Cowards

No wonder political campaigns have degenerated into mud-slinging, vacuous food fights. Candidates are no more interested in answering issue questions than voters are interested in demanding it.

A study released Wednesday by the independent, nonpartisan Project Vote Smart is so troubling that it should enrage voters of all political stripes.

Of 28 Virginians running for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, only 10 – or 36 percent – had the integrity and courage to answer questions on such issues as school funding, health care, immigration, foreign policy, the environment and energy.

Among the 18 politicians who refused to take Project Vote Smart’s “Political Courage Test” were incumbent Congressman Rick Boucher, who represents Southwest Virginia, and U.S. Senate candidates Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore.

Project Vote Smart is a national research organization that posts on its Web site, votesmart.org, information on nearly 40,000 candidates and elected officials at the presidential, congressional, gubernatorial, state legislative and local levels across the country. The information includes biographical data, voting records, ratings from special-interest groups, contact data and campaign finance figures. The group is funded through foundations and the individual contributions of 45,000 members.

The organization’s founders include Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Michael Dukakis and Newt Gingrich, so no one can play the bias card here; Project Vote Smart exists to educate all voters.

By now, you must be wondering why candidates from both major parties would refuse to convey their positions to the public.

“Since 2000, Project Vote Smart has found that party leaders and consultants from both major parties are advising candidates not to respond to the Test for two primary reasons: it will limit the candidates’ ability to control their campaign messages, and it will expose them to opposition research,” Project Vote Smart said in a press release Wednesday.

“... One campaign consultant told us, ‘Our campaign only answers issue questions if they come with a campaign contribution or endorsement,’ ” the organization stated.

Project Vote Smart’s research shows that in 1996, 72 percent of congressional candidates were willing to expose their positions through this test. By 2006, less than half the candidates nationally – and only one-quarter of incumbents – were willing to tackle issue questions.

Project Vote Smart documents more than 30 instances in which leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties advised their candidates to avoid answering these questions.

This is a disgrace, and voters should not stand for it. They should vent their outrage at their sitting representatives and those running for those offices.

Project Vote Smart can give you the contact information to reach these politicians. If you don’t have Internet access, you can call the organization’s toll-free Voter’s Research Hotline at 1-888-VOTE-SMART. If you do have Web access, visit www.votesmart.org.

Va. candidates who took the test

Nathan Larson, Libertarian, U.S. House-1
Andrea Miller, Democratic, U.S. House-4
Janice Allen, Independent, U.S. House-6
S. Rasoul, Democratic, U.S. House-6
Mark Ellmore, Republican, U.S. House-8
James Moran, Democratic, U.S. House-8
Neeraj Nigam, Independent, U.S. House-10
Frank Wolf, Republican, U.S. House-10
William Redpath, Libertarian, U.S. Senate

Va. candidates who refused

Robert Wittman, Republican, U.S. House-1
Thelma Drake, Republican, U.S. House-2
Glenn Nye III, Democratic, U.S. House-2
Robert Scott, Democratic, U.S. House-3
James Forbes, Republican, U.S. House-4
Virgil Goode, Republican, U.S. House-5
Tom Perriello, Democratic, U.S. House-5
Robert Goodlatte, Republican, U.S. House-6
Eric Cantor, Republican, U.S. House-7
Anita Kartke, Democratic, U.S. House-7
Rick Boucher, Democratic, U.S. House-9
Judy Feder, Democratic, U.S. House-10
Gerald Connolly, Democratic, U.S. House-11
Keith Fimian, Republican, U.S. House-11
Joseph Oddo, Independent, U.S. House-11
Jim Gilmore, Republican, U.S. Senate
Glenda Parker, Independent, U.S. Senate
Mark Warner, Democratic, U.S. Senate

Source: Project Vote Smart