Sixty-Six Oh Eight

In this election year, when the American electorate shows a remarkable viciousness towards Republicans, the Presidential race could have a significant impact on down-ballot races.

“All politics are local,” as the saying goes. The fact is that in our country, democrats in North Carolina might hold drastically different positions on key issues than the democrats at the top of the ticket, namely Barack Obama. For example, Bev Perdue says that she supports abortion only in cases of incest, rape, or extreme physical danger to the woman. This view is significantly different from Mr. Obama’s, who supports a woman’s right to choose in cases that do not involve late-term partial birth abortions. With the option on North Carolina’s ballot of “straight-party voting,” voters are increasingly susceptible to voting for a single party without knowing the positions of the down-ballot officials who may ultimately have a greater impact on their lives.

We feel that in this election cycle, where such an emphasis has been placed on the presidential election, the results of down-ballot races could be skewed significantly. Some people might vote for a party, rather than a person. This could hurt moderate Republican candidates, many of whom have been doing a good job. This doesn’t seem right. North Carolina, along with other states that have implemented the same “straight-party” voting, shouldn’t encourage this type of uninformed voting. Evaluating a local official in terms of the president is no more rational than evaluating a student’s intelligence based on their teacher.

The rising wave of resentment against Republicans is valid to an extent. The failure of George Bush’s presidency necessitates a change in party at the national level. However, the entire structure of the Republican party is not corrupt; there are Republican officials at every level of government that have been doing a fine job of representing their constituencies. They should not be evaluated on the performance of a single individual.

According to Pollster.com’s current estimate, Perdue leads Pat McCrory by 1.8 points. We must ask, how much of this is informed, and how much of it is simply the bandwagoners who will vote without knowing their candidate’s views on the issues that affect North Carolinians most?