Blog

By Shelli Dawdy

There’s been a lot of hype about November 2, 2010, a good deal of which amounts to distracting people from focusing on important races and issues within their state, county, and local area. I hope I’m wrong about what may happen when reality starts to set in in the weeks and months following it.

I see one or two scenarios:

1) The people who have become newly interested in what their government is doing will think their job is done if they voted a whole bunch of “R’s” into office. I’m afraid some folks will think its time to go back to sleep. (I’m not saying this as some “high and mighty” know-it-all…I’m one of the people who walked around in various levels of coma in the past.)

2) People who put money, time, and faith into a party and candidates who told them “they’ve learned their lesson” or they’re going to repeal health care, or freeze spending, or whatever else they’ve been saying, will be quite disillusioned and just disengage.

If either of the above concerns seems implausible to you, I invite you to read a couple of recent articles on the subject. I included a good number of links in them to bolster my points:

Don’t Count On A Republican Congress To Save The Day

GOP Congress Will Not Save Us: Time To Choose Ourselves

In addition to this article, I highly recommend people take the time to read Andrew M. Codevilla’s “America’s Ruling Class — And The Perils of Revolution” BEFORE the election.

The bottom line?  Lower your expectations about a Republican majority in Congress. Will a majority potentially stop some things and slow down others? Probably. Will it be a cure-all? (That question is rhetorical…)

Despite all hype to the contrary, November 2 is NOT all about Congressional elections.

Of course there are a number of statewide offices on the ballot, including Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Treasurer, just to name a few. I won’t be spending more than a sentence on them, since all indicators point to Republican sweeps across the board in these offices. The opportunities to truly impact any of these seats came during the primary season in May.

But, Nebraskans have opportunities to make impact on a number of important races and on one issue in particular.

What YOU Can Do About Candidates

If you believe State Sovereignty is a key issue in reversing the current direction of government, then the composition of your Nebraska Legislature should be of paramount concern. All of the even-numbered legislative district seats are on the ballot on November 2.

Secretary of State's Sample Ballot for Legislature – Click to download

On the left you can see a picture of a sample legislature ballot provided by Nebraska’s Secretary of State. It lists all of the open Nebraska legislative seats in order of districts with candidates in alphabetical order.

We urge you to take a look at this list with the first priority being to learn whether or not your own legislative district has an open seat on November 2 (if you’re not aware of this fact already). If you don’t know your district number, THIS GiN page will assist.

If your district has an open seat, we urge you to get in touch with the candidates so you can decide who is worthy of your vote. Ask some questions about their general philosophy of government. Do they support state sovereignty? Do they think federal money is “free” money?

If you do live in a district with an open seat and have deemed a candidate worthy of your time, we urge you to find some way in the next few weeks to help that candidate get elected by doing as much as you can. Your options include the minimal step of putting a sign in your yard all the way to walking door to door distributing literature on their behalf.

There are only 49 Senators in the Nebraska Legislature – every vote counts on important issues, literally.

If your district does not have an open seat or you find neither candidate worthy of the investment of time, consider helping out a candidate that is worthy. You don’t have to live in someone’s district to help them out.

Nebraska Legislature Races Not The Only Ones Requiring Attention

While this article has focused almost exclusively on legislative races, of course there are open seats at the county and local levels.

The Lincoln Journal Star published a  Voter’s Guide in today’s edition which covers the election comprehensively. In our experience, we have found that the Voters guides published by Journal Star are objective and helpful. This is important to note, especially this election cycle, since Journal Star has been releasing endorsements recently with which we disagree with almost across the board.

An archive of GiN articles about the 2010 election:

• Nebraska Needs A State Treasurer! Vote NO on Amendment 2 – October 28, 2010
• Amendment 1 Smooths and Widens the Path to Fiscal Irresponsibility – October 27, 2010
• Volunteer Opportunity: Affect NE Unicameral District 46 – Walk for Chad Wright SATURDAY – October 22, 2010
• 2010 Election NE Unicameral: Show These 3 Senators the Door – October 22, 2010
• Election 2010: A Whole Lotta Hype or Can YOU Help NE? – October 21, 2010