Last week, I stood before members of the press to unveil Family Council’s 2010 Voter’s Guide for the upcoming May 18th Primary Elections. The real story, however, wasn’t simply that Family Council was publishing a voter’s guide—we’ve been doing that for 20 years now. The story was that a record number of candidates—72%—sent survey responses to us.
It’s true: A record number of candidates—both Democrat and Republican—completed the Arkansas Voter’s Guide survey. What’s even more interesting is that all of the candidates running for Arkansas Supreme Court and most of the other judicial candidates facing opposition this May filled out the Judicial Candidate Profile we’re publishing as part of the Arkansas Voter’s Guide. In contrast, almost no judicial candidates did so in 2008.
In years past it was sometimes like pulling teeth to get candidates to respond to our survey. Some didn’t want to take a clear stand on the issues because they were afraid their opponent would use their stance against them. Others simply didn’t want voters to know the truth about their social and moral convictions. So what’s different this year? What’s changed that’s made candidates so ready to take a firm stand on the issues?
I believe that voters in every party are disgusted with much of what they’ve seen in Washington, and they want to ensure that the next group of leaders they send there won’t govern as ineptly. For the first time, perhaps in decades, some voters are demanding that candidates tell them where they stand, and the candidates are answering the call.
Many of the pundits on the evening news are talking about what this November may mean for Republicans, and asking who’s going to come out ahead after the elections are over. As far as I’m concerned, this new level of transparency that voters are demanding from their candidates helps everybody, and will let us all come out ahead after we cast our votes.
You can see the candidates’ responses to the Voter’s Guide by going to http://www.ArkansasVotersGuide.com/ today.
Sensei