I've gotten a number of emails and this post regarding what am I going to cover in the upcoming Boulder City Council election. Well work is busy (the economy is not doing well) and that limits my time. On the flip side, I think what I wrote was of use. Now the results may be that most voters again blindly follow they Sierra Club directions – but if we don't support people making their own decision, then it will definitely continue to be an election determined by the Sierra Club. So…
My plan is to do the following:
- Provide a central listing of all groups, individuals, media, etc that are writing regularly about the election. Providing numerous sources are one of the best ways to counter the Sierra Club vote monopoly.
- Which leads to a question. Should I include groups like Boulder Citizens that are anonymous? My concern is we will end up with "groups" that are a front for a candidate.
- Interview all the candidates (who are willing to talk to me) and post the interviews here. I have a couple scheduled over the next couple of weeks. Any candidate who is not yet scheduled, please email me at [email protected] and we'll set it up. Usually lunch and I'm happy to buy.
- Have an online debate like we did last election. I think it was one of the most informative resources on the candidates available. And it was a good measure of their being willing to answer questions they might be uncomfortable with.
- The tenative plan is to use www.uservoice.com and have people suggest and vote on questions. And then take the top 10 quality questions (ie drop the snarky ones).
- I'm also going to write about how transparent the various interest groups are in their process of selecting who to support. Will we be told what they asked, what the candidates answered, and what their logic is on their picks? Or will we just get a list with no reasoning? With the Internet there is no reason for these groups to not be fully transparent – unless they have something they want to keep hidden.
So, thoughts, comments, suggestions?
Thanks - dave
