actual commitment, but the evasiveness is easily detected.
Go to votesmart.org and look up your reps' replies.
Posted by: Jim Lendall![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/nav-commenters.gif)
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April 18, 2008 10:04 AM