Seeking local election pointers

[beowabbit]

For the past year or so, I’ve been eating, breathing, and living national politics, but I’m ashamed to say I know nothing about any of the local races, not even who’s running. (And if there are any local ballot questions, I don’t know about them.)

So I’d love to have any information anybody has to offer about Quincy-specific stuff on the ballot, so I have a little more to go on than party affiliation. If anybody has links to election cheatsheets on news sites (or even just a list of the names on the ballot in Quincy), that would be great. If anybody wants to explain how they plan to vote in any particular race and why, that would also be great.

Thanks!

PS — It’s likely that we’re not going to agree about all this, so if you see somebody arguing against your candidate (who supports fluffy kittens and all that is virtuous) and for your candidate’s opponent (who as everyone knows is running on a platform of enslaving all of humanity to hideous tentacled demons from beneath the waves), please remember the immortal words of Bill and Ted and “be excellent to each other”. :-)

[EDIT: Oops! I meant to post this to quincy_ma, not my personal journal. I was puzzled why people who don’t live in Quincy were replying. But thanks! Your responses were very useful!]

Comments

[keren-s.livejournal.com]

The Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters publishes a scorecard on all the state legislators and how they voted on important environmental legislation. This is their main page:
http://www.mlev.org/
And their score card:
http://www.mlev.org/uploads/scorecards/scorecard_08_final.pdf

[beowabbit]

Thanks. I mean to post this to quincy_ma rather than my personal journal. I was wondering why I was getting so many answers from people who don’t live in Quincy! But I have to say, they are very helpful answers all the same.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

The ballot questions are here

In brief: a no on 1 will leave income tax laws unchanged. A yes on 1 will eliminate the state income tax. Um. And, I'm guessing, schools and roads.

A yes on 2 will decriminalize small amounts of pot. Kittens would approve.

A yes on 3 will outlaw dog racing. I suppose puppies would approve, but kittens might like watching the doggies oppressed. And as imvfd points out, they are treated better than cows and chickens in this state and most others, so I can't get very exercised over that one.

[beowabbit]

Thanks. Yeah, I knew about the statewide ballot questions; I mean to post this to quincy_ma and was curious about local ballot questions (if any). I was wondering why I was getting so many answers from people who don’t live in Quincy!

[eisa.livejournal.com]

The League of Women Voters writes some useful summaries on their website. You type in your zip code, and they give you a list. The list for my area was missing info on local candidates, but a lot of other chapters are better about that and they covered the ballot initiatives well.

Plus they're just generally awesome.

[beowabbit]

(As I replied to another commenter above:) Thanks. I mean to post this to quincy_ma rather than my personal journal. I was wondering why I was getting so many answers from people who don’t live in Quincy! But I have to say, they are very helpful answers all the same.

[silverlibre.livejournal.com]

Please introduce me to Bill and Ted. I haven't met them, but I love them already.

[beowabbit]

Here they are!

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

You mean you're not voting for the platform of enslaving all humanity to hideous tentacled demons from beneath the waves? I'm so disappointed in you.

[beowabbit]

Of course I’m not voting for that platform! I’m voting for the platform of feeding all humanity to hideous tentacled demons from beneath the waves!

(As a Unix geek, I have a really hard time spelling demon without the a. It just looks wrong.)

Issues, and a side note

[ka9sqb.livejournal.com]

Thanks for clarifying Bill and Ted. Like that thought.
And thanks for giving $1 to our Rotary's water project.
Normally, people go 'round with happy things that occurred
during the week: often, it's a child's pix in the paper.
Having one's picture in The Boston Globe definitely gave
me points, as did having someone do radio drama :-) (which
they thought was most appropriate).
Anon, Don

That election already happened

[cos]

You can see who and what will be on your ballot by entering your address at WhereDoIVoteMA.com.

Other than the ballot questions, most of the action in Massachusetts state elections is, as you probably know, in the Democratic primary. I think you're kinda late asking about state election candidates now, since the primary was almost two months ago :)

I presume you're asking about state candidates and calling them "local", because most MA cities and towns, including Quincy, hold local elections on odd years, and I don't know of any cities or towns in MA that hold local elections on the same day as the state and federal election. Which is why, BTW, I think it makes sense to be careful refer to the state and local elections separately, because they happen on different years.

So:
1. Do you vote in state/federal primaries (even years, in September) ?
2. Do you vote in local elections (odd years in most places in MA) ?

Those are the elections for which you need to learn about the state and local candidates. Hardly any of those are going to be decided on November 4th (there are a few rare districts in MA that have contested state house or senate seats with both a Republican and a Democrat where either might win, but I don't think you live in one of them).