reposted from October 20th, 2006

I recently talked about the upcoming elections with my mom, and as I started typing this email, I thought it would make a great blog. I've been very busy through the last few weeks, and I'll try to keep a current diary of the Scott Randolph Campaign up until the election, as well as some post-election analysis.

I also thought this would be a great bulletin for all my Florida friends to help out with Decision '06. Who knows? I may make a few new policy wonks after this is through.

My mother lives in Tampa, and her State House District I used in the example is 58. Look on your voter registration card, or just look on the torrent of campaign mailers you've recieved so far. Those people know which district you live in, because they want your vote. If you live in District 36-VOTE SCOTT RANDOLPH, of course. Make him your friend. He has a myspace page.

Okay. Bear with me, because they obviously don't make
it any easier for us to figure this stuff out.

First, go to
this website from the Florida Department of State. You
will see a field in which you are supposed to type the
candidate's name. Let's do Crist, who of course is
the Republican candidate for Governor. Hit enter, and
you will see the candidates with the last name "Crist"
who are running in elections this fall. Looks like
another Crist is running somewhere, but we'll focus on
Charlie. Click on his name.

The next page will give you general information about
his campaign office, and his running mate. You will
see a button for campaign finance activity. Click on
that, and the next page will be a list of dates with
corresponding radio buttons, and a series of drop-down
menus with different options. Let's select all dates,
and then for the drop downs, "contributions"," name,"
and "display on screen."

Wow. This is going to take some time. Might be a
really huge file. Go get some tea, and come back. I
started at 12:23 A.M. Okay. It's 12:30, and now we
can see who donated to Crist for the entire election cycle. Unfortunately, the
database does not separate businesses from private
citizens, but most of the big $500.00 donations will
come from businesses. Or you can take a quick scroll
at the type of business in the far right corner.

Let's have some fun. Do a word find on the page for
"Tobacco." Hmm. Only eight donors that have tobacco
ties, half executives, some cigar manufacturers and
Phillip Morris. Now let's do "racing." There's a lot
more here, with about 16 donors being either horse or
dog racing clubs or executives. Do "State Farm" and
you'll find over one hundred agents that gave $500.00
to Charlie Crist. Do you think that those agents are
throwing their money away by giving to Crist?

Let's try it with easier candidates. Your State House
district is District 58 and your State Senate District
is 12, I think. Since I'm not sure, let's look at
your House race.

First, the Democrat, Michael Scionti. His website says he is a Captain
is the Reserves, and a JAG. I'll bet there's some
attorneys in his campaign donations. Repeat the steps
(don't worry this list is shorter) and we will see.
Yes, many trial attorneys, union PAC's and Derby Lane.
Oh, and George Steinbrenner, as well. Interesting.
But, you'll see many of his donations are smaller, and
from retired folks and even a waitress.

Now let's take a look at Ruiz, his Republican
opponent. I can't find his website, but if these two
are your candidates, you're probably inundated with
mailers by now with his website. Wow. He's got no
contributions, not even from the Republican party.
You'll also pass by a statement from him. My
prediction- this guy's going to get rolled up and
smoked like a Hav-A-Tampa cigar. It also looks like
he paid the qualifying fee outright, instead of
collecting signatures. That's not necessarily a bad
thing, but it can bring huge support once the election
starts.

Remember all that stuff you always hear about "every vote counts?" OF course it's true, but you probably won't be the deciding vote in any National election. However, in local races, you ARE the deciding vote, and your State Representative will have more effect on how much you pay for property taxes, insurance, health care and even your cable bill. Those representatives decide on where roads are built, the quality of education and the condition of our beaches and wetlands.

Which is why voters need to make the best, most educated decision before heading to the polls, and rely on more than what their newspaper's editorial board tells them to do.