Four questions to ask when comparing midterm candidates - Entrepreneur Generations

This year's midterm elections are being particularly closely watched, which means there's plenty of media coverage and armchair quarterbacking from pundits. But everyday citizens can get informed about political races by asking a few questions. ProPublica's Cynthia Giwa reports:

How competitive is your district? The nonpartisan Cook Political Report provides an analysis, updated daily, of how vulnerable to a challenger your current representative is. It "analyzes federal elections and campaigns — watching polls, tracking fundraising and outside spending, and talking to the campaigns and candidates — in order to assign a daily rating on the competitiveness of each race," Giwa reports. Districts are categorized as Solid Republican or Democrat (meaning not much threat), Likely Republican or Democrat (not competitive now but could be), Lean Republican or Democrat (competitive but one party has an advantage) or Toss-Up (either party has a good chance of winning).

Where's the money? From whom does your representative or candidate take campaign money? How do they spend it? What percentage of money does a candidate take from political action committees versus individual donors? The PACs with the most money are often funded by corporations and interest groups. "A reliance on PACs, versus individual donors, can tell you something about a candidate’s institutional support versus grassroots support," Giwa reports. "A higher percentage of funds from PACs means a candidate’s donor money comes mostly in fairly large checks, as opposed to donations from individuals. A higher percentage of individual donations, on the other hand, is a sign of grassroots enthusiasm about the campaign."

What do the numbers mean? Campaign donations are the lifeblood of a political campaign; they can't air ads or pay staffers without it. The more competitive races tend to attract more money -- a race listed as a Toss-Up by the Cook Report will likely be well-funded on both sides. Money tends to win races, too; with some notable exceptions, the candidate that brings in more money is more likely to win. But as Giwa notes, "don’t stop believin’ if your candidate of choice is outspent. Money is important, but it’s not the only factor in getting elected."

What about the issues? Citizens can always look up a candidate's stances on the issues by checking out his or her website and press releases. But some candidates' claims can be misleading, so it's also a good idea to look at nonpartisan fact checkers like FactCheck.org and Politifact too. Another good source is the League of Women Voters' Vote411.org project. The League reached out to every state and local candidate for office with a set of identical questions and recorded the answers in their database.

from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2PohFjv Four questions to ask when comparing midterm candidates - Entrepreneur Generations

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