By Alex Marshall, Editor, Spotlight on the Region
I went to the polls last week to vote in the New York City primary, once again knowing almost nothing about who I was voting for, choosing the candidates for mayor, comptroller, public advocate, city council, city attorney, etc., on the basis of advice from friends and various endorsements I had heard about. For many of the races, this primary is tantamount to the general election, for many of the offices. But I was in a fog. Who were these people?
This is no way to run a democracy. Are most people this ignorant, or is it just me? I'm an old political reporter, and tend to follow political affairs. I also can be quite tiresome in preaching the need for civic engagement and political participation. Just ask my wife.
But making truly informed choices about local offices has always been hard, in every city I have lived. But nowhere harder than in New York City. Most local elections here are below radar, or at least my radar. I did see a lot of advertisements from the candidates, but most are not very informative because the candidates are straining so hard not to offend. What I need was fair evaluation by an outside party.
To me, this has traditionally meant newspapers. I'm a newspaper kind of guy. But I've long been critical of newspapers, my old employers, for not paying close enough attention to local elections. If they cover them at all, it tends to be as spectacles -- look at the monkeys in the zoo -- not as helping citizens make informed choices about how their community will operate.
While this is true in most cities, once again it's more true in New York City. The city is so large with so many millions of people, that even if they wanted to it would be difficult for the main newspapers to cover well the races for city council, state senator, and other offices that are on a district level. But they could do a much better job of covering the citywide races, for mayor, comptroller and city attorney. The New York Times, which we look toward for excellent journalism, probably does the worst job, not deigning to check in too often or intensely on such plebeian affairs, even in its home city. At least that's my sense of things, although it's possible I missed some of the coverage.
Perhaps though there are other ways though to find out who one wants to vote for. The Internet is killing traditional newspapers, but it has led to a wealth of new sources of local news. Blogs, list serves, local websites, and so on. Or so I am told. I have not integrated many of these into my life, or at least not any that cover or engage with local elections.
An RPA staffer told me he had got plenty of information on the candidates through blogs and other new media. He said he and even got a "tweet" - a message from Twitter, the short Internet message phenomenon - about one candidate from a friend. Poor me. I'm so behind the times.
What do others do? How can one be a good citizen these days and participate well in elections that just happen to pick the politicians with responsibilities over key parts of our lives, our streets, our homes and our transportation systems?
Suggestions appreciated. Leave a comment below.
@RegionalPlan
This article is very timely, given the fade-out of printed media. AND, there are still many citizens who are not internet connected or savy, if that's where to get information.
In smaller towns, the League of Women Voters sends out candidates sheets which can help a bit. But, given our increasing reliance on the internet, I am also fearful that our democracy is in trouble!!
I just had a long conversation with David Pechefsky, a Green Party candidate for City Council, on just this topic. David, who formerly worked as a finance staffer for the City Council and as an advisor to the Liberian Senate, referred me to Lincoln Mitchell's chapter, Urban Democracy and Political Elites, in Democracy’s Moment: Reforming the American
Political System for the 21st Century Rowan and Littlefield 2001. It is an excellent academic and practical description of the issue. The reason David is running on the Green Party ticket (a party which has not covered itself with glory recently) is the closed nature of the Democratic nomination process.
I'm from Oregon and they send out a voter pamphlet with every election that contains statements from every official running along with statements about those running from different organizations. Its really helpful in making decisions on lesser known local candidates that are not well advertised. Allowing others to put statements in as well provides some balance to what they candidates say about themselves. Its particularly helpful on those pesky ballot questions that you have no idea which way to vote on because you only find out about it when you see the sample ballot. I haven't lived there for 10 years but I'm sure its posted online now as well as mailed to every voter.
Alex, it's not just you. I am also something of a political junkie, and I stuggled to decide whom to vote for in most of the primary races. The Times did provide some coverage of the races for comptroller and public advocate, but I found that it focused more on the fundraising efforts of the candidates than any substantive differences between them. If it weren't for the knowledge of a good friend who is a reporter, I might have been reduced to playing eeny, meeny, miny, moe in the voting booth.
Dear Alex, you are right that it is hard to find out information about who is running for election. At the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers we have studied this and counted how many newspaper stories are run about Legislative races, an analogy to City Council in NYC. Very few. We began a web site, www.njvoterinfo.org on a shoe string to provide a resource.
However, New York City voters have a great resource: the NYC Campaign Finance Board which puts out (mails) an enormously attractive Election Guide which also on line. I am jealous every time I see a colorful ad about it on the NYC Subway. But, NYCCFB needs organizations like RPA to make this resource known. If every non-profit and business in NYC put out one alert, many more voters would know about it -- and the candidate debates -- and be reassured that their government really does want them to be informed about elections.
It is actually very easy to figure out who is who in an election, and it takes only one night per month at most. First, join your local civic association. Mine, the Cobble Hill Association in Brooklyn, just celebrated their 5oth year. And while they have 501c3 status and do not endorse candidates, elected officials all come or send a rep to every meeting and you can query electeds directly. You will also find out what is happening in your neighborhood that will impact you on a very personal basis. And, these meetings are also places where candidates in waiting come to advocate for local issues/things that are important to them. If you don't see a candidate at your local civic assn meeting they don't really deserve your vote, so that helps with the process of elimination. You will, no doubt, be able to judge the character and courage of those elected or running merely by listening to their responses to citizens' questions at these civic meetings. Another way to participate in democracy in action - attend or volunteer to be on a committee of your Community Board. One meeting each month will give you more information about what your electeds are doing than anything you might happen to read in the Times. And by the way, you are right, the NYTimes is just about the last place to get local, or even regional, information. They never figured out the role of the Metro Section and just gave up last year, folding it into the main section. They just don't understand local news, which is demonstrated by their candidate endorsements - most of whom lost their races. I include my former city councilman in that category. The guy would not have been re-elected dog-catcher in his district because he did so little to advocate for the issues so important to his constituents - and the people who actually went to civic association meetings knew this and helped get him out of office. But he is now running for higher office - perhaps you will run into him at your local association! Or not, no doubt.
Alex, it's easy! Just read City Limits. We've done a lot of unique and, we hope, uniquely helpful coverage on the races for mayor, public advocate, Council and comptroller. Several articles that are still relevant, post-primary, are on the homepage under "20090: A City Votes."
Happy reading, Karen Loew, Editor.