Although months away, the Sheriff's election is upcoming. The old Sheriff is retiring, but has handpicked his successor (Very common, at least in Louisiana). In addition, there are two other candidates - one who had a long policing career but left a few years ago, and another who had a little policing experience years ago and has since worked in private industry.
Now, for those of you not familiar with Louisiana, the Sheriff has a LOT of power. He (or she) is also the tax collector, and is a power unto themselves. So, this is a pretty important job.
What has amazed me so far is two things: First, the amount of attacks on background and character that have already made themselves prevalent through various blogs and posting, and second, how little other additional information is available.
For example, I can tell you that the candidates has been accused of racism, using the deputies for campaigning, passing campaign literature out in in squad rooms, at unrelated non-profit events and even at funerals, and on and on and on.
However, I couldn't tell you what political parties, if any, they are running for. They could be running as Libertarian, Communist and Jedi for all the online information is.
In other words, it has become more important in even local campaigns to get out attacking information on candidates than it is to even provide basic information about the candidates. In other words, they're not trying to win your vote for them, but ato get you to vote against the other person.
A.T.
1 comment:
Hey Adam,
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I myself have been saying this since my very first post. It was the main reason I started my own blog; not to allow all of that crap. But herein lies the problem with trying to find out credible information on a blog: everything is anonymous, therefore, hearsay. Regardless if it is true, or an outright lie (which is the majority). Really, for a person who is truly seeking the truth about the candidates, the only way is to actively participate in the election; attend meet and greets, attend debates and forums, attend public meetings where the candidates are speaking, or simply email the candidates or call them up. Other than that, you're going to be stuck with second-rate (or third or fourth...) gossip and hearsay. On my end, I can only hope to balance all of that out by sticking to the basics of what I consider to be important in a candidate...good luck, my friend!
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