The Framework-
Issues is exactly what it sounds like, what is the candidate advocating, do I agree or disagree, are they advocating anything specific? Obviosly, if you disagreee with my assessment about what is important or not important i nthis country, this piece of my analysis could vary wildly with anyone else.
Background encompasses a lot of things, Career politician? Education, experience, sincerity, ethical issues, on record as having taken principiled stands? etc.
And finally Competence. If they are a career politician, how effective have they been? If not what sort of service have they dedicated to the community.
My Evaluations-
I'm going to go through every candidate and every party, find out what I can about their record and their abilities and make an asessment. Some will require more time, the career politicans will have a plethora of information available and it will take a LOOOOONG time to go through most of it. I'll try. Others, I will have to off of Google/ Wikipedia, and their website alone.
I'll toss some easy "no"s early. To save myself time. And I'll update evals when new information becomes available.
My Philosophies-
I'm Socially liberal- equality, gay rights, pro-choice, legalize marijuana, etc.
fiscally responsible- evaluate spending needs based on effectiveness and necessity, keep taxes low when possible using an economically sound strategy (raising rates on low taxes, lowering them on higher ones, to reduce deadweight loss), save & spend countercyclically, more defined property rights, lean against unions and unless complete free choice is enabled (you start a job, you can join or not join the union- not mandatory)
Demand ethics reform and transparency in government- public funded campaigns, restrict campaigning to a specified period of time, eliminate conflict of interest, real rationales for laws (no protecting the people from what they oughtn't know such as statistical value of a life considerations).
This will be fun.
