I got a phone call this evening.
I'm a bad person to poll, I think, because I spend the entire time analyzing the poll. What was the purpose of this question or that question, what will they use the poll data for?
At one point I was wondering if by answering the questions I was giving someone I didn't want to support vital information about how to campaign more effectively. I guess I could have asked but I decided not to.
The most interesting bits, though, were a series of questions about the Dem and Republican candidates for the US congress in my district. Or rather it was a series of statements and then I was supposed to answer if that statement made me more likely or less likely to vote for that person or if it made no difference at all. The incumbent is Heather Wilson. The person running against her is "who? sounds like a name I've heard but I'm not sure." Later it was "Oh, her." So at the very least I am now a better informed voter. Yay!
What I discovered about my own priorities was that I'm forgiving, or at least partially so, of inaction in office. Inaction is mostly neutral. I'm also fairly tolerant of political differences on the theory that I really can't expect someone to agree with me all that much. What I've got absolutely no tolerance for is the questionable transfer of funds to politicians or the *use* of an office in a way that appears... third worldish.
As an example... the Democratic challenger's inaction on charges of possible corruption in the State Treasury department didn't bother me so much because I figure that people make unrealistic demands of public figures all the time... there may have been a good reason that she couldn't take action. OTOH, the newspaper headline (Oh, her!) that she'd brought state charges against the Fed's prosecution witnesses in the aformentioned State Treasury *thang* sets off all my BS alarms... every single one.
People joke about New Mexico being a third world country and when they do it's not the *poverty* that they're complaining about. It's the perception of public corruption. I haven't been here long enough and I know that many good people are involved in our government and I've got NO interest in undermining their efforts with baseless rummors. But I've heard them.
The headline about bringing state charges against federal witnesses in a case concerning possible NM State government corruption makes me think I'm back in the Philippines.
This is not a good thing.
(Yes, I'm going to vote for Heather Wilson and on those things where I think she's wrong, I'll write her more e-mails.)
I'm a bad person to poll, I think, because I spend the entire time analyzing the poll. What was the purpose of this question or that question, what will they use the poll data for?
At one point I was wondering if by answering the questions I was giving someone I didn't want to support vital information about how to campaign more effectively. I guess I could have asked but I decided not to.
The most interesting bits, though, were a series of questions about the Dem and Republican candidates for the US congress in my district. Or rather it was a series of statements and then I was supposed to answer if that statement made me more likely or less likely to vote for that person or if it made no difference at all. The incumbent is Heather Wilson. The person running against her is "who? sounds like a name I've heard but I'm not sure." Later it was "Oh, her." So at the very least I am now a better informed voter. Yay!
What I discovered about my own priorities was that I'm forgiving, or at least partially so, of inaction in office. Inaction is mostly neutral. I'm also fairly tolerant of political differences on the theory that I really can't expect someone to agree with me all that much. What I've got absolutely no tolerance for is the questionable transfer of funds to politicians or the *use* of an office in a way that appears... third worldish.
As an example... the Democratic challenger's inaction on charges of possible corruption in the State Treasury department didn't bother me so much because I figure that people make unrealistic demands of public figures all the time... there may have been a good reason that she couldn't take action. OTOH, the newspaper headline (Oh, her!) that she'd brought state charges against the Fed's prosecution witnesses in the aformentioned State Treasury *thang* sets off all my BS alarms... every single one.
People joke about New Mexico being a third world country and when they do it's not the *poverty* that they're complaining about. It's the perception of public corruption. I haven't been here long enough and I know that many good people are involved in our government and I've got NO interest in undermining their efforts with baseless rummors. But I've heard them.
The headline about bringing state charges against federal witnesses in a case concerning possible NM State government corruption makes me think I'm back in the Philippines.
This is not a good thing.
(Yes, I'm going to vote for Heather Wilson and on those things where I think she's wrong, I'll write her more e-mails.)
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