But, whatever.  I believe I voted for Elizabeth Esty (D) last year for Congress (she won - Connecticut 5th District).  IIRC, her opponent, Andrew Roraback (R) came off as too much of a jackass to me.

Yeah, I checked this AM.   Seems my theory was better than my practice.    There were no Senate seats up for grabs and the HoR was the young minority Republican.   But I voted for a shitload of Dems on the state/local level.

IF YE VOTED FOR DUBYA TWICE, YE SHOULD BE BANNED FROM EVER VOTING AGAIN

IF YE VOTED FOR OBAMA EVEN ONCE, YE SHOULD BE STONED.  OR MAYBE YE WERE STONED WHEN YE VOTED FOR HIM.

I GIVE YE A PASS FOR VOTING OBAMA ONCE BUT FEEL YE SHOULD BE DE-BALLED FOR CASTING A 2ND VOTE FOR HIM!!!!!

DE-BALL CRESTEN AND NEVER PUT PETER H. ROSE IN THE HOF!!!!!

Posted by tecwrg on 10/17/2013 9:39:00 AM (view original):
But, whatever.  I believe I voted for Elizabeth Esty (D) last year for Congress (she won - Connecticut 5th District).  IIRC, her opponent, Andrew Roraback (R) came off as too much of a jackass to me.

I'm guessing tec thought one of these people was worthy of being a senator...

www.youtube.com/watch

You guess wrong.  I passed on the Senate vote because I thought that both McMahon and Blumenthal were jackasses.

Posted by MikeT23 on 10/17/2013 9:51:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I checked this AM.   Seems my theory was better than my practice.    There were no Senate seats up for grabs and the HoR was the young minority Republican.   But I voted for a shitload of Dems on the state/local level.

I think it's much easier to vote for the other at the state and local levels. I do it all the time. But I haven't voted for a Republican at the federal level in 13 years.

Posted by bad_luck on 10/17/2013 12:11:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 10/17/2013 9:51:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I checked this AM.   Seems my theory was better than my practice.    There were no Senate seats up for grabs and the HoR was the young minority Republican.   But I voted for a shitload of Dems on the state/local level.

I think it's much easier to vote for the other at the state and local levels. I do it all the time. But I haven't voted for a Republican at the federal level in 13 years.

So . . . YOU'RE THE PROBLEM?

Posted by bad_luck on 10/17/2013 12:11:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 10/17/2013 9:51:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I checked this AM.   Seems my theory was better than my practice.    There were no Senate seats up for grabs and the HoR was the young minority Republican.   But I voted for a shitload of Dems on the state/local level.

I think it's much easier to vote for the other at the state and local levels. I do it all the time. But I haven't voted for a Republican at the federal level in 13 years.

I suppose my conviction will be tested in the future.

Posted by MikeT23 on 10/17/2013 1:02:00 PM (view original):

Posted by bad_luck on 10/17/2013 12:11:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 10/17/2013 9:51:00 AM (view original):
Yeah, I checked this AM.   Seems my theory was better than my practice.    There were no Senate seats up for grabs and the HoR was the young minority Republican.   But I voted for a shitload of Dems on the state/local level.

I think it's much easier to vote for the other at the state and local levels. I do it all the time. But I haven't voted for a Republican at the federal level in 13 years.

I suppose my conviction will be tested in the future.

You vote in New York?

The amount of people who vote for a party rather than a candidate is staggering.  Our election for governor here in WA was a joke.  Rob McKenna (R) was endorsed by 90% of the (mostly very liberal) newspapers here, with many of them running editorials on how Jay Inslee (D) had absolutely no plan to deal with the issues the state was facing.  Inslee won.

Posted by examinerebb on 10/17/2013 1:33:00 PM (view original):
The amount of people who vote for a party rather than a candidate is staggering.  Our election for governor here in WA was a joke.  Rob McKenna (R) was endorsed by 90% of the (mostly very liberal) newspapers here, with many of them running editorials on how Jay Inslee (D) had absolutely no plan to deal with the issues the state was facing.  Inslee won.

McKenna was anti-legalization of pot and gay marriage. I think that cost him. It was close.

Posted by The Taint on 10/17/2013 1:51:00 PM (view original):

Posted by examinerebb on 10/17/2013 1:33:00 PM (view original):
The amount of people who vote for a party rather than a candidate is staggering.  Our election for governor here in WA was a joke.  Rob McKenna (R) was endorsed by 90% of the (mostly very liberal) newspapers here, with many of them running editorials on how Jay Inslee (D) had absolutely no plan to deal with the issues the state was facing.  Inslee won.

McKenna was anti-legalization of pot and gay marriage. I think that cost him. It was close.

I think we're in trouble if "will they let me smoke weed with my same-sex spouse" is the defining question of our potential elected officials.

"The amount of people who vote for a party rather than a candidate is staggering."

Agreed.  A brief story.

I loved my dad, and greatly respected him.  But he was a very strict "vote the party line" Democrat.  When I grew up in Pennsylvania, I believe the voting machines still had the "party lever" lever, so that you can just flick one lever and the machine would cast votes for all the Democrats (or Republicans) on the ballot.

We were a lower middle class family, my dad worked in a factory, he belonged to a union, and as I mentioned, he was a very staunch Democrat.  The one (and only) political discussion I can ever remember having with him, right after I turned 18 and was first eligible to vote, was very brief.  He told me how (a) the Democrats always looked out for the poor people and the "little guys", (b) the Republicans only cared about the rich people and themselves, and (c) therefore I should always vote for Democrats.  Implied (not directly said) was that Republicans were bad people.

This stuck in my mind as being a very narrow minded approach to voting.  One should not vote for somebody just because they were a Democrat, or a Republican, or whatever the hell they were.  Your vote should go to the person whose positions on the issues best align with your own beliefs on those issues.  And you're rarely going to get a complete alignment between your views and one of the candidates, so you need to think things through.  Voting is a responsibility.  Voting for somebody for no other reason that they have a (D) or an (R) next to their name on the ballot is irresponsible.

This is one reason why I am, and always have been, registered as an unaffiliated voter.