Politics: It's Local

alvenable — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:13:18 -0500

While the past several days have been spent looking at the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, it's important to note that voters should pay just as much, if not more, attention to their local/regional elections.

Whether the issue is wanting to better your schools, make your community more green, or save funding for the libraries, get educated on who else will be on the ballot in November. While the president has the power to veto or sign a bill into law, get to know the people who draft that legislation. Sites such as Project Vote Smart allow users to search by zip code to learn not only about their state's representatives, but also learn how they voted on recent pieces of legislation.

Curious to learn more about how your Congressperson or Senator voted on an issue important to you? Or, want to learn who's making interesting speeches on the floor? Visit the Library of Congress to view the Congressional Record for the past 10 congressional sessions.

Recently, there's been a ton of discussion on being a woman rand unning for political office. As Suzanne Reisman noted in her entry on "Electing More Women, Part II: Building the Pipeline":

Building a pipeline is one critical piece of the female president
puzzle. The other is combating the rampant sexist beliefs that are
firmly ingrained in the minds of men and women in the United States.

To reiterate, if you're not happy with the latest crop of candidates at the top, make sure you're paying attention to those on the lower rungs of the ladder.

A. L. Venable is a Random Citizen...and registered Independent. She writes at Dimple and a Smirk (dot) com and Our PDX Network.

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Politics: It's Local