Do you know where Montana's current crop of political candidates stand on these hot-button issues? If not, it's not for lack of asking. There's an unfortunate trend among candidates for elected office, in Montana and throughout the United States, that has many politicians refusing to provide clear answers to basic questions about where they stand on pivotal issues.
These non-answering candidates include politicians of every stripe - Democrats and Republicans, Libertarians and Independents. And in failing to reveal their differences, these equivocal office-seekers contribute to voters' impression that we're not actually voting for our favorite flavor of candidate - just scoop after scoop of vanilla.
That's why it's so important to hold their feet to the fire and demand answers. We can even use our votes as leverage.
Sure, solid answers no doubt give their opponents unmistakable targets to attack. The appropriate response to such an attack is a counter-attack clarifying one's reasoning for taking that position - and before you know it, we're having a public debate about, of all things, issues of real importance to voters.
That would really be nice for a change.
What we have right now is a whole lot of evasive maneuvering, pre-scripted non-answers and slick campaign ads that leave us arguing over who loves their mom and apple pie the most. And from what we hear, voters are sick of it. Just sick of it. But they care too much to stop listening altogether, and if this is all the material they're given to work with, then by golly, they'll work with it.
The bottom line is, it's impossible to tell where candidates stand if they never take a stand. We need good information about our candidates to make good voting decisions.
A good place to start is with a national non-profit based right here in Montana. Earlier this month, the Philispburg-based Project Vote Smart sent its “Political Courage Test” to more than 100 candidates running for state, gubernatorial and congressional office in Montana. The answers are due back by mid-August.
And once it receives those answers, Project Vote Smart will post them on its Web site, at www.votesmart.org, for all to see - and all for free.
Project Vote Smart is a citizen's organization and research group that formed about 10 years ago with the mission of providing information about candidates that would be of real use to voters. To that end, its staff and volunteers collect speeches and record votes, post information about campaign finances and much more information as well.
It is designed to be a nonpartisan group - with a list of founding and current members that includes both former U.S. Senator George McGovern, a Democrat, and Sen. John McCain, a current Republican candidate for president - and its Political Courage Test is designed to be nonpartisan as well. The test is posted on the Web site, too, if you want to check it out for yourself.
You'll see that, while it pins politicians down to “yes” or “no” answers, it also gives them room to provide the nuances of their positions.
You'll also see that responses from candidates in Montana are already beginning to trickle in - and that while Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown has already answered the test, current Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Libertarian candidate Stan Jones have not. Also, eight senate candidates and 50 house candidates have already filled out the test.
We applaud these forthright candidates and implore the rest to take the test.
After all, sometimes the issues our legislative hopefuls refuse to take a stand on tell us just as much about what kind of representative they would be as an actual answer.
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